Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Plan: How to organize and run a Community Emergency Response Group




If you have been conscious for the past ten years you no doubt have the same feeling that all of us have, that maybe things aren’t going so well. We seem to be facing dozens of potential disasters that may change our society as we know it. The threats are many, war, depression, famine, pandemics, the collapse of the monetary system, martial law and dictatorship, asteroid impacts and grid collapse. Even if you don’t believe it’s the end of the world no one can argue against taking a few precautions by storing some extra supplies and learning a few lifesaving skills. This is just common sense. 

When one begins to prepare for a potential emergency or disaster you come across a lot of good advice such as, store three weeks’ worth of food and water. Prepare a First Aid Kit and a Bug Out Bag. Then learn some First Aid, self-defence, and wilderness survival skills.

One important piece of advice is to work with friends, family, and neighbours. 

I have tried to follow this advice. I approached some friends, family and neighbours and spoke of my concern for current events and that if something of a disastrous scale were to occur could I depend on them to work together with me in mutual support.

Most just looked at me strange. “Oh you’re one of those preppers.” Some would say. “Well yes and no. I’m not one of those preppers, but I do believe it would make sense to take some precautions, in case a disaster does occur and government services aren’t available.”

Fortunately a couple of my buddies said they understood, that they had a month’s supply of food, a backyard garden, and an extra cot, so they got my back covered. Well that’s nice, but I still felt there was something missing.

I joined some Prepper and survivalist groups and while most offered moral support and some great training workshops, the whole idea of how we would support each other during an emergency was never defined.
And that’s as far as I got with that advice.

So while working with a group of like-minded individuals to support each other during an emergency is sound advice, no one can really explain how it would all work out. It is sort of left to, ‘When a disaster strikes, we’ll know what to do then.’

Well you won’t. During an emergency is the least likely time everyone will suddenly get their shit together. What is needed is a plan because without a plan, an emergency will become a disaster.

So I began to think about a plan. I wanted something that was easy and simple that everyone could understand quickly, but also something that would work and solve all issues. And when you think about it, there will be a lot of issues that will need to be solved.

After much thought I have come up with The Plan. Here’s why this plan is one the most important survival tools in your kit.

Scalable: This plan works for groups of five or fifty. It also can be scaled to a few people wanting to prepare for a short term natural disaster, to those people that are planning for the end of the world as we know it and are working towards long term sustainability.

Adaptable: People living under any circumstances can implement this Plan regardless of geographic location and income. It can be used by farmers in the country, middleclass families in the suburbs, and even homeless people in the inner cities.

Equitable: Everyone involved is an equal, and has a voice and vote on all decisions made by the group.

Flexible: The degree of commitment is flexible and can either intensify in order to meet goals or impending signs of catastrophe, or relaxed when goals have been met or potential dangers wane.

Democratic: There is no command structure. Everyone votes on almost all parts of the plan.

Practical: Everyone has a clear role to play in both preparing for disaster, and an action plan of what they should do during a disaster.

Goal Driven: This Plan also works as preparedness triage, going from how to prepare for the most important and immediately life threatening situations first, and then moving through to how to prepare for indefinite self-sustainability.

The Plan also includes information on:

  •  How to found a Community,
  •  How to form teams and what each team is responsible for
  •  An apptitude questionnaire that will help each member in choosing a team
  • Rules and codes of conduct
  • Ways of funding your Network
  • Membership agreement
  • Graded preparedness and skill levels used to set goals and plan your preparedness strategy
  • Lists of skills, supplies, and equipment needed for each individual member, team, and Group needed to reach four clearly defined Levels of Preparedness
  • Plus a timeline plan of action for what every person and team should do during a disaster.

The Plan is a template that anyone can use to form and run their own mutual aid emergency support group that will be able to prepare and train for any emergency and can provide all members with lifesaving help when you need it most, even the end of the world.

If you wish to create a community to survive the many dangers that we face today, then The Plan is the best tool available.

For more information on how this plan works please see my slide show presentation video on youtube here:


 
Coming in 2015

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