Champions of Change Blog

Understanding the Value of Volunteer Resources

Posted by Brenda Gormley on January 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM EDT

I am honored to have been selected as a member of the White House Champion of Change.

A little about Denton County, located north of the Dallas-Ft.Worth metroplex, population 638,000 plus. We have a CERT program that has several hundred active participants. With our training we have been able to perform search and rescue for missing persons, provided rehab to firefighters working fires big and small, run shelters for persons displaced due to hurricanes, and even assisted with assessing damage due to tornadoes and severe storms.

Often I am asked about why our program is so successful and how we manage to have so many active, involved volunteers. The answer is that we have leadership at the volunteer, local and county levels that truly understands the value of having volunteer resources every day. By having background checked, trained and equipped volunteers we can provide a ready surge of manpower in an emergency, freeing up professional responders or assisting in certain specialties such as logistics or communication. I was able to think outside the box, thinking ahead, establishing a plan and resource to provide a solution. By doing so we have established an Animal in Disaster Response Team, Fire Rehab team that responds 24/7, Shelter Team, Public Education team, Training team and in 2012 we will establish a Board up Team. With so many schedules, we will have 3 meetings a month throughout the county so members will have the opportunity to attend meetings and trainings

As a past chair of Citizen Corps Council thru North Central Texas Council of Governments we strived to close the barriers of jurisdictions, enabling teams not only to collaborate on training and drills, but also opening the doors to each others jurisdictions. This enabled members to cross train and participate outside of their jurisdictions, by doing this it saves on cost and enables teams to work together for the good of all citizens.

Our elected officals Judge Mary Horn and Denton County Commissioners, Department of Emergency Services, Chief/EM Joseph Gonzalez, and Asst Chief Roland Asebedo, not only encourage involvement by our citizens, but go out of their way to provide resources and opportunites for training and working with various local public safety agencies. They trust our volunteers to do the right thing before, during and after any disasters. Many agencies are wary of volunteers due to a precieved lack of training, commitment, or professionalism and that can be a significant challenge. This sense of trust by our local officals has helped break through those concerns, allowing us to be seen as a valuable asset willing to help.

In turn, by being allowed to do our part, our volunteers gain a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in giving back to the community. At the end of the day, helping our neighbors and strengthening our community thru education is why we do what we do.

I am just a volunteer who has always lived with my granny’s words “if you can’t take care of yourself, how you expect anyone else to take care of you?” CERT has enabled me to take care of myself and my family which includes Denton County.

Brenda Gormley volunteers as the Denton County, Texas, Cert Coordinator and is currently secretary for Denton County VOAD Citizen Corps Council.

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Disaster Preparedness Is a Partnership Effort

Posted by Brian Blake on January 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM EDT

I am honored to be a part of the “Champions of Change” disaster preparedness panel that has been assembled by President Obama’s administration. My representation on the panel is a result of great partnerships with many different individuals and organizations that I have been fortunate enough to work with for nearly a decade. I am but a small part of a collaborative effort known as the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP). It is through this collaborative effort that progress and change have been achieved in the area of earthquake risk reduction. Under NEHRP there are hundreds of partners and thousands of people that are doing innovative work every day to strengthen our great nation against earthquakes and other disasters. They too are “Champions of Change”.

Ask anyone involved in emergency management and they will tell you that individual and community preparedness is a key element surviving, responding to, and recovering from any disaster. Earthquakes, unlike hurricanes or other severe weather type events, come with no advance warning. In the last decade, nearly one million people have been lost worldwide to earthquakes or earthquake-induced tsunamis. In 2010 in Haiti, a M7.0 earthquake killed more than 200,000 people and left more than one million homeless. In March 2011, the M9.0 earthquake and tsunami near Tōhoku, Japan demonstrated the ripple effect that earthquakes can have on an international scale, in what has become the world’s costliest ever natural disaster. Fortunately, Japan is the most prepared nation in the world in terms of earthquakes. Having modern building codes, an earthquake resistant building inventory, a strong early warning system, and well-prepared population and government, enabled them to avoid complete devastation.

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Taking Community Emergency Response Teams to the Next Level

Posted by Michael Ripley on January 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM EDT

I am extremely honored and humbled to be selected as a White House Champion of Change and to represent NBCUniversal as the program manager for the company’s Community Emergency Response Team (CERT.) As an Emergency Manager and former First Responder, emergency preparedness, personal empowerment, and community engagement are principles I strongly believe in and have dedicated my professional life to.

Time and again it has been demonstrated that public safety agencies quickly become overwhelmed in times of disasters, and that communities that have citizens who are well prepared and well trained fare better than those that don’t. Disaster volunteers are vital in preparedness and empower ordinary citizens to take action in the event of an emergency. CERT programs provide training to ordinary citizens and allow them to care for themselves, their families and their neighbors during times of extreme crisis. Emergency Managers from around the country have come to the realization that after a disaster, people want and need to volunteer, and that CERT programs are the key to making the most of the valuable resources that reside in every community.

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Empowering Communities through Engagement

Posted by Herman Schaffer on January 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM EDT

Behind every “Champion of Change” lies a collection of individuals who come together under the universal goals of service, volunteerism, and the desire to build a better community. As the Director of Community Outreach for New York City’s Office of Emergency Management, I work to cultivate this spirit of service by involving members of a community in their emergency preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. I have witnessed the powerful impact of community engagement in emergency situations both in my own city and throughout the world as a Peace Corps Volunteer, a Social Work Community Organizer, and the Co-Chair of the NYC Citizen Corps Council.

In 2008, I became a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia assigned to improving water, sanitation, and hygiene education. After assessing the community’s needs, we identified that true water and sanitation improvement included not just the addition of wells and latrines, but also general education and health awareness. Together with the community, we built 25 new wells and a clinic, rebuilt the local school, and implemented an adult education program. When I returned eight years later, the projects were still running thanks to the community’s continued engagement and ownership of their projects. The Peace Corps taught me that real change happens when a community is empowered. I have continued that work through SEED (Self Empowerment through Education) where we provide young people from rural Zambian communities with limited resources the opportunity to obtain teacher certification.

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Working Together Toward Disaster Prepardedness Awareness

Posted by Wendy Freitag on January 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM EDT

I am honored and humbled to be named as a Champion of Change. The title “Champion of Change” belongs to the entire public education team currently in place and those that have gone before me at the Washington Military Department: Emergency Management Division. These are the folks that work tirelessly every day to develop our innovative disaster public education and outreach programs. I personally value the designation as a “change agent” in the field of disaster preparedness as I passionately believe in the necessity to innovate in order to keep pace with the increasing frequency and severity of disasters.

One of the guiding principles of our program is centered around the idea that in all communities there exists an untapped pool of talent, energy, and knowledge that can be put to great use in preparing, responding and recovering from disasters. Programs like our Map Your Neighborhood program seek to identify and organize the capabilities and capacities needed to rebound from disasters on a neighbor helping neighbor basis. We are challenged every day as disaster educators to ensure that we develop programs and products that both appeal to and empower every member of a community to become involved in disaster preparedness. This requires that a variety of disaster preparedness products is made available including hazard specific videos and interactive, audience specific content like our Kidz and Business specific web content – www.emd.wa.gov

Building and maintaining partnerships is the key to success of any emergency management program. Helen Keller said it best, “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” The need to seek out non-traditional emergency management partners is greater than ever. Partnerships between government and the private sector allow us to leverage resources and to transfer knowledge and innovation in a way that directly contributes to creating disaster resilient communities. In Washington State one of our key priorities is to assist businesses in reopening quickly and we strive to ensure that Washington residents are the first to be offered jobs in helping rebuild their communities. Our private sector partners in turn recognize that investing in employee disaster preparedness and their family members offers a major return on investment.

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Finding New Ways to Engage our Residents

Posted by Jodi Simpson on January 19, 2012 at 2:00 PM EDT

On behalf of the Citizen Corps Council of St. Clair County, Michigan and the St. Clair County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, I am honored to represent the Council as a White House Champion of Change. We are all thrilled to have received FEMA’s 2011 Individual and Community Preparedness award for “Innovative Use of Technology.” We are passionate about Citizen Corps’ mission to make communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to disasters of all kinds.

Major events potentially affect all types of essential services in both government and private sectors. These are services that residents expect to be delivered, are required by other services to function, and are critical to the life safety of residents. If these services collapse, the result would be a grave threat to life and limb. Failure to properly ensure the continuity of essential governmental and private sector services in the wake of a natural disaster or terrorist attack could result in societal chaos. During the response and recovery periods of a crisis, the public relies on the government to provide essential services. Federal, state and local governments maintain plans identifying the roles and responsibilities of those disciplines and agencies that provide those services. However, these plans often do not align with the expectations of the private sector. Educating the private sector about our government’s ability to meet those expectations is the foundation for community preparedness within St. Clair County.

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