Today, older adults and people with disabilities are better able to remain in their homes and live independently, thanks in part to the work of Community Based Organizations (CBOs).  But when disasters strike, older adults and people with disabilities are among the hardest hit and they may not be able to effectively respond to, cope with, and recover from a disaster. If you are a part of the aging and disability networks, planning for disasters and emergencies and establishing the partnerships needed to better serve the people who rely on you can be daunting.  However, advance planning can help you protect health and save lives.

The toolkit will help your CBO plan to address the access and functional needs of older adults and people with disabilities and assist consumers with personal preparedness.  With the tools, checklists, and information in this toolkit, your organization has the resources it needs to better prepare for the next disaster.

The new Capacity-Building Toolkit for Including Aging and Disability Networks in Emergency Planning has a wealth of resources to help you prepare for, respond to, recover from and mitigate the health effects of disasters and emergencies. The toolkit helps the aging and disability networks, which are CBOs funded by the HHS Administration on Community Living (ACL), meet the access and functional needs of older adults and people with disabilities during disasters. Using a whole community approach, the toolkit focuses on building upon the partnerships and expertise that CBOs already have through their day-to-day work with older adults and people with disabilities. It helps CBOs address a range of considerations that may arise before, during, and after an emergency.

The toolkit includes guidance to help CBOs conduct emergency planning within their organizations, more effectively partner with public health and emergency management officials in local emergency planning, and learn about an array of tools for working directly with older adults and people with disabilities to address personal preparedness.  For CBOs that are new to emergency planning, the capacity-building toolkit provides an orientation to emergency planning. Those that already have established emergency preparedness programs can use it as a resource to further enhance their capabilities.

The toolkit offers a large range of guidance, including the following:

• Readiness assessment
• Recommendations for identifying community partners
• Preparedness planning, including creating an emergency operations plan, employee readiness and training, incident command systems, and understanding the emergency support function framework
• Preparing for public health emergencies
• Identifying older adults and people with disabilities, including gathering and mapping data
• Effective communication and messaging for older adults and people with disabilities
• Evacuation and shelter needs during an emergency
• Legal advocacy for older adults and people with disabilities
• Disaster recovery

The toolkit also provides users with multiple resources and recommendations, along with planning worksheets and templates that can be tailored to the CBO’s mission and the specific needs of the communities they serve.

The new toolkit isn’t just for CBOs.  Public health and emergency management professionals can use the toolkit to learn how they can better partner with CBOs that serve older adults and people with disabilities when it comes to emergency planning, response, recovery, and mitigation.  CBOs possess knowledge, experience, and expertise that can be leveraged to help identify individuals with access and functional needs and provide outreach to older adults, people with disabilities, their caregivers, and family members. CBOs can serve a vital role in emergency planning to ensure that consumers have access to community services, supports, and disaster assistance.

ASPR developed the new Capacity-Building Toolkit for Including Aging and Disability Networks in Emergency Planning with assistance from ACL, the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO), and the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials (ASTHO).  Before the toolkit was published, these partners held two stakeholder engagement sessions with ACL national partner organizations and a virtual focus group with aging and disability network members.

The toolkit will help your CBO plan so that you are ready to meet the access and functional needs of the older adults and people with disabilities and assist consumers with personal preparedness.  With the tools, checklists, and information in this toolkit, your organization has the resources it needs to better prepare for the next disaster.