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Hadley Farms Meeting House, 41 Russell Street Hadley, MA

8:00am to 4:00pm

WRHSAC & Mass Dept of Public Health present:
Children in Disasters Conference 2015 “Keeping Kids Safe”

This groundbreaking conference is designed for all emergency response professionals, planners and other professionals in western Massachusetts, who need to consider the safety and well-being of children as they plan for, respond to and recover from any all-hazard incident, disaster or event. We encourage Emergency Management Directors, Public Health officials, Mental Health providers, Physicians, Child Care providers, District Attorneys, and representatives from local Schools, Fire Departments, Police Departments, Emergency Medical Services, Hospitals, Community & Youth Organizations, and Faith-based Organizations to attend. Several nationally recognized speakers will present exciting information and lessons learned. Networking and audience participation will be key components of the day.

The conference is a kick-off event for a multi-phase WRHSAC project “Children In Disasters – Emergency Preparedness”. Using significant guidance from the speakers and conference attendees, WRHSAC will prioritize next steps for the region in this important area of whole community emergency preparedness. Your participation is vital to identifying these next steps.

Registration is closed for this event. Thank you for your interest!

Conference Presentations for download:

Speakers & Topics

“Children in Disasters” presented by Richard Serino. The Honorable Richard Serino is currently a “Distinguished Visiting Fellow” at Harvard University, National Preparedness Leadership Initiative and a Senior Advisor at MIT’s Urban Risk Lab. Mr. Serino was appointed by President Obama and confirmed by the Senate as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 8th Deputy Administrator in October 2009 and served until 2014. Mr. Serino was on scene at the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013 as the highest-ranking official of the U. S. Department of Homeland Security. Prior to his appointment as Deputy Administrator, he served as Chief of Boston Emergency Medical System and Assistant Director of the Boston Public Health Commission. Mr. Serino has received numerous local, national and international awards for heroism, leadership and innovation. Mr. Serino will speak from his many years of experience in response to all-hazard incidents and the direct impact these incidents have on children. He will provide ideas for best practices and note necessary areas of preparedness relationships and planning to meet the needs of children in disasters.

“Re-uniting Families” presented by Sarita Chung, MD. Dr. Chung is Director, Disaster Preparedness Division of Emergency Medicine, Boston Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School. She is a member of the Disaster Preparedness Advisory Council for the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Red Cross Scientific Advisory Council, as well as an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard School of Medicine. She is actively involved in all aspects of pediatric emergency preparedness and response, including research, teaching and clinical care. She graduated with honors from the Department of Electrical Engineering, North Carolina State University and received her MD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Most importantly, Dr. Chung is the proud mother of three children (ages 13, 9 and 2).Dr. Chung will speak about re-uniting families following an all-hazard incident. She will share best practices from her direct experience and expertise.

“Role Models of Resilience: Building Hope from Despair” presented by John Woodall, MD/Psychiatrist. Dr. Woodall is Founder and Director of The Unity Project. Formerly of the faculty of Harvard Medical School, he is a Board Certified psychiatrist with a special expertise in posttraumatic stress disorder and resilience. He is Co-Founder of the Healing Arts Project working with New York City’s Department of Youth and Community Development after 9/11 to build resilience in the city’s children and developed similar resilience building programming in New Orleans and Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina and in northern Uganda working with former child soldiers. Since the Newtown tragedy, he has launched a series of resilience building efforts there. He is the Director of the Center for Global Mental Health and Resilience at Western Connecticut Health Network. Per Dr. Woodall – Resilience arises from our own vast reservoir of potential talent, what we call our “dignity.” Dr. Woodall’s presentation is on how to bring out, unite around and mobilize that dignity on a large scale. Using examples from large scale efforts to build resilient communities throughout the world, Dr. Woodall will show that the struggles of life do not have to make us victims or psychological casualties, but can be the fuel to help us become beacons of hope and role models of resilience. Practical tools will be offered to help participants’ efforts to build resilience in their communities.

“Children with Complex Medical Needs” by Deborah Clapp, BA, NREMT-P. Ms. Clapp is Program Manager of the MDPH EMS for Children Project, is a nationally-registered and Massachusetts state-certified Paramedic and Instructor-Coordinator. Prior to accepting the EMSC Manager position in 2007 she served as Department Chair and Program Director of the Greenfield Community College EMS Department and Paramedic Certificate Program for 9 years. She worked in Western Massachusetts for over 20 years as an EMT, Paramedic, Supervisor, Agency Manager, Ambulance Operations Director and film industry Set Medic following her initial certification as an EMS provider in 1984. Ms. Clapp holds numerous instructor credentials and is a frequent presenter at programs and workshops for healthcare providers and child-serving agency professionals. She is a subject matter expert in childhood injury prevention for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health and the Massachusetts Child Fatality Review Team and served on the Governor’s Task Force on Children in Disasters in 2012/13. She also serves as the state liaison to the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Ms. Clapp will speak about an array of complex medical needs of children and considerations for preparedness and response.
“Cultural Competency” by Olivia Peters, RN. Ms. Peters is the Regional Coordinator for the Division of Global Populations & Infectious Disease Prevention. Ms. Peters will provide an overview of western MA demographics related to the immigrant/refugee population, provide general information about differences between refugees and immigrants and their differing needs, explain general cultural considerations related to intervention and sheltering of different cultural groups, discuss concerns around use of children as translators and the effects of disasters as re-traumatizing events for child refugees/immigrants, and most importantly she will suggest resources for networking ahead of time as well as during/after an event.

Social Media Policy

In this week’s module of re-visiting our Social Media and Emergency Management Training you will learn about creating  a social media policy for your organization.

What is Social Media?

Module two of our Social Media for Emergency Management Training is up. Check out our Facebook page and take the module. Let us know if you learn anything!

Social Media & Emergency Management Training

Module 1 of our Social Media and Emergency Management Training is up on Facebook. Click here to check it out.

Social Media and Emergency Management Training

Over the course of the next few months WRHSAC is revamping the Social Media and Emergency Management (SMEM) training project. This will be done on a module by module basis and includes information for individuals specifically targeted to the needs of the Western Massachusetts first response and emergency management community. Each module emphasizes the why and how: Why and how should first responders and emergency management professionals use these web-based communication tools?  Some of the content includes how to write a social media policy; how to set up and use a blog for an agency for use in a crisis and how to monitor and archive social networks in real time during a crisis.  The SMEM page tab State and Regional Social Media links will also be continuously updated throughout this project which provides web- based/social media communication sites for State and Regional agencies throughout Western Massachusetts. Each module will include questions to answer as well as tasks to complete, because we understand that the best way to learn these tools is to use them! We look forward to your participation every week! Here is the link to the main SMEM website.

Hotel Northampton, Northampton, MA

8:00am to 4:00pm

Using a Joint Information System to Support Response

The Second in a Series of Interactive Training Workshops for Experienced Public Information Officers

Facilitated by Susan Santos, PhD, MS, national expert in Risk Communications and Public Information and Burt Peretsky, FOCUS GROUP Consultants

Recent emergencies and exercises in the region have demonstrated the critical need to coordinate information across agencies and jurisdictions. This advanced level Public Information Officer (PIO) training builds on previous basic public information training workshops hosted by WRHSAC and MEMA. It is intended for trained and/or experienced PIOs from all response organizations including police, fire, selectboards/mayors, public health, hospitals, colleges/universities, and EMS.

The workshop will focus on the key elements of a Joint Information System/Center, including:

  • Importance of a JIS/JIC in today’s world of instant media
  • Forming and using a JIS/JIC
  • Role of the Public Information Officer in a JIS/JIC
  • Social media monitoring and rumor control
  • Use of JIS/JIC model to develop and present timely, coordinated, and accurate messaging in response to a simulated emergency.

To ensure time for practice and performance review, the workshop is limited to 30 qualified participants who are recommended or sponsored by a Local/Regional Emergency Planning Committee, Public Health Coalition, Hospital Coordinating Group, MMRS, Chief Elected Official or Responder Agency head.

There will be a rolling admissions process with all registrants initially waitlisted, so event planners can ensure that all counties and disciplines are effectively represented and can simulate a regional Joint Information System.

This training builds on plans recently developed by WRHSAC for a Multi-Agency Coordination Center (MACC).  The MACC Concept of Operations includes a Joint Information System to help coordinate timely and accurate messages across agencies, communities and regions. The MACC model is in the process of being adopted in Berkshire County and will be introduced over the next several years in Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties. The MACC PIO Standard Operating Guidelines are here for your review.

The training will be held on Thursday, June 18, 2015 at the Hotel Northampton, Northampton MA. Registration and breakfast from 8am to 8:45am. The Welcome and training will begin at 8:45 and run to 4:00pm. Lunch will be provided. The training is free thanks to funding from the Western Region Homeland Security Council and the Hampshire and Hampden Public Health Coalitions.

Registration is closed for this training. 

Helpful Resources:

Public Health Region 1 PIO SOG

And some PIO Training videos:

EOC Operations & Planning Training

8am to 4pm

EOC Planning and Operations is a three-day Texas A&M Engineering Extension Services course which focuses on the core functions, processes and best practices necessary to ensure effective and repeatable performance of an emergency operations center at any level. The core functions and process are reviewed and demonstrated via facilitated discussion and computer enhanced scenario exercises.

The course will be held at the North Adams Ambulance Station, 10 Harris Street, North Adams, MA, June 3, 4 & 5, 2015. The course is free and breakfast and lunch will be provided. The course will start at 8am  and run to 4pm. Daily registration will begin at 7:15am.  Course participation is limited to 40 people. You must attend all three days to receive a certificate.

REGISTRATION FOR THIS TRAINING IS CLOSED

 

Multi-Agency Coordination Center Phase II is complete

WRHSAC has recently completed Phase II of its Multi-Agency Coordination Center (MACC) project. This phase established a pilot regionally based MACC in Berkshire County. Follow this link to learn more and review the documents created in this phase.

Western Massachusetts Community Organizations Active In Disasters Summit

The Western Region Homeland Security Advisory Council will host the second Community Organizations Active Disasters Summit on Thursday, April 30 at the UMass Center in Springfield. Click here to register. The event is free.

The Western Massachusetts Community Organizations Active in Disasters (COAD) Summit provides an excellent opportunity for emergency personnel to learn about the wealth of non-governmental, ready-to-serve organizations that exist in their communities, and to take stock of the vital resources these agencies supply.

Participants will become familiar with the function and mechanics of the emergency response system and learn about the ways in which their particular organization or personal skill fits into the many-faceted network of volunteers.

Keynote speaker Susamma Seeley is a certified emergency manager and the statewide director of response for Catholic Charities agencies in Missouri. She also serves as the Chairperson of the Missouri Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). When deployed on their behalf, Ms. Seeley’s primary role is to assist local Catholic Charities agencies with integration of their response and recovery activities into the broader disaster response community. Her most recent deployments include the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado response and the 2012 Hurricane Sandy response in New Jersey. With a background in both emergency management and VOAD, Ms. Seeley’s keynote speech will offer insight into and discuss strategies for relationship-building between these distinct disaster response camps.

The two-session agenda will include continental breakfast, lunch, opportunities to network, and a low-stress, low-stakes functional exercise in which participants will practice coordinating their response through a disaster scenario. Morning registration will test an existing plan for operating a volunteer reception center.

Individuals and groups interested in volunteering or actively involved in preparing for emergencies and assisting victims before, during, and after disasters are encouraged to attend. This year’s summit promises to be an exciting day of informative workshops, problem solving, and networking with other participants who share an enthusiasm for helping others through disaster.

UMass Hampshire MRC Exercise in the news

The Daily Hampshire Gazette reports on the upcoming large scale UMass / Hampshire MRC shelter exercise. More than 275 people are expected to participate. WRHSAC is providing funds to support the exercise. To read the article click here.

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