Courses Help Organizations that Work with Children

If your organization serves children, check out two recent courses that can help you prepare for emergencies.

FEMA’s Organizations Preparing for Emergency Needs (OPEN) training offers 10 steps to prepare for the unexpected. The course is for community- and faith-based organizations, as well as small businesses and non-profit, non-governmental organizations. The workshop Community Preparedness: Integrating the Needs of Children helps you learn how to identify the unique needs of children and families to keep them safe and healthy during disasters.

Together, the two courses offer training for childcare providers, summer camps, after-school programs, and other programs serving children.

The OPEN training teaches participants how to identify risks, locate resources, and take preparedness actions. OPEN can be taken as self-guided online training. It can also be presented with an in-person instructor, and in virtual settings. Each of the 10 steps in the course includes examples and resources for more information. OPEN is available in both English and Spanish. You can access the course at https://community.fema.gov/PreparednessCommunity/s/open-training.

Community Preparedness: Integrating the Needs of Children encourages local governments, emergency managers, and organizations that serve children to work together. The workshop includes information on the requirements and resources needed to better ensure children’s safety during disasters. It teaches the importance of including child-specific information in emergency management planning.

By providing a forum for communication and collaboration, the workshop also helps stakeholders within communities make connections before an emergency arises. Workshop materials also include child safeguarding tips that organizations can follow to help keep children safe.

Integrating the Needs of Children includes several in-person delivery options. The workshop can be offered as a one-, two-, or three-day course, and anyone in the community can facilitate virtually or in person. Instructor and participant guides as well as workshop slides are available for download at https://community.fema.gov/PreparednessCommunity/s/communitypreparedness?language=en_US.

Be prepared to help the youngest members of your community by taking these courses this summer.

This article first appeared in the quarterly Individual and Community Preparedness Newsletter.  Subscribe here

Disclaimer: The reader recognizes that the federal government provides links and informational data on various disaster preparedness resources and events and does not endorse any non-federal events, entities, organizations, services, or products. Please let us know about other events and services for individual and community preparedness that could be included in future newsletters by contacting  FEMA-prepare@fema.dhs.gov .