“The Whole Community Approach”
The strategy of FEMA’s community approach is basically a foundation for increasing individual preparedness and engaging with members of the community as partners in enhancing the resiliency and security of our nation through a “Whole Community” approach. They have taken a focus on getting all our communities more involved in emergency management. This means that residents, emergency management, people that stand as leaders, and government officials can collectively organize and strengthen their assets, capacities, and interests. Each community has a different set of responsibilities. This concept not only helps to keep emergency situations more organized, but it keeps the communities more informed on what going on around them as well. There are three Whole Community Principles that I am going to touch on that brings a better understanding of the strategic theme of this concept. The first principle understands the actual needs of the community. Community engagement always brings a better understanding of the unique and diverse needs of a population, including its demographics, values, norms, community structures, networks, and relationships. The more you know about your community, the better you can understand real-life safety and sustaining needs. The next principle is engaging and empowering all parts of the community. This will better position everyone to plan for and meet the actual needs of a community and strengthen the local capacity to deal with the consequences of all threats and hazards. This requires all members of the community to be part of the emergency community service groups and institutions, churches, disability groups, schools, professional associations, and the private and nonprofit sectors, while including government agencies that may not traditionally have been directly involved in emergency management. Then the community is engaged in an authentic dialogue, it becomes empowered to identify its...