We have lots of ideas and information to pass along to you following last week’s highly successful disaster education conference at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland (June 9-12). 80 professionals from the emergency management, voluntary, business and academic communities gathered to share information, network and tackle some of the great challenges in disaster education.

This Act Now Preparedness Update offers just a sample of what you can expect from us in the weeks to come. Future editions of the Update and the conference report will describe what Project Impact communities are doing in disaster education, and offer the latest thinking on building comprehensive community programs, forming partnerships, educating senior citizens, developing neighborhood programs, working with the youth, networking on the internet, training and program evaluation.

As always, please forward this Update to others … email or call me anytime with questions or ideas … and keep up your great work in disaster education.

How do you motivate people to spend money on mitigation measures that reduce the physical effects of disaster? That was one of the questions disaster educators wrestled with during FEMA’s CFP conference. Their advice is loosely categorized under these six headings: programs, partners, financial incentives, planning considerations, approaches, and materials.

• Create a "remembrance" event surrounding the anniversary of the last major disaster. For example, say a community hasn’t had a large tornado in 25 years. During the two weeks (or so) surrounding the anniversary, have local hardware or home supply stores offer free workshops for homeowners on how to mitigate for tornadoes. Or perhaps they could sell discounted "mitigation kits." Work with the media. Reproduce photos of the community when it was hit by the disaster and of people repairing the damage; put testimonials in the newspaper and on radio; have the local emergency manager explain how these mitigation efforts can save their homes. Perhaps American Red Cross volunteers could help the elderly and other high-risk groups mitigate their properties.

• Organize neighborhood disaster programs. Work with neighborhood groups. Recognize success. The neighborhood association with the highest number of homes retrofitted, for example, could be recognized by the mayor or city council.

• Hold community-wide mock disaster days complete with testimonials and lots of information on disaster preparedness and mitigation

• Have a "fair" or "all hazards week" that includes as many agencies as possible to man booths with literature. Find matching funds, grants and donations from corporations.

• Develop a comprehensive public awareness campaign outlining the advantages to mitigation efforts versus costs incurred in disaster when no mitigation efforts are in place. Emphasize the benefits to homeowners and businesses. Involve competitive businesses that have lots of energy and reach into the community. Prepare a before and after scenario -- this will help illustrate the cost-effectiveness of mitigation.

• We need to educate children in the schools over and over again. A fact filled, fun community disaster education program in the schools, pre-schools and day care centers can and will motivate people to spend money on mitigation measures.

• Emergency management and disaster preparedness organizations should partner with businesses that contribute to the overall safety and economic vitality of the community. This is a winning combination. When businesses associate themselves with organizations that mitigate disasters and prepare communities for disaster, they’re able to set themselves apart, enhance their reputations and position themselves as concerned citizens in the community.

• Build partnerships with the media, home do-it-yourself stores, building industry associations, neighborhood associations, schools, children’ educational museums, and government organizations. Conduct workshops on the Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP). Give demonstrations on home mitigation.

• Use a well-connected politician or local celebrity to champion mitigation. Ask for help in a dramatic pitch to insurance companies and other businesses that provide products or services connected with mitigation or disaster.

• Get construction companies and associated professionals to retrofit for the disasters that specifically affect your area. Ask fire inspectors to look for non-structural hazards in schools and businesses. Require mitigation.

• Conduct a public awareness campaign that explains some simple and inexpensive mitigation measures. Work in coalitions with local homeowner associations, insurance companies and businesses that can teach the public do-it-yourself projects.

• Ask people who experienced past disasters to present education to targeted populations – to convey a "it can happen to you, it happened to me" message.

• Involve technical "experts" and credible members of the group you are trying to reach to raise awareness of the issues.

• Provide low interest loans, subsidies or matching grants. Offer property tax incentives. Exempt homeowners who retrofit their homes from transfer taxes on the sale of their retrofitted home. Take advantage of Community Block Grant Development Funds. Encourage insurance rebates for structural mitigation.
• Make low-interest loans available to landlords who complete mitigation similar to loans offered to landlords and developers for building or providing Section 8 housing. Ask business partners to provide discounts on materials and service.

• Eliminate local, state and federal disaster assistance grants to people living in high hazard areas (CBRA zones) who fail to take personal mitigation measures. Reduce "red-tape" for mitigation grants.

• Find out what’s important to the homeowner or business. Appeal to them with what you can do to improve their existence for the long and short term. First identify what they see as their needs, then adapt your messages accordingly.

• Examine your expectations of the behavior you desire, i.e., to spend money on mitigation measures. Then look at the target population and establish a trusting relationship with those identified people. Listen to how they talk about themselves and the stories they tell -- stories that convey who they are and what their values are. This will help you understand the reasons for the behavior you seek to change.

• People who have to choose between need and mitigation will always spend on need. This is why there are so many people without insurance. To have any chance of increasing involvement in mitigation you have to have a program that affects more than just a few homeowners so that people have a real option and can make a choice. If you offered to match any savings in reduction of insurance premiums from any mitigation, people will opt for the insurance and have to participate in the mitigation program.

• Given that many people will not spend money on mitigation, we need to think about what other alternatives we have.

• We need to show people that spending money on mitigation is cost effective and can make a real difference in a disaster. Provide materials or technical assistance to teach people what to do and why.
• Timing is important. A good time to motivate people is after a disaster occurs in your area or elsewhere in the country. Educate people about what they can expect to lose if they don’t mitigate. Many people have unrealistic expectations about disaster assistance, i.e., they think they will be adequately compensated.

• For parents, appeal to their sense of safety for their children (school or home mitigation). For businesses, show that mitigation increases chances for business recovery.

• The key to motivating people is "enlightened self-interest." Show businesses and corporations how much money they will save and they will respond. Another key is employee preparedness. The quicker employees get back to work, the quicker the business will be back in line generating revenue.

• "Perception Management." Perhaps people don’t believe that disaster could happen to them, but what if they felt their "stuff" was threatened? If we could convince people that their property is in danger, they would more readily spend money to protect it.

• Create excitement around the program to a point where people want to get involved and feel left out if they don’t join in. Good incentives are when many people in a neighborhood are doing the same thing, or when children are excited about a program and the parents feel some responsibility to get involved. Peer pressure works -- if one property owner reduces the risk, others are more likely to do the same and reduce the collective risk.

• Community disaster education is one way to show people the power of disasters and the sensibility of mitigation. We need to convince people that the occurrence of disasters is a matter of "when" and not "if." Mitigation will save money when disaster occurs. For example, it costs much less to move the oil heater and other valuables above the basement than it does to replace them after a flood.

• Start with the mitigation measures that can be completed with little or no cost involved.

• When you’re giving a presentation to a group, suggest that they spend money on mitigation one step at a time.

• Use strong powerful motivating words in presentations. Concentrate on property and not individual safety, i.e., "Take mitigation measures so your property will be there after disaster occurs."

• You’ve got to "walk to talk." When community leaders and government agencies put money toward mitigation, the community will follow.

• Have a mitigation promotional package ready to go immediately after a disaster. Have a presentation re-enacting a disaster to remind people what it’s like. Follow with mitigation information.

• Create a graphic (for a newspaper article, brochure or other material) comparing "mitigation costs" with "damage costs" (a mitigated house next to a non-mitigated house for comparison purposes) and perhaps a "total amount saved" bottom line with just the words, "Penny wise" below the graphic. Provide this information to your target audience.

• Motivate by providing actual case studies that have relevance to the audience you’re trying to reach. Case studies should include the value or benefit to the audience, i.e., "what’s in it for me?"

For more information:

Ralph Swisher
FEMA CFP Program Manager
Phone: 202-646-3561
Fax: 202-646-4371
E-mail: ralph.swisher@fema.gov