A whole community can come together to understand their unique needs and determine the best ways to meet those needs. A "Whole Community" approach uses the knowledge and experiences of all individuals in a community when preparing for, protecting against, responding to, and recovering from emergencies.
Using a whole -community approach, preparedness stakeholders can help individuals feel invested and empowered in a community-based effort. In general, people want to help in times of need. The whole community approach provides a structure for individuals to collaborate and contribute to a community's effort to prepare, respond, mitigate, and recover from disasters.
A whole-community approach to building preparedness can lead to a better, shared understanding of the community's risks, needs and ability to respond effectively to disasters and emergencies. This same understanding helps those involved with community preparedness and response use resources more efficiently.
An engaged community is a strong community. Establishing relationships across community sectors, organizations, and individuals can facilitate more effective prevention, protection, mitigation, response and recovery activities. All of these benefits contribute to an increase in individual and collective preparedness, building a more resilient community.
Participating in a training is a great way to increase your confidence and learn new skills that an make a difference during an emergency. The Greater Nashua Public Health Network and other emergency response agencies offer a variety of preparedness education and training course. Courses are intended for general audiences and can be adapted for all abilities.
Contact us today to arrange a private training for your school, community group, or business.
Volunteers are an essential part of disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. Community residents acting on their own impulses and initiative dominate rescue and recovery efforts, particularly in the immediate aftermath of disaster. That’s because our human reaction is to help one another. We can—and do—depend on one another to survive large-scale disasters.
Learn how you can become an affiliated disaster volunteer in your community.
There are many opportunities for organizations to get more involved in community-wide emergency preparedness initiatives. Here are some things that your organization can do to be a valuable community partner in disaster response and recovery:
