Take the Pledge to Improve your Community’s Preparedness
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Are you and your family prepared to face a disaster? What about your neighborhood? Do you know your neighbors’ emergency plan or how you can help each other during an emergency? April kicks-off America’s PrepareAthon!—a nationwide campaign to increase emergency preparedness and community resilience. Throughout the month local, state, and federal groups will take the pledge to help improve their preparedness. All of these activities will lead up to PrepareAthon’s national day of action on April 30, 2015.
So what can you do?
You don’t have to be an expert in emergency preparedness, or the leader of a large community group to take part in America’s PrepareAthon! Learn more about what you can do in your neighborhood or community to become more personally prepared and help build your community’s resilience.
In your Neighborhood.
If you haven’t taken the time to talk to your neighbors about emergency preparedness, or even just met them, take the PrepareAthon! pledge and make a plan to include your neighbors in your emergency planning. Often the first people on scene after a disaster are not first responders (EMS, police, firefighter, etc.), but rather the people who are closest to where the emergency took place. When a disaster occurs in your community you will most likely have to rely on those around you, especially if the scale of the disaster makes it hard for first responder to get to the scene.
Do not wait for a disaster to occur to meet your neighbors or learn about your community’s preparedness plans. Reach out to people in your neighborhood and discuss their emergency plans. If you have any medical or physical needs, such as limited mobility or dependence on medication or medical devices, talk to your neighbors about the assistance you may need in a disaster. Likewise, find out about the unique needs of those who live around you. Reach out to elderly neighbors and offer your assistance from shoveling snow to checking on them during a heat wave. No matter what the disaster or emergency, forming relationships with those around you can help improve resilience after a disaster occurs.
In your Community.
Beyond your neighborhood, getting involved in community preparedness groups and emergency response exercises can help improve your own personal preparedness and also your community’s ability to respond to emergencies and natural disasters. Strong community resilience requires people to come together and participate in planning and training before a disaster occurs. A good place to start when looking to become more involved in your community’s preparedness is with groups focused on emergency preparedness, such as your local Community Emergency Response Team 
(CERT), Medical Reserve Corps, or American Red Cross chapter. You may also consider getting a community group you are already involved in talking about emergency preparedness. Faith-based organizations, schools, or even your workplace are good places to start a conversation about emergency preparedness.
Take the Pledge.
Whether it is meeting your neighbors, joining a local emergency preparedness group, or starting an emergency preparedness initiative within one of your community organizations, make sure to register your efforts with America’s PrepareAthon! Help move your individual community and our entire nation closer to being prepared for any emergency or disaster that comes our way.
7 comments on “Take the Pledge to Improve your Community’s Preparedness”
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Looking forward to finding like minds and maybe even helping if and when something happens.
1.What is interesting about this blog: i am very intersted in this blog for one it is very important to be prepared for a disater for the simple fact that you dont know when one is coming.
2.How does this relate to something in your life: my mother works for edison and she is super active in making sure that our house has what it needs in case for a disaster. we have everything from food and water to clothes and blankes in our emergency pack for each person in our house
3.What changes or adjustments can you make from the knowledge gained in this blog: the changes that ican make are spread the word about emegency preparedness to my community and neighbors since my family and i are already prepared.
This blog was interesting to me because it gave a positive insight of why you should get to know your neighbors. No one knows when a disaster may occur or if you or your loved ones will be in serious need of help. This is relatable to me because i have a family member whom stayed in an apartment complex that caught on fire. My cousin knew her neighbor was elderly and may not be able to move fast. So, her being concern although she didn’t have their phone number and didn’t know them personally, she still knocked on the door in hopes that someone will answer to warn them of the serious incident. Luckily they were able to communicate and evacuate they building in a timely manner and everyone was safe. The changes that i would make from the knowledge gained by this blog is to be more proactive in getting to know my neighbors and community.
This blog is interesting to me because I, and Californians in general, are warned about being prepared in the case of a bad earthquake. I don’t know anyone personally who actually makes the effort to prepare an emergency kit and reach out to their neighbors. I think it is important to do so because earthquakes can become very destructive (i.e. Haiti). I think some changes that could be made is being familiar with neighbors and any health issues or disabilities and also taking the time to prepare an emergency kit and make sure everything is ready to use by checking periodically. I think blogs like this one can be used to educate the general public about the importance of creating an emergency kit and also being aware of the needs of those around us. According to the Office of Emergency Services, “every year approximately 500 earthquakes occur in the state of California that are large enough to be felt”(Office of Emergency Services. Gov, n.d.). Knowing this should be an indication that Californians should be more active in being prepared for a disaster or at least have an emergency kit prepared because a disaster could strike at anytime.
This is a very interesting blog. How many of us do not think about taking the pledge to get to know your neighbor? It could be life saving if your neighbor knew what special needs you or someone in your household may have. You could also be very beneficial to saving someone else’s life by knowing what they may need in an emergency situation. I have never thought about it before now. The good thing is that I am a nurse and my next door neighbor is a nurse. Unfortunately, that’s all we know about one another. If there are people within your neighborhood that have life sustaining medications could share with you where these medications are kept. In the event of an emergency you would know where to go. It is a great suggestion to know what emergency plans are in store for your community during an emergency. Getting involved with your local communities community emergency response team and American Red Cross group would allow you to know what to do in an emergency situation.
I will take the pledge!
We have already started following the Whole Community Concept of preparing for a disaster. We starting by using our neighborhood watch program and group. It has been very successful. We have a Facebook page, joined the app Nextdoor and meet bi-monthly.
This blog was interesting to me because it gave a positive insight of why you should get to know your neighbors. No one knows when a disaster may occur or if you or your loved ones will be in serious need of help. This is relatable to me because i have a family member whom stayed in an apartment complex that caught on fire