Engage Your Network with Education, Training, and Activities
Alliance for Response communities around the country sustain cooperative networks by providing training opportunities, mutual assistance, and a role for cultural institutions in disaster planning at local and state levels. What follows are workshop ideas, projects, and resources developed by emergency networks around the country. Help us compile a comprehensive collection of Tool Kit resources by sharing your network’s activities and products.
Education
Incident Command System
- Learn the basics of the Incident Command System. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) provides free training online:
FEMA ICS-100: Introduction to the Incident Command System
FEMA ICS-200: ICS for Single Resources and Initial Action Incidents
FEMA ICS-700: National Incident Management System (NIMS), An Introduction
Risk Evaluation
- Evaluate your own institution and make sure your disaster plan is current. In the process of updating your plan, take a look at your resources (equipment, supplies, space, staff, etc.) and think about how you might be able to share those with your larger community in a disaster.
- Explore the free tools available in FAIC's comprehensive Risk Evaluation and Planning Program (REPP). Using the REPP tools, Savannah Heritage Emergency Response worked with local emergency managers to develop a number of different spreadsheets on Critical Facilities (Historic & Cultural): sorted by police department and precinct/sector, sorted by fire district, and sorted by city re-entry group zones (following a hurricane). See also:
Training
- Host a disaster plan writing clinic.
Florida Connecting to Collections 2012: Developing Emergency Plans, a self-paced program
- Design online educational resources about protecting cultural heritage.
- Hold a fire safety program on performance-based planning and museum, library, and historic house fire codes.
- Sponsor “table-top” training exercises adapted for museums and libraries.
Library of Congress tabletop exercises
- Sponsor disaster training sessions for cultural heritage institutions that include a practice drill.
- Watch the archived Connecting to Collections webinars on emergency preparedness and response and host a meeting to discuss important points.
Protecting Your Collections: Writing a Disaster Response Plan
Exercising Your Disaster Response Plan
- Hold a workshop on insurance and appraisal for cultural institutions
- Learn valuable information by reading about lessons learned following a disaster with an after-action review (AAR). They provide an analysis of what happened, why it happened, and what was learned, with the goal of improving future performance.
- Become familiar with the process of applying for federal disaster assistance following a major disaster.
Activities
- Develop a regional disaster supply cache. See also Mutual Aid Agreements.
AFR Pittsburgh Disaster Supply Cache
BAMAN – Bay Area Mutual Aid Network
North State Cooperative Library System
Network: SILDRN Disaster Recovery Supplies
- Develop a disaster plan exchange program with members of another network as back-up repositories in case of disaster.
- Develop a buddy network outside of your region to provide support and assistance when a major disaster strikes.
- Develop a cultural SWAT team composed of emergency response and preservation experts to aid institutions in the event of major disasters like the AFR NYC: Heritage Response Team.
- Create a master database of cultural institutions in the area to improve communications during “peacetime” but especially following a disaster.
- Create a master database of potential support (personnel, logistics) that cultural institutions can provide following a disaster.
- Help your organization develop an effective social media and disaster communication strategy.