Community Stakeholder Meetings

EM: “Terrye, you’ve been here awhile. You know how we work. We going to put it all together for you today and show you our Active Planning Workbook and Community Stakeholder Meeting process.

“A Community Stakeholder Meeting (CSM) is a whole community planning meeting that brings together local people with disabilities, families, support networks, disability organizations and service providers with emergency planners, responders and local government officials for collaboration. The goal of a CSM is for stakeholders to find gaps and strengths related to people with disabilities in the local emergency plan. Then the group makes a strategy and plan to close those gaps.

The goals of a CSM are to:

Review the local emergency plan or plans as a group
Identify gaps related to disability access and inclusion
Prioritize the gaps
Create plans to close the gaps

“A CSM takes time, planning and coordination. But the benefits can be big: sharing information, expertise and resources, ADA compliance and building a stronger community. The CSM deepens community knowledge and expertise. CSMs may encourage community members and organizations to become more active.

PJ: “So, you wonder, how does a Community Stakeholder Meeting work?

“We hold Community Stakeholder Meetings about one to two times a year. They take about three hours to complete. CSMs are working meetings where everyone contributes. A good CSM starts with the participants. Diverse participants lead to a more productive meeting. A productive meeting leads to sharing resources, information and expertise.”

The people at Disasterville’s CSMs include:

EM, the local emergency manager and me, the public health preparedness planner

Carrie, our local ADA coordinator

Several other local government staff like the representatives from the Council on Aging, Human Services Department and Public Works

The Prepared4ALL Action Team who you met on your second visit here

Representatives from disability organizations (including staff, Board Members and program participants)
Representatives from community organizations like the local food pantry, houses of worship, social service organizations, volunteer organizations, etc. (including staff, Board Members and program participants). There may already be a community coalition in your community or volunteer responders. If these groups exist, collaborate with them.

?Terrye, think about your community. What are some organizations to invite? Who are some key people to invite?

PJ Response

“There are not right or wrong answers here, Terrye. The group should be as diverse as possible. Think creatively about whom to invite. Think about which organization or person might have knowledge, resources, or networks that might be helpful in finding gaps and developing strategies to close them. The invitees should reflect the community.

“At one real life CSM, the partners identified the need for an accessible local government website. A local high tech company wanted to be a good corporate citizen and help the community. A local government official turned the company away. The official didn’t know what to ask the company for! The partners urged a return call to the high tech company to ask for help make a website accessible.”

EM: “Here are some other organizations to think about inviting.

Access and Functional Needs Coordinators: Some states and counties or cities have someone who has the title or performs the function of an Access and Functional Needs Coordinator. If your community has a Coordinator then there may already be an emergency planning community coalition. Ask the Coordinator.

Emergency planning community coalition: Some communities may already have these coalitions. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, Prepared4ALL Action Teams should partner. COADs and VOADs in some communities may serve this function.

Local voluntary responders: Your community may have a Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT) or Citizens Corps. These are groups of volunteer responders. These groups may be natural allies. For example, CT reports approximately 100 CCP teams (including MRC consisting of about 4,000 people.

ASPR Regional HCCs: ASPR formed regional Hospital and Health Care Coalitions (HCC) within states. While these coalitions focus mainly on health care, your regional HCC may have an interest in partnering.

FEMA regional Disability Integration Cadre: Each FEMA region (10 groups of states) has an Inclusion Coordinator. They may help you access other networks. They may also have helpful resources.

“Whoever is invited should be prepared to work collaboratively at the meeting. The CSM isn’t a time for gripes or complaints.

“There is no ideal number of participants. As a working meeting there need to be enough people for discussion but not so many that work can’t be accomplished. Too many people can mean that it’s hard to be efficient. So sometimes we hold a larger meeting first and then later a smaller follow up meeting. A planning meeting before the CSM is also helpful.”