This webpage is being developed to showcase local and statewide community engagement programs, webinars and other activities, and resources that can be implemented in local communities to support preparedness, training, mitigation, and response.

ECA Community Engagement Webinars

ECA’s Public Sector Committee is hosting a series of Community Engagement Webinars to showcase programs from across California that support community preparedness, training, mitigation, and response.

#1: Inyo County TEEN CERT & Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness (TCEP).

#2: City of Los Angeles RYLAN program & Humboldt County CERT (featuring Blue Lake CERT)

#3: City of San Francisco Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN) programs, including Neighborfest

#4: Martinez Area CERT (Bay Area) & Health Center Partners Emergency Preparedness and Response Program (Southern California)

#5: Coachella Valley Disaster Preparedness Network

#6: Prepare U

#1: Inyo County TEEN CERT & Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness (TCEP)

The first webinar in the series, held May 13, 2021, featured these community-based programs:

1) Inyo County’s TEEN CERT Program: This program hosts middle and high school students from Inyo County schools at a summer camp featuring a week-long CERT training, a full exercise of CERT skills learned, and a graduation/pinning ceremony for the students and their parents.
Presenter: Brianne Chappell-McGovern, Disaster Preparedness/Prevention Specialist from Inyo County Health and Human Services

2) Topanga Coalition for Emergency Preparedness (TCEP): This non-profit, all-volunteer organization based in Topanga, California has provided emergency preparedness education and real-time disaster status updates to residents of Topanga, Malibu and surrounding areas for over 27 years.
Presenter: Scott Ferguson, TCEP Chairman

Moderator: Crisanta Gonzalez, Community Preparedness and Engagement/Planning Division Chief, Los Angeles City Emergency Management Department (and co-chair of ECA’s Public Sector Committee).

Brief Survey (Please complete after viewing the webinar live or recorded)

Workshop Video Recording (Youtube; or view below)

#2: City of Los Angeles RYLAN program & Humboldt County CERT (featuring Blue Lake CERT)

The second webinar (held July 28, 2021) in this series highlighted these community-based programs:

1) City of Los Angeles Ready Your LA Neighborhood (RYLAN) program: In a city of four million, with less than 10,000 police and less than 5,000 fire personnel, it is important to give the residents of Los Angeles a tool to be prepared for any event or disaster, where they can support each other until first responders arrive. As we all know Los Angeles is susceptible to many of the disasters listed in the Stafford Act, but the two that most concern our residents is the catastrophic earthquake predicted to hit Southern California, and of course the wildfires that affect our area more and more frequently. The City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department has created a FREE program that helps organize, train, and prepare neighborhoods to be there for one another in that critical first hour. Ready Your LA Neighborhood or RYLAN is a program that uses the proven Map Your Neighborhood tool along with other proven steps to help each block learn about their skills, tools, and vulnerable neighbors so that they can support each other if or when any emergency or disaster strikes.

Presenter: Crisanta Gonzalez, Emergency Management Coordinator II, Planning Division & Community Preparedness and Engagement Division, City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department

2) Humboldt County CERT and Case Study– Blue Lake CERT: Humboldt County is 3500 square miles, from a rugged coastline to the mountains in the east. Because of this, the smaller rural communities can be isolated following earthquakes, tsunamis and during storms, flooding or wildfire. The 10 CERT teams in Humboldt County are as diverse as the communities and local agencies they serve. Some are urban, such as Humboldt Bay Fire CERT in Eureka (the county seat) or very rural like Shelter Cove CERT, which serves an isolated community with one main road in or out at the southwest tip of the county. To maintain continuity among teams, Linda Nellist chairs the Humboldt CERT Coalition, an advisory group of team leaders and instructors who meet for peer support, expanded training opportunities and group purchases. Each team is independent of the others but the collaboration is beneficial for ease of communication and response of the teams to the call of the agencies they serve.

Blue Lake CERT: A few people in a city of 1200 located on the North Coast of California – “the most earthquake-prone spot in the continental United States” have organized their neighborhoods to prepare ahead for emergencies. Knowing that other emergency preparedness/crime prevention models were out there but not very popular in town, they decided to start something a little different that might appeal more to the town’s individual thinkers. The “Blue Lake Emergency Preparedness Pods” use many of the standard neighborhood emergency preparedness tools but the name and the choices are a little different. Lin Glen, a local “Pod” organizer, and also the town’s CERT Team Leader, will talk about the benefits and challenges of preparing for emergencies in small, rural communities – especially during the pandemic.

Presenters: Linda Nellist, Chair of Humboldt CERT Coalition and Lin Glen, Blue Lake CERT Team Leader

Moderator: Mark Benthien, ECA Executive Director and Director for Outreach at the Southern California Earthquake Center (USC).

Brief Survey (Please complete after viewing the webinar live or recorded)

Workshop Video Recording (Youtube; or view below)

#3: City of San Francisco Neighborhood Empowerment Network programs

The third webinar (held September 22, 2021) showcased the City of San Francisco’s Neighborhood Empowerment Network (NEN):

In 2007, the NEN was launched as an ambitious community disaster resilience initiative, built on the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and the guidance of FEMA’s Whole Community Approach. Over the last decade, a wide variety of diverse communities joined the program and crafted resilience action plans supported by a local network comprised of local NGOs, civic networks and residents. After negotiating the COVID 19 Pandemic, the NEN partnered with the University of San Francisco and SF State to assess how the program contributed to the efforts of the community to protect their vulnerable neighbors.

Presenter: NEN Director Daniel Homsey described the NEN approach, shared findings of the recent assessment, and highlighted two of NEN’s many programs:

• The HUB Program supports neighborhoods as they create a local network of organizations that advances the community’s overall preparedness on a daily basis, as well as provides essential support to residents as they recover from a stressful event of any size.
• Neighborfest fuses together classic emergency management goals with the fun of one of the most popular civic activities, the Block Party! Host teams follow a playbook that provides guidance on how to assemble a team, asset map their block for volunteers and resources, set up the event, and have fun! Plus, the process is designed to help the neighborhood prepare and respond to times of stress.

Moderator: Crisanta Gonzalez, Emergency Management Coordinator II, Planning Division & Community Preparedness and Engagement Division, City of Los Angeles Emergency Management Department

Brief Survey (Please complete after viewing the webinar live or recorded)

Workshop Video Recording (Youtube; or view below)

#4: Martinez Area CERT Earthquake Hazard Mitigation Initiative &
Health Center Partners Emergency Preparedness and Response Program

The fourth webinar in the series will be held November 16, 2021 featuring these community-based programs:

1) Martinez Area CERT Earthquake Hazard Mitigation (EQHM) Initiative: The Martinez Area CERT serves the city of Martinez and unincorporated Pacheco area in Contra Costa County. The organization was the recipient of ECA Mini Awards in 2020 and 2021 focused on non-structural earthquake hazard risk assessment and mitigation in heavily utilized community facilities including the Boys and Girls Club and Senior Community Center. The organization leveraged the public use of the facilities to engage community members in an outreach program emphasizing the importance of non-structural earthquake hazard mitigation measures at home and work. ECA partners Safe-T-Proof and Ready America provided technical assistance and safety devices to implement the program. Martinez Area CERT instructor and DSW Stephen Andrews will share the objectives and outcomes of the EQHM initiative as well as the challenges posed by the pandemic with webinar participants.

Presenter: Stephen Andrews, DSW and Martinez Area CERT instructor

2) Health Center Partners Emergency Preparedness and Response Program: A premier consortium of 17 primary care health organizations, Health Center Partners of Southern California is the voice and advocate for its members who serve the health care needs of communities throughout southern California in three counties, San Diego, Riverside and Imperial. Health Center Partners (HCP) and its subsidiary, Health Quality Partners (HQP), support community health centers by fostering collaboration through innovative programming + facilitating shared learning through a variety of professional peer groups, such as the Emergency Preparedness and Response Program. Established in 2002, the Emergency Preparedness and Response Program supports Health Center Partners member community health centers to prepare for public health emergencies, through direct support and representation at the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial (SLTT) levels. The Emergency Preparedness Peer Network brings Emergency Preparedness Coordinators together from all member organizations to promote collaboration on a wide range of emergency and disaster preparedness topics including: (as bullet points) Training, Policy and Procedure Development, Business Continuity, Best Practices, Regulatory Compliance, Active participation in county operations during emergencies. Health Center Partners received an ECA SoCal Mini Award of 1,000 “Rocket Rules Earthquake Safety Activity Books”. The activity books were then distributed to the health center facilities where children were seen, in hopes of improving earthquake awareness and preparedness among our young patients ( ages 3-9) and their families. This was turned into a giveaway as an incentive for parents and children to read through the activity book and/or watch the short 5-7 videos online.

Presenter: Candy Alvarez, Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, Health Center Partners

Moderator: Crisanta Gonzalez, Community Preparedness and Engagement/Planning Division Chief, Los Angeles City Emergency Management Department (and Chair of ECA’s Public Sector Committee).

Brief Survey (Please complete after viewing the webinar live or recorded)

Workshop Video Recording (Youtube; or view below)

#5: Coachella Valley Disaster Preparedness Network

Our fifth webinar in this series featured the Coachella Valley Disaster Preparedness Network, (CVDPN), an NGO non-profit with a mission to train, educate and network all persons of the Coachella Valley (Palm Springs and nearby cities) on individual and community preparedness.



 

#6: Prepare U

Prepare U is a model that has been used since 2019 in the San Francisco Bay Area to present preparedness trainings in a unified and connected way to community-based organizations and members of the community. The webinar will present how “Prepare U” came to be, how it has been been adapted for different audiences, and how it might be adapted to be used anywhere.

Local and Statewide Programs

• Listos California
   
• California Volunteers
   
• CERT Teams across California
   
• Los Angeles CERT
   
• Ready Your LA Neighborhood
   
• San Francisco Neighborhood Empowerment Network
   
• Many more to be added! To suggest your program, email info@earthquakecountry.org.