FEMA to Deliver Disaster Preparedness in Arcadia Area

Since April 1, a team with FEMA Corps, a track of the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) program, is serving in Arcadia, Calif. through June 5. The team, known as Blue Four, is developing a new program in conjunction with FEMA to make presentations to local high schools about disaster preparedness, as a part of a new program called READY STEADY STRONG. Their goal will be to inform youth on disaster preparedness. Stationed at the Office of Emergency Management in Los Angeles, Blue Four has been working together compiling addresses and phone numbers for local high schools. The team plans to do outreach to see if any high schools would be willing to allow Blue Four to present to their students. They hope to make their presentation as interactive and informative as possible. Some areas that they pinpoint in their presentation are natural disasters that specifically occur in the Los Angeles Region. Disasters such as: earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, droughts, extreme heat, landslides, mudslides, and wildfires. When mentioning the benefits of the presentation, Blue Four corps member, Stephen Supernor said, “This will empower the youth to be leaders of disaster preparation so that the LA County community can be ready to act in a natural disaster.” The team hopes to enhance the knowledge and tools people can use to survive if assistance is not readily available.

The AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) and its FEMA Corps units engage 2,800 young Americans in a full-time, 10-month commitment to service each year. AmeriCorps NCCC members address critical needs related to natural and other disasters, infrastructure improvement, environmental stewardship and conservation, and urban and rural development; FEMA Corps members are solely dedicated to disaster preparedness, mitigation, response and recovery work. The programs are administered by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). CNCS is the federal agency that engages more than five million Americans in service through its AmeriCorps, Senior Corps, Social Innovation Fund, and Volunteer Generation Fund programs, and leads President’s national call to service initiative, United We Serve. For more information, visitNationalService.gov.

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