FL Emergency Manager to Keynote Annual Meeting
Bryan Koon, Director of the FL Division of Emergency Management will Keynote BRACE Annual Meeting:
Date: Thursday, June 6th
Time: 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Location: First Baptist Church, 500 N. Palafox St., Pensacola, FL
Cost: $15 per person
To RSVP: Purchase tickets or sponsor at www.bereadyalliance.org/get-equipped
More Information: Phone (850) 444 - 7135 or Email angela@BeReadyAlliance.org
Prior to joining the Florida Division of Emergency Management, Bryan served as Walmart’s Director of Emergency Management, after serving for three years as the Senior Operations Manager in Walmart’s Emergency Management Department. With a presence in every state plus operations in over 30 international locations, 2.2 million associates, and nearly 100,000 vendors & suppliers, every incident world-wide had a potential impact.
FEMA to Recognize BRACE Partners
The Second Annual John D. Solomon Preparedness Award is being presented to the Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies (BRACE) for collaborative work as a team of nearly 500 disaster preparedness and response organizations, engaging in efforts that reach the business community, children and youth, under-served populations, faith-based organizations, first responders, and individuals with access and functional needs, and more. The John D. Solomon Preparedness Award is named for the late creator of the ground breaking blog, In Case of Emergency, Read Blog: A Citizen’s Eye View Of Public Preparedness. John’s body of work was striking in its reporting, analysis, engagement and impact, in preparing the public, informing professionals, and effecting change in the public and private sectors. FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate once stated that he “set the standard for what it meant to be part of our nation's emergency management team.”
A BRACE representative will be invited, as FEMA’s honored guests, to a community roundtable event in Washington, D.C. During the roundtable the honorees will share their innovative and successful approaches to community preparedness with emergency management leadership.
YEP! Expo Doubles Attendance
BRACE, the Be Ready Alliance Coordinating for Emergencies, held its third annual YEP! Youth Emergency Preparedness Expo on September 15 at Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola. Hosted in conjunction with the National Day of Service and Remembrance, ceremonies were held to remember those who lost their lives during the tragic events of 9/11 and honor our local heroes who put their lives on the line in service to our community.
“Attendance at this year’s YEP! set a record, more than doubling prior years, making it the largest youth emergency preparedness expo in Northwest Florida.” said Greg Strader, BRACE executive director. “As we educate youth about actions they can take to prepare themselves for emergencies, we are also reaching their friends, siblings, parents, grandparents and others in their lives. That’s good news for anyone, anywhere – but especially for those of us that live on the Gulf Coast.”
The expo’s many activities and demonstrations taught families the importance of preparing for disasters and how to respond during emergencies and featured Klaas Kids search and rescue demonstrations; fingerprinting and DNA swabbing; car seat safety checks; CPR and water safety demonstrations; tours of city and county mobile command units and other first responder vehicles; plus a variety of door prizes from many local vendors and more than 600 free hot dogs. In addition:
• More than 1,475 participated in emergency preparedness activities at the event, including children and family members who attended as guests plus service organizations such as the Girls Scouts as well as students from Teen CERT, Pretty in Pink and Pensacola and Booker T. Washington High Schools who signed on as volunteers,
• More than 2,242 pounds of food was donated to assist Manna Food Pantries in feeding the hungry in our community,
• Emergency food supplies were assembled into 72 hour disaster kits which will being donated to 3,000 low income families,
• Eleven units of blood went into our area supply at Northwest Florida Blood Center,
• And 250 disaster supply starter kits were assembled to help families survive the first 72 hours of a disaster.
BRACE is already planning for the next YEP! Expo to be held Saturday, September 14, 2013 at Booker T. Washington High School in Pensacola. For more information, email brace@bereadyalliance.org.
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Greg Strader receives 'Champions of Change' Award
Greg Strader, BRACE’s Founding Executive Director, was one of the 17 people recently honored at the White House as Champions of Change.
Greg was recognized for his roles following Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill. He works with BRACE's 450+ Partners to make our community the most disaster resilient in America. He served as the Escambia Long Term Recovery Coordinator following Hurricanes Ivan and Dennis, supporting over 800 families through their recovery from those disasters. He led BRACE's response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, engaging over 1,900 volunteers that provided over 10,000 hours of volunteer service. Greg also guides BRACE in its role as the Citizen Corps and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Coordinator for Escambia County, the City of Pensacola and the Town of Century. He previously served with the American Red Cross for over 32 years in six communities, responding to hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, fires, plane crashes and various other disasters.
Greg was also recognized for the Champions of Change award by State Representative Jeff Miller in a special address to Congress on February 3, 2012.
BRACE Community Partner Initiative
BRACE has undertaken a unique Community Partner Initiative with the goal of enhancing disaster readiness and response capabilities of community and faith-based organizations and businesses throughout Florida's northern Gulf Coast counties.
BRACE's Community Partner Initiative has been working with county emergency management departments and numerous other agencies and organizations to strengthen relationships and disaster preparedness, response and recovery capabilities in the following counties:
♦ Bay County
♦ Franklin County
♦ Gulf County
♦ Okaloosa County
♦ Walton County
GOALS & OBJECTIVES
The primary goal of the Community Partner Initiative is to enhance each county's disaster preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation capabilities by thoroughly engaging community and faith-based organizations along with the business community as participants in a county-wide Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) or Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) structure.
[1] Community Partner Identification: Develop a comprehensive listing of community and faith-based organizations and businesses within each county that could assist in times of emergencies or disasters.
[2] Resource Identification: While identifying community partners develop an inventory of any resources that could be accessed during emergencies or disasters.
[3] Community Partner Meeting: Facilitate a series of county-wide meetings designed to bring community partners together to review and discuss the current readiness level of organizations and businesses to work as a unified team during emergencies or disasters.
[4] COOP Exercise: Facilitate a series of continuity of operations exercises designed to help organizations and businesses strengthen their capability to survive a hurricane and remain operational to support thedisaster caused needs of county residents.
[5] Best Practices: Identify best practices that are currently being implemented by community partners.
[6] Statewide Hurricane Exercise: Participate in Florida's annual statewide hurricane exercise as a member of each county's VOAD/COAD to measure the capabilities of community and faith-based organizations and businesses working together to meet the needs of disaster survivors.
[7] Training: Determine the training needs of each county, then schedule and facilitate the identified training.
A WHOLE COMMUNITY APPROACH TO EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT
FEMA's "A Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles, Themes and Pathways for Action" presents a foundation for increasing individual preparedness and engaging community partners in a collaborative effort to enhance the resiliency and security of our Nation through a Whole Community approach.