According to an article on the website Neighborhood Empowerment Network, the school’s involvement came after the San Francisco Disaster Feeding Task Force had developed a plan for the project but was having trouble funding it:

Just when the project was about to be shelved for lack of funds, the Lick Wilmerding High School junior class president, Jody Fu, contacted SF CARD (San Francisco Community Agencies Responding to Disaster) asking how the High School could help make San Francisco residents better prepared for an emergency, such as a natural disaster. The students had seen the devastation in Haiti and had contributed to the relief effort but wanted to make their own home in San Francisco a safer place as well. After just a few months of planning, fundraising, and coordination with the Task Force, the school volunteers made the program a reality.

On Saturday May 8th, class volunteers assembled food and water supplies donated by the San Francisco Food Bank into kits to be delivered to the homes of Meals On Wheels’s and Project Open Hand’s most vulnerable clients. Delivery drivers also briefed clients about disaster preparedness, gave them emergency information pamphlets and whistles from the SF Department of Emergency Management, and continue to inventory the supplies at designated intervals. The monies the students raised over many class fundraisers will go to the Food Bank to offset some of the costs of supplies and packaging.

For more information on the high school’s initiative, you can find it on the SF Emergency Department’s Facebook page here.

High school students packing emergency kits for vulnerable San Franciscans

The “Are You Red Cross Ready?” video, which was filmed on the OSD campus, informs people about three important actions everyone should take to become prepared for emergencies. The three actions emphasized in the video are; 1) Get a Kit. 2) Make a Plan and 3) Be Informed.

Oregon School for the Deaf video “Are You Red Cross Ready In Sign Language?”

Thanks to the READYColorado Twitter feed where I first heard about this.

According to the article, those groups are:

more likely to make behavior changes based on terrorism fears, such as avoiding certain activities. These groups also tend to overestimate terrorism threats, believing the risk is high even when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s color-coded advisories show the threat as low.

Dr. David Eisenman, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles was the lead author on the study whose findings are published in the January issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

Eisenman and his colleagues analyzed data from a random telephone survey of more than 2,300 Los Angeles County residents, conducted from late 2004 through early 2005 and known as the Public Health Response to Emergent Threats Survey. The participants were asked what the color was at the time for the country’s terrorism alert system, how often they worried about terrorist attacks and how often they avoided activities because of fears of terrorism.

Those who were mentally ill, disabled, black, Latino, Chinese-American, Korean-American or not U.S. citizens were more likely to think that the alert level was higher than it was and apt to worry more and change their behavior because of those fears. For instance, about 14 percent of whites surveyed said they worry very often or often about terrorist attacks, but more than 26 percent of Latinos said they did. And whereas just over 1 percent of whites changed their behavior very often or often because of their fears, more than 13 percent of Korean-Americans did.

Clearly, there is a need for the new Administration — working with states and localities — to create a more effective overall public alert system. This study underscores the fact that there is not just one ‘public’ to be addressed.

When it comes to preparedness, special needs citizens obviously have many more things to think about and plan for than the so-called ‘able bodied’. The good news is that the disabled community has thoughtful, enthusiastic, and effective advocates in the preparedness area — such as Davis and Hilary Styron, head of the National Organization on Disability’s Emergency Preparedness Initiative. Since 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, they have worked hard to ensure that the interests and requirements of special needs citizens are not forgotten and are integrated into new disaster legislation and regulations. Due to their efforts, the disabled are now among the most prepared Americans. 

To me, the general public also needs that kind of an advocate and advocacy — an organization or individuals who can provide the same attention, focus and initiative to preparing all citizens that the Emergency Preparedness Initiative and others have done for the disabled.

This conference was organized by FEMA’s Region 2 (which includes New York, New  Jersey, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) and whose administrator, Stephen Kempf, Jr. is himself disabled as a result of a major back injury he suffered as a firefighter. Interestingly, the conference was organized with the help of a group of federal government officials who are currently Fellows at the Council for Excellence in Government, including FEMA Region 2 official Sean Waters. The Council has been deeply involved in preparedness efforts for years and created the helpful and even fun “Readiness Quotient” quiz, ‘What’s Your RQ?’ in which you can (and should) use to test your level of personal preparedness.