National Dialogue on Preparedness Ideas

Provide an incentive for people to become better prepared. Allow them to have a tax deduction for purchasing emergency supplies or performing retrofit work on their homes.

Create an iPhone app that assists the public in creating kits by:

* Helping them decide how many kits they need (home, car, work, etc.)

* Helping them decide what should go in each kit.

* Helping them shop for kit packages / items.

* Helping them keep track of what they have already purchased or assembled

* Helping them maintain the kit (replace water, etc.)

Introduce the concept of "Levels of Preparedness" to encourage citizens to prepare for emergencies.

Too many citizens think the tasks of "preparing" for an emergency is too daunting. Too many things to buy. Too hard to make a plan. So many do not start or do not finish becoming prepared.

FEMA should introduce the "Levels of Preparedness" to guide citizens to the most important levels right away (3 days of water, etc.),... more »

Community Preparedness Initiative

One of the biggest struggles when it comes to preparedness is distribution of information that will actually grab the attention of those who are reading it. Anybody can build a website and post information but if no one knows where to find it then its meaningless. We need to start thinking outside the box and start a Community Preparedness Initiative (CPI). The concept of CPI would be... more »

I would suggest that various local/count/state planners consider creating a Preparedness Cooperative. Basically what would happen is that the agency would create a coop and advertise within the community. The purpose of the coop is to provide those who join the opportunity to take steps to prepare. Like purchasing emergency supplies. The coop would find/support that action with either wholesale pricing or other leveraging... more »

I suggest you create a “Civic Resilience Corps”, the CRCs, because the current approach to preparedness turns many people off and the avenues for citizen engagement in emergency management processes are not adequate. It is also a way to address our current economic recession/depression, very much like the Civilian Conservation Corps in the past.

Citizen Corps, CERT, American Red Cross, Neighborhood Watch, etc. are all... more »

It appears that knowledge of preparedness programs that are available to the public as a whole is lacking due to the fact that they are neither covered well enough by the media,nor are they covered often enough, as well as being promoted by various community services impactfully enough. Knowledge helps in becoming better prepared...
Let's create a well informed public together...Let's be part of the defining mitigating... more »