FEMA Promising Practice: Communication Outreach and Toolkits

This webinar will have two presentations that address the communications and outreach needs of the whole community. In the first presentation, we will hear about the work of the Community Outreach and Effective Communications Subcommittee of the Texas Disability Task Force and how the Effective Communications Toolkit is used to ensure access in all emergency management and public information communications.

In the second presentation, we will hear from the Public Safety Committee of the Seattle Commission for People with disAbilities about their Emergency Shelter Communications Toolkit. Written by disability subject matter experts, it provides information, tools, and resources, to address communication barriers which can be present in an emergency shelter situation.

Learning objectives:

• Learn elements that ensure that emergency communications services and equipment address the functional and access needs of people with disabilities as part of a “whole community” approach.
• Learn about the development, goals, and contents of the Emergency Shelter Communications Toolkit, and its uses, in the field and in planning, outreach, and other emergency management activities.

Presenters:

Russell Cook, MCP, Chair, Disability Task Force on Emergency Management, is the Business Continuity Coordinator and the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator for the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS).

Ron Lucey, Executive Director, Texas Governor's Committee on People with Disabilities.

Laura M. Stough, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Center on Disability and Development, Texas A&M University.

Deborah Witmer, a resident of Seattle, Washington, is a disability advocate working to improve community resilience and building partnerships within the disability and emergency management communities. She is a Commissioner on the Seattle Commission for People with disAbilities and Co-Chair of their Public Safety Committee, and a Disability Representative on the FEMA Regional Catastrophic Planning Team.