Continuity Webinar

Approaches To Community Education & Outreach-One Size Does Not Fit AllMonica Farris, PhD, CFM Maggie Olivier, MA, CFMMay 24, 2012ASFPM

1Who We Are

The University of New Orleans, Center for Hazards Assessment, Response & Technology (UNO-CHART)

Applied ResearchMulti-disciplinaryEstablished in 2001chart.uno.edu

UNO-CHART is an applied social science hazards research center at the University of New Orleans that collaborates with communities across the state and implement projects that address disaster mitigation.

Some of our projects have focused on Repetitive flooding, mitigation planning, community resilience assessments, storm mitigation, evacuation and other education and outreach projects that we will talk about in a few moments

The center was founded in 2001 and is comprised of a multidisciplinary group of faculty, staff, and graduate research students. from various department including soc, poli sci, pub admin, planning, urban studies, engineering depending on nature of the project

2Challenges of Education & Outreach Focused on MitigationUnclear understanding of mitigationTimingMarketing uniqueness Accessible, affordable, appropriateMessaging

Over the past 11 years, we have completed several projects focused on mitigation and as many of you can probably relate, there are challenges to this type of work

Lack of understanding of mitigation (nonstructural vs structural; retrofitting); wet/dry floodproofing) - out of necessity people have become more education since Hurricanes Katrina & Rita but we still have a long way to go to establish a culture of mitigation

Timing a couple of different perspectives1.Project period we may be funded to conduct outreach for 12-24 months lot needs to be accomplished to have a successful project - need to identify stakeholders, craft message, hone method2. period between disasters we forget, as time passes, other priorities for the community emerge, less focus on mitigation

Marketing Selling mitigation its a hard sell, people dont understand, there may not be funding; its not as exciting as response

Also, so many workshops, meetings following a disaster, it becomes more difficult to market the uniqueness of your program

Accessibility- Providing clear, helpful information.

Showing homeowners and officials the types of things one can do; that mitigation techniques are attainable.

Affordability is most often the deciding factor to mitigate or not, so providing price ranges and possible financial programs can get people on board.

Messaging-Important to keep the message relevant to your audience; homeowners, local officials, academics, business owners, etc. 3Goals of Statewide CEO1. Create a culture of mitigation2. Promote community-based mitigation3. Promote personal responsibility4. Promote regional partnerships5. Build mitigation capacity at the local levelFollowing Katrina & Rita, the State of La applied for and received HMGP funds for education and outreach focused on mitigation statewide.

The goals of their Community Education & Outreach program (CEO) are listed here.

In 2006, CHART applied for funds to assist the State in this effort

It took a while but in 2009 we began 5 separate projects that supported these goals they include4UNO-CHARTCEO ProjectsContinuity Planning for Community OrganizationsHazards Resiliency CurriculumRisk LiteracyDRU WorkshopExecutives Program in Risk ManagementThe 5 projects allowed us to once again try to meet some of those challenges of mitigation education and outreach we discussed reaching out to various stakeholders using multiple methods

I am going to turn this over the Maggie who will briefly discuss more details on each of these projects5ApproachesReach a variety of stakeholdersTarget a range of audiences Applied research methods:Stakeholder meetingsSurveysFocus groupsOutreach meetings

to support these goals

Stakeholders

These projects are intended to inform citizens, business owners, non-profit organizations, and local officials about their risks and ways in which those risks can be mitigated.

Applied Research Approaches All of our projects employ a combination of the methods listed here. My projects conduct a lot of outreach meetings and focus groups. The outreach meetings bring different types of organizations together that may not otherwise meet and allow conversations to happen across agencies. Focus groups are generally smaller where you can gather more in-depth information about a certain topic.

6CommunityContinuityStrategically sit leaders from different sectors together to encourage conversation across groups.

Maggie Outreach meetingHelp these agencies develop continuity plansTable choreography

This photo is from our outreach meeting in Kenner for the community continuity project. This project brings three sectors of organizations together: small businesses, nonprofits and religious groups. The smaller organizations we target often do not have the resources to hire an outside contractor to develop their continuity plans so we gear the workshops towards helping them develop their own plans. Topics covered in these workshops include mitigation, risk assessment, identification of resources, communications, information technology, etc.

The picture represents what we call table choreography placing representatives from different types of organizations at the same table to encourage them to talk to one another and learn from each others experiences. We use this set-up for many of our outreach workshops.7Follow-up Webinars

Maggie-Weve also done two webinars now where we deliver a condensed version of the in-person workshop.

[Click mouse] We emphasize with the importance of community collaboration. We were able to email a worksheet to the participants beforehand so that our workshop could still be interactive. However, with webinars or video conferencing, you still run the risk of technology failing you. 8Sharing Resources

Continuity Tool Kit CD: One way we were able to share a lot of resources with the workshop attendees was by compiling relevant information on a CD. [Click mouse] Here is the Table of Contents of that toolkit just to give you a little idea of the types of information currently on the CD. It has interactive links to make it user friendly. 9Hazards Resilience CurriculumNow Offering:2 Certificate Programs2 SpecializationsUndergraduate MinorDisaster Resilience Studies

Maggie- Multidisciplinary campus-wide programSurveys to gauge interest from faculty and studentsDeveloped specializations and graduate certificates in Hazard Policy and Mitigation Planning (see flyer). We also just received approval of an undergraduate Minor in Disaster Resilience Studies.Produce leaders with professional capacities to support mitigation

The goal of this project is to develop a multidisciplinary instructional program in disaster resilience studies throughout the various colleges and departments within the university. Ultimately, we hope to produce community/regional leaders with strong professional capacities to support statewide mitigation. 10Risk Literacy Program Student Manual

Facilitators Guide

Maggie

The idea behind this project examines how vulnerable communities access information. We looked at how providing literacy skills in combination with evacuation preparedness information may change how communities prepare for the hurricane season. The goal was to create a curriculum for adult literacy programs. As people were learning how to read, they could learn how to protect themselves from hurricanes and what do to in times of evacuation; what to bring to a shelter, etc.

The manual was developed in Plain Language at the 6th grade reading level. It was designed with graphics and text that are accessible to those with low literacy skills and has checklists for what supplies and documents to take with you.

The facilitators guide is includes lesson plans and activities that correspond to each of the tabbed sections of the manual to help the reader improve their comprehension skills and facilitate discussion. It is actually at the printers right now, but will be available for free download on our website soon.11Risk LiteracyCollaborated with:Literacy Alliance of Greater New OrleansLow literacy groupsLiteracy providers

Tested with:ESL group from Bayou Cane Adult Education CenterLiteracy AmeriCorps members

Maggie-In order create a credible program, we needed to rely on experts in the field.

We partnered with the Literacy Alliance of Greater New Orleans and the Lindy Boggs National Conference Center for Community Literacy, both housed at Loyola University in LA for their expertise in adult literacy.

Our team conducted three focus groups, each representing a low literacy population over the course of the last year and a half. We learned where they get their information, how they share that information, how they protect their homes and neighbors and the means by which they continuously survive storm after storm. [If asked: Fatherhood Consortium, Crescent House-battered women, YMCA YES]

We then tested the draft of the manual with literacy providers representing various parts of the state. Once the facilitators guide was drafted, we also tested it with 2 groups who would teach the program. Feedback from those meetings allowed us to continuously shape the drafts to make them as clear and understandable as possible before printing.

12Accessible Language

Maggie: This is a page from the Manual. It represents a culmination of what we learned from our focus groups and education experts.

This Hurricane Fact Sheet is a clear way to translate technical information about the different categories of hurricanes and their effects into more accessible language for low-level readers. There are clearly marked columns, light text, examples people can relate to, and the category symbols increase in size as they become more ominous, their colors following the emergency alert system color code.

[click mouse 3 times] Here are a few other pages that illustrate Plain Language methods.

13DRU WorkshopBuilding Partnerships in Mitigation

Maggie: The Disaster Resistant-University is geared toward Faculty and Staff of other universities. This 2 and a 1/2 day workshop entitled, Building Partnerships in Mitigation, was held on our main campus in spring 2011 and was quite successful. Speakers represented over 25 universities from around the country and one from Canada. We had approximately 115 attendees and a great mix of speakers and topics.

Here is a snippet from the agenda to give you an idea of some of the topics covered. We ran the gamut of mitigation planning to campus violence to curriculum development in just 2 sessions. 14DRU Workshop

Maggie-The top picture shows one of the keynote speakers, Tony Russell, Regional Administrator for FEMA Region VI. The bottom is a photo from our Mitigation Bus Tour.

One of the hopeful outcomes is for other universities across the country develop mitigation plans.

15Community Executives ProgramPromote Disaster Resilient Communities

Maggie- outreach workshops geared toward appointed or elected officials.

Challenge-marketing workshops as priority worthy

[click mouse] brief overview of 4 integral pieces to resilience16Next PhaseContinuity Planning for Community OrganizationsHazards Resiliency CurriculumRisk LiteracyDRU Workshop (March 20-22, 2013)Executives Program in Risk Management

As these projects come to a close, we are working on final reports and evaluations of each project what worked, what didnt work as well and ways to improve as we begin our second phase of 4 of the 5 projects

Additional funding is allowing us to

Continuity new/improved delivery methods, web,

Risk Literacy additional groups, English as a second language

Executives Program identify/market/hard to reach group

DRU Workshop March 2013

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QUESTIONS? Monica Farris monica.farris@uno.eduMaggie Olivier mlolivi1@uno.edu

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