Moving people toward preparedness

First step is a conversation . . .

Hardly anyone ever disagrees with the concept of emergency preparedness. When it comes up, the usual first comment goes like this:

“Yes, I know I should be doing more about being prepared. “

This comment is usually accompanied by a duck of the head and a slightly sickly smile.

If the conversation continues, the next comment is, inevitably:

“But I just don’t know where to start.”

I have been on the receiving end of this one/two sequence hundreds of times over the years. And I’ve tried many ways to get past it and get people moving on to the next step!

First, I try to engage people in a friendly dialog. But since I can’t talk to everyone, I started writing.

First, it was my blog posts (that I call Advisories). Then I felt more was necessary, so I started on a series of books. You see them in the image above!

Then, develop some tools to move the action forward.

Here are some of the tools I’ve developed. Some of them are featured on our EmergencyPlanGuide.org site. Others have more info at our companion website EmergencyPreparednessBooks.com, where we review books written by a variety of authors.

1. For individuals — A simple list of “The Top Emergency Kit Starter Items.” This is list suggests 10 good GIFTS that you could purchase for family members – or for yourself! – to get things started!  Check it out!
2. For individuals and their neighbors — A friendly 120 page book to get people working together for mutual benefit. Actually, I’ve written three of them, based on the type of neighborhood people live in. You can find out about that neighborhood series here.
3. For employees and business owners – Obviously, when disaster hits a business, it hits the whole community. Every business ought to understand basic steps to take to stay alive long enough to get the whole organization back up and running. Joe and I are particularly proud of this book because we have worked with small businesses for years, and with very large businesses before that!
4. For leaders – When I started building our neighborhood group, there were absolutely no resources available. There still aren’t — so I decided to create one! This book has suggestions for meetings on preparedness to attract and engage members of a community group. The meeting ideas could be used by a church group, a neighborhood emergency response group, the PTA, whatever.

Make the tools widely available.

All these books are for sale at Amazon. You can actually find all of them — plus others I’ve written — listed on my Author Page.

Now that I have figured out how the system works, I have two more titles in the works, hopefully to be finished within the next couple of months. (Amazon tells me that building a SERIES is good for sales!)

If you or loved ones are asking, “How do I get started with preparing for emergencies?” you will certainly find some answers here! If you know other people who are asking the question, you can help them get answers and get moving, too.

I welcome your interest, your support —  and your reviews on Amazon! 

Virginia
Your Emergency Plan Guide team

Day 22 of Summer Vacation: A time for some shorter and lighter Advisories as a welcome change-of-pace!