On Tuesday, March 4, 2014, the National Mass Care Council hosted the 2nd installment of the National Mass Care Strategy webinar series– “National Mass Care Exercise: Helping to Build the State Capability”. The panel of presenters represented government, private sector and voluntary agencies:
- Michael Whitehead – State of Florida
- Sue Bush – State of Washington
- Brian Head – Sysco Corporation
- Jono Anzalone – American Red Cross
During the webinar speakers discussed the history of the National Mass Care Exercise, the exercise experience and lessons learned and how mass care exercises can be used to build state capability. The presentation slides from this presentation are available here. The webinar, “National Mass Care Exercise: Helping to Build State Capability“, is now available on demand.
Please let us know about your experience with the second installment of the National Mass Care Strategy Webinar Series by participating in our survey. We encourage you to keep the conversation going on the web at www.NationalMassCareStrategy.org and on Twitter @mass_care.
Upcoming Webinar: Promising Practices for the Whole Community – Part One
FEMA’s Office of Disability Integration and Coordination (ODIC) announces the first of our yearlong series of webinars on promising practices for the inclusion of people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs in emergency preparedness and disaster response and recovery.
Currently most disaster and emergency response systems do not adequately address the communication access needs of people who are deaf or hard of hearing, causing a lack of access to important and lifesaving information and services. The complexities of language and cultural differences pose serious barriers to first responders and emergency providers in reaching people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Sign language interpreters are key cultural and linguistic linkages providing access to actionable information. The Office for Access and Functional Needs (OAFN) was created within California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) in 2008 with the purpose of identifying the needs of people with disabilities before, during and after a disaster and integrating disability needs and resources into all aspects of emergency management systems. Cal OES, through OAFN established the Disaster Response Interpreter (DRI) training program to credential certified sign language interpreters, formalizing a statewide system of securing and deploying qualified interpreters during a disaster to provide communication access for Deaf and Hard of Hearing individuals. This Webinar will provide an overview of California’s DRI Program with recommendations on how this promising practice can be replicated.
When: March 11, 2014 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT
Important links: Webinar | Closed Captioning
