Neighborhood Liaisons Support Redwood City Emergency Preparedness
Erica Spacher runs the innovative Neighborhood Liaisons program
in Redwood City. Neighborhood Liaisons agree to meet and talk to
a few of their neighbors, have them fill out contact sheets, and
then help get some of these neighbors together to come up with
and then work on a neighborhood project. It’s kind of like the
traditional “block captain” concept, but with a self-starting,
community-building angle. Spacher reports that emergency
preparation is the most requested training by these residents,
and several such sessions are held each year. Once a year, a
short basic disaster preparation class is taught to Neighborhood
Liaisons, who then take the information back to others in their
neighborhood.
The city offers up to $300 for expense reimbursement to groups
that hold neighborhood events, as long as they invite the Fire
Department to attend and inform residents about emergency
preparation opportunities such as quarterly, “Are You Ready”
preparedness classes. These classes lead in to the full 20-hour
CERT training program for residents who want to learn more, and
there are currently 150 CERT trained residents in the community.
The Fire Department also conducts emergency preparedness
trainings at local schools, businesses and retirement
communities. The city is working to meet the challenge of
involving the many residents who are more fluent in Spanish than
English in these efforts by conducting some classes in Spanish.
Mike Mancusi, a CERT trained resident who now conducts “Are You Ready” classes in Redwood City, identified what he perceived to be one of the major challenges to effectively involving residents in disaster preparedness. He noted the cultural differences between the Fire Department, which sponsors trainings and which has a command and control structure, and most residents who volunteer, who work in a business or field where command and control is not the culture. Mancusi reports that a lot of effort has been made to get these two groups to work well together and understand each other. He suggests that Fire Departments can benefit from training on how to work effectively with volunteers, and that an organization such as the Red Cross that works extensively with volunteers might be able to help provide a useful example.
For more information, contact program coordinator Erica Spacher at 650-780-5905 or espacher@redwoodcity.org, or volunteer Mike Mancusi at mmancusi@batnet.com.