Workshop Participants Innovate to Increase Youth Preparedness 

Release Date: March 21, 2012
Release Number: R7-12-003

» 2012 Region VII News Releases

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Community leaders and educators filled the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Beacon Office Facility today to attend the first-ever Federal Emergency Management Agency-sponsored youth preparedness workshop in Kansas City.

The workshop provided participants with the tools and organizational how-to needed to build programs that teach young people about disaster preparedness so they can make the communities they live in more resilient.

Youth Preparedness experts from FEMA led discussions with attendees from the public and private sectors in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. Leaders in businesses, not-for-profit organizations, state and local governments shared ideas and best practices about how to create curriculum for, implement and manage successful youth preparedness programs.

“When we think about how strong we want America to be in the future, we have to think about resiliency. As a nation, we’re as strong and able to recover from disaster emergency situations as each individual is, so preparing our youth is like taking an insurance policy out on the American way of life.” said FEMA Regional Administrator Beth Freeman. “When we educate young people about disaster preparedness they share it and spread the word to their peers, their families and on social media. They act as leaders and influencers and if we’re successful, they will transform American culture into a culture of preparedness.”

FEMA Region VII partnered with the American Red Cross and the U.S. Department of Education to host the event. Similar FEMA-sponsored workshops have been and will continue to be conducted nationwide.

If you would like additional information about youth programs, please visit FEMA’s Youth Preparedness (www.citizencorps.gov/ready/kids.shtm) page, which includes a Catalogue of Youth Preparedness Resources (www.citizencorps.gov/ready/resources.shtm). In addition, see the U.S. Department of Education Readiness and Emergency Management for Schools (REMS) (rems.ed.gov/) Website.

FEMA’s mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.

Last Modified: Wednesday, 21-Mar-2012 14:25:43