Vincent B. Davis, CEM^®

The photo above is of two little girls. They could be any girls, a teen and a toddler having a moment in the sunshine. But these two girls have a special meaning and purpose that is both personal and professional. A colleague of mine recently posted a message that I feel encompasses the meaning behind the photo, when he said; "There are three things you cannot recover in life: the word after it is said, the moment after it is missed, and the time after it is gone.

The girls in the photo are Ella (the little one) and Taylor. They are two of my seven grandchildren, and like most proud grandparents they are each the light of my life. Seventeen years ago Taylor was born, the first child of my second youngest daughter Eraina. She was normal birth weight, full term, and seemingly healthy in every way. Sometime in the first 24 hours after her birth, we received news from doctors that Taylor was deaf. After many tests it was determined the cause of her deafness was neurological, not physical.

During her first few months of life it quickly became apparent Taylor was also developmentally disabled. She was unable to crawl, flip herself over, or stand on her own power by her first birthday. At the time, I was just beginning a career transition after 28-years in telecommunications into emergency management. Sandwiched between a 23-year military career in the National Guard, I found myself at the crossroads of a mid-life re-invention, wondering what I would do next after having spent the bulk of my working life in an industry that was on the decline.

Eventually, Taylor would rally physically, but a later diagnosis of Autism would further complicate her life, and that of my daughter Eraina, a single mom trying to finish her undergraduate studies. Taylor would also become a rallying point for our family, the center of our focus and concern with each triumph and every setback taking us on a roller coaster of emotions.

My new emergency management career would bring me face-to-face with many disasters including hurricanes Charley, Frances, and Ivan, a devastating tornado in Utica Illinois, and other scenes of enormous loss and suffering. Little did I know at the time I had embarked on the journey that would become my passion.

As I carved out a livelihood with stints at FEMA, the American Red Cross, and other companies and organizations, I’ve encountered many devoted practitioners. Some people chose this field because it offered adventure, others out of a sincere desire to help people, and still others who saw the opportunity to make a good living. For me, the purpose became increasingly clear……..Taylor.

As Eraina and Taylor moved from the Midwest to New England, I continued my vocation, honing my skills, learning lessons, helping disaster survivors, and witnessing first-hand, the many challenges people face, especially those with access and functional needs.

Three cities, eight years, two masters degrees, and a ton of challenges later, Taylor and mom came out on the other side. They now reside in Dallas, with a new husband and father, (who is also an emergency manager), a new baby (Brooklyn), and a powerful testimony that only those who have battled on the front lines with physical and cognitive challenges could have.

There are times when each of us wonders why we do what we do for a living. Many people experience a deeper and sometimes nagging yearning to understand their real purpose for being on the planet.

Those who know me best would probably say I'm a preparedness nut, that guy who can hold you a conversation for hours about why it is important to know and understand how to survive an emergency or disaster. That guy who spends his every waking hour talking, thinking and preaching preparedness to anyone who will listen. That guy who wrote a book (Lost and Turned Out) and started an organization with no money or plan, merely a passion for helping the underserved prepare for disasters.

The truth is that somewhere between my work and my concern for Taylor Gabrielle Davis and people like her who struggle to cope, I found my purpose.....helping the underserved.

Over the past 16 years I've been blessed to meet and collaborate with scores of caring, compassionate individuals. So when people ask me why I do what I do, it’s an easy answer. There are thousands of Taylors out there who have parents, grandparents, and others who love them dearly and want the best for them. More importantly I understand the devastation and heartache of disasters and the trauma they cause, having learned lessons from the front row seat which I’ve been so blessed to occupy as an emergency manager.

Thank God for Taylor, because without her I may never have found my purpose; to help all people, especially children learn what they should do to help themselves in an emergency. To survive and gain the confidence that comes only from understanding, not fear children must be taught to live prepared. They are not born with this ability, but like Taylor, if given the right tools and teaching, they can learn and thrive.

So if your profession hasn’t met your purpose, please meet Taylor and Ella and my other beautiful grandkids Charlyce, Raven, Shaun, Jonathan and Brooklyn. They are my purpose and my profession. What’s yours?

The handbook was created as a collaboration between Preparedness Matters and the National Tribal Emergency Management Council. It contains culturally relevant information to prepare Tribal families and communities for disasters and emergencies. It provides information about risks, the Tribal disaster system, why native families should prepare, a family plan template, emergency communication resources, recovery information, and hazard-specific quick reference tips for what to do before, during, and after an incident. The 66-page full color handbook is available with special pricing for bulk purchases for tribes, stakeholders, and sponsors. Learn more about how to obtain the handbook at http://www.thenativefamilydisasterhandbook.com

In statistics collected by The Entertainment Software Association for the year 2013, a reported 58% of Americans play video games and the average American household now owns at least one dedicated game console, PC or smartphone. Despite the trends, educational gaming lags behind, especially in the area of teaching children about disasters and emergencies. A revolutionary new trauma informed option, PrepBiz, is being developed by New Orleans based trauma expert and entrepreneur Kenneth Bibbins.

Using game-based technology, PrepBiz teaches children appropriate responses to disasters and emergencies. We make it fun, non-violent, and challenging, so kids are less vulnerable when faced with real-life traumatic events. For more information visit the PrepBiz website at http://www.prepworld.org or call Kenneth Bibbins at 504-405-1580.

We're teaming with Veteran's groups to provide emergency training and Veteran led preparedness teams for senior citizen's. The program will provide on site training workshops in underserved neighborhoods to show seniors how to shelter-in-place, and what to do in an emergency.

A pilot program is being planned for late summer 2017 in Chicago.

Our goal is to develop a cadre of trained Veterans to promote, facilitate and lead preparedness in public and private senior citizen communities.

The attitude toward preparedness among America’s black population remains nonchalant despite frequent disaster occurrences and rising death tolls that disproportionately affect their communities.

According to several studies only 24% of African-American families say they are prepared for an emergency

This despite the fact that:

• 1, 836 people died in Hurricane Katrina, and more than 100,000 were displaced. 97% of the fatalities were African-Americans
• 102,000 people were exposed to toxic water in Flint, Michigan, including over 9,000 children under age 6
• Thousands of New York area residents were stranded in high-rise buildings for more than a week without food, running water, and electricity after Hurricane Sandy
• Nine black church members were slain in an act of domestic terrorism in Charleston, SC

Every day, black communities are most vulnerable to floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, mudslides, terror attacks and random violence. Preparedness Matters is working with several national organizations to "change the game" in emergency preparedness for African-American communities.

Timothy Riecker, the Preparedness Jedi

Tim has over twenty years of public safety and emergency management experience with local and state governments. He is now a partner and principal consultant with Emergency Preparedness Solutions. We highly recommend that you take a look at its blog ''Exploring Emergency Management & Homeland Security'', I'm sure you'll find several articles that will interest you.

Jan Glarum, Private Consultant and Author

Jan has over 40 years of experience in the fields of EMS, Fire, Law Enforcement, Hospital, Public Health, and Emergency Management, including response to federally declared disasters. As you can see, he has a LOT of experience in public safety. He recently launched a blog called ''A Better Emergency'' where you will find book reviews and articles on emergency management. As he says on his blog, he hopes ''to encourage conversation, stimulate the imagination, and engage the best minds in how to do emergencies better''. Very interesting...

Vince Davis, Emergency Management Consultant, Author, Entrepreneur

Vince is the owner of Preparedness Matters Disaster Consulting. He has an extensive experience in emergency management planning, training, crisis management, community relations, program management and development. Read his last article ''Defeating The Clown - How Do You Tackle Community Resilience?'', you'll want to read the others!

As in any community, a solid network of partnerships is needed to address the specific needs of its community members. Native American and Alaska Native populations span the nation, but face similar preparedness challenges. To address resilience gaps, a public-private sector collaborative approach was used to create a tool as a foundational document for community outreach by tribal stakeholders, as well as tribal emergency managers and others to train new staff.

There are 567 federally recognized tribes, living on more than 300 reservations, representing 22% of the 6.6 million Native American and Alaska Native population. Many tribal families live in remote rural communities, where 68% of homes on tribal lands still lack access to broadband internet service, as of January 2016. This rate is lower than that of some developing countries. In contrast, more than half of African-Americans and Hispanics and about three-fourths of Caucasians have high-speed access at home in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. A 2012 report from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Office of Native Affairs and Policy noted, “Reservations of many Tribal Nations are located in rural areas with challenging terrain.” The FCC cited the badlands of the northern plains states and the mountainous forests of the Pacific Northwest as particularly challenging situations.

Because the vast majority of disaster preparedness material resides on the internet, this information is nearly impossible to obtain for many Indian Country families. For those born on reservations, the economic outlook can be especially challenging because Native American households earn only a little more than half as much as the average American ($37,227 compared to $53,657 for the nation as a whole). Approximately 28.3% of Native American and Alaska Natives are living below poverty and, without basic preparedness plans, these families are even more vulnerable to injuries and fatalities in a disaster. With the growing number of floods, wildfires, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other natural catastrophes, and the ever-present threats from man-made contamination of tribal lands, family preparedness has become an even greater challenge for survival in Native communities.

To further exacerbate the preparedness dilemma, most tribal nations are in remote, rural communities with few response resources readily available. This increases the chances for delayed response in a major event, leaving families to care for themselves for extended periods without assistance. As many Native communities struggle to maintain a meager existence, the resilience gap continues to widen.

To address the Native resilience gap, Preparedness Matters, a disaster preparedness consulting group specializing in underserved community preparedness, collaborated with key stakeholders in the tribal emergency management community and Native communications experts to develop a strategy and discuss ways to reach tribal families who have limited electronic media access. The challenge was not just to develop a tool, but to make it comprehensive and accessible to a wide audience of stakeholders. Working with Native Public Media, the nonprofit organization that coordinates training and support for the 59 radio and TV stations broadcasting in Indian Country, and the National Tribal Emergency Management Council (NTEMC), which represents 277 tribal emergency management groups in the Pacific Northwest, Preparedness Matters launched a project to develop the “Native Family Disaster Preparedness Handbook.”

The publication was designed to consolidate the vast amount of preparedness information into a single resource guide that would be easy to digest, culturally relevant, and affordable for tribal residents. Additional collaborators with expertise in mitigation, disaster trauma, and tribal recovery were included to provide subject-matter expertise. The group set forth several goals for the design of the Handbook. The main objectives were to “demystify” the tribal disaster process by explaining the sometimes-complex procedures and nuances of tribal recovery, and to provide simple steps families could take to protect children, homes, livestock, and pets. The added challenge was how to get the Handbook to communities where daily survival is their main priority, and preparing for disasters poses a difficult task few are likely to undertake without help. To accomplish distribution of the handbook, the team developed an outreach strategy to reach key stakeholders in all sectors of the Native community, as well as non-Native partners and supporters.

Sorting through a massive amount of disaster preparedness data presented its own challenges for the handbook project team. Initially, a book outline was created to keep the team on track, with a course of action that adhered to “less is more” when developing the chapter information. Throughout the process the team had to stay focused on the main goal, which was to keep the information culturally relevant, while providing a flexible tool that could be updated and customized by the user. To accomplish this, the spiral bound booklet has a convenient rear pocket that can be used to add information, and a tear-out family plan template to make it easy to copy or secure personal family plan data.

Major concerns for Indian Country families in disaster include the reunification of families, and the safety of displaced children. The Tribal Handbook team identified 17 categories of functional needs in Indian Country, and ways tribal stakeholders can address them, including but not limited to:

• No 911 services
• Limited or no internet access
• No street addresses
• No paved roads
• Limited or no telephone access or service

Because of these vulnerabilities, active participation in preparedness activities must become a way of life for Native communities, not an afterthought. This means creating a culture of empowerment and awareness, essential to bring about meaningful behavior and attitude changes, especially among those in greatest peril. Preparing to protect or minimize damage to vital agricultural resources is equally important to the economic recovery of post-disaster tribal communities. The loss of livelihood from damaged crops, wildlife, fishing, mineral mining, livestock, and other resources can have lasting effects on any community, especially one as dependent on these sources of income to support its people.

In addition, protection of a Tribe’s sacred sites cannot be ignored, but rather must be integrated into all phases of the emergency planning process. If a disaster destroys a sacred site such as a burial ground or historical site, the impact on the Tribe can be devastating physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Spiritual connection to the land is a hallowed tradition – where Native ancestors lived and are buried, where the future generations will grow and prosper in the rich heritage and history of Native culture.