Planning for
a Disaster

In each of your state's folders, you'll see two sub-folders: "1-Disaster Planning" and "2- Disaster Implementations". In the "Disaster Planning" folder, you'll find a template Disaster Legal Services Plan to be completed. Before you get started, make sure you update the year and your contact details at the top!

NOTE: If your district has more than one state, you'll need to complete a Disaster Legal Services Plan for each state. States with multiple districts will need an individual plan for each district, but you can coordinate with your State's other District Representatives.

Your local bar association contacts are essential partners in the event of a disaster declaration. Because leadership changes so often, you must update this list at the beginning of each and every year. The specific roles you are looking for contacts for are listed in the template, but always ask if other staff / members are key participants and include them as well.

In many cases, what you're looking for is already provided in the ABA YLD Affiliate Directory. Please just verify and update where necessary, and include any other folks that might not be listed in the directory.

Send a group email to all state bar contacts and the legal service organizations, introducing yourself and requesting a short meeting to discuss disaster legal services. Sample email language is included in the template under the "Completing this Disaster Legal Services Plan" heading.

If, in your outreach, you discover there are other important bar association contacts, add them to the bar association contacts table. Add any other legal aid contacts to the Legal Aid Organizations section.

During the meeting, confirm points of contact (POCs) for all involved organizations and determine if others are important to disaster response. During the meeting you should also focus on answering the questions outlined in the "Hotline Operations," "Volunteer Recruitment + Case Referrals," and "State-Specific Training Resources" sections of the Disaster Legal Services Plan.

Individually email all of the other partner organization types outlined in the Disaster Legal Services Plan. Sample language is provided for you under the "Completing this Disaster Legal Services Plan" section of the document.

When all details of the Disaster Legal Services Plan have been filled in, change the "Last Updated" date in our Disaster Plan Tracker and you're done! 🎉