Webinar May 12th on Disability Inclusion in Planning and Hawaii Personal Preparedness"

Announcing a new webinar - "FEMA Promising Practice: 

Full and meaningful inclusion of individuals with disabilities and others with access and functional needs in the emergency management process needs shared understanding, cultural competence, effective communication, inclusive practices, and comprehensive emergency management principles. Personal preparedness education combined with accessible and inclusive emergency management can enable individuals with disabilities and others with access and functional needs to participate in a meaningful way with emergency managers and planners.

The first part of this presentation will outline essential components to including community stakeholders in planning, structuring planning strategies to be inclusive, and applying whole community principles to all phases of the emergency preparedness process. Activities of persons with disabilities in preparedness, planning, statewide exercises, event evacuations and responses from Hawaii will be shared.

The second part of this presentation will focus on increasing understanding of how the individuals with intellectual and developmental, their families, and staff can better understand needs during a crisis, and how they can gain skills in mitigating the impact of an event.

May 12th, 2016

Webinars begin at 2.30pm ET/1.30pm CT/12.30 pm MT/11.30am PT/8.30am Hawaii.

Registration: Free on-line at http://www.adapresentations.org/registration.php

Presenters:

Dawn Skaggs is the National Director for Whole Community Preparedness and Training for BCFS HHS Emergency Management Division and is the project manager for the National Whole Community Planning and Training Program. Before joining BCFS, Ms. Skaggs was faculty at the University of Hawaii Center on Disability Studies and was the principal investigator for the Hawaii State Emergency Preparedness System of Support where she facilitated a statewide multi-agency and stakeholder collaboration that provided emergency preparedness leadership opportunities to individuals with disabilities. She has served on many councils and working groups for the integration of individuals with disabilities in the community and emergency management activities for nonprofit organizations as well as local, tribal, county state and federal agencies.

Debbie Jackson is the Planner/ADA Coordinator for the Disability and Communication Access Board (DCAB), and is responsible for the “Interagency Action Plan for the Emergency Preparedness of Persons with Disabilities and Special Health Needs” that was first drafted in 2006 and is currently being updated. The plan is the work of an interagency working group coordinated by DCAB. Ms. Jackson collaborated with Ms. Skaggs on an emergency preparedness advisory group for the University of Hawaii's Center on Disability Studies, and has completed the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training with the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Emergency Management and has actively recruited individuals with disabilities to take the CERT training in their neighborhoods.

Bathey Fong is currently the President of the Hawaii Self-Advocacy Advisory Council (SAAC). She is a Feeling Safe, Being Safe Trainer and has worked at the Center for Disabilities Studies at the University of Hawaii Manoa. She has her own business as a Community Trainer for Emergency Preparedness.

Linda Certo received her Masters in Psychology from Marist College, and her Masters in Social Work from Fordham University. She is a licensed clinical social worker who has specialized in providing clinical services to access and functional needs populations at Access: Supports for Living for the past twenty years. She has been an adjunct professor at SUNY New Paltz and Mount St Mary's College, and was the Coordinator at the Institute for Disaster Mental Health in 2013. She has been a Disaster Mental Health responder with the American Red Cross for the past 15 years. Ms. Certo is a contributor for the Disaster Mental Health Handbook for the American Red Cross.

These 90 minute webinars are delivered using the Blackboard Collaborate webinar platform. Collaborate downloads files to your machine in order to run. We recommend that you prepare your technology prior to the start of the session. You may need the assistance of your IT Staff if firewalls prevent you from downloading files.

To view all of the sessions for the coming year, or to see previous sessions, go to http://www.adapresentations.org/schedule.php

The information presented in this webinar is intended solely as informal guidance, and is neither a determination of legal rights or responsibilities by NIDILRR or FEMA.