The Disaster Resilience Network

Programs: Tulsa partners promotes it mission through a variety of collaborative efforts of public outreach coordinated by our paid staff, with involvement from volunteers and organizational partners. - one collaborative endeavor is the language & culture bank, a grassroots network of multicultural and multilingual groups, the tulsa partners language and culture bank (lcb) works with these many communities to help their members prepare for disasters, and to help all people receive emergency communications in a way they can understand. The lcb held information booths at events like the kids world 2014, tulsa community college globalfest, asian american festival, and world refugee day festival. These booths were primarily staffed by volunteers provided by our partners at the oklahoma medical reserve corps. Tulsa community college center for creativity also developed for us three new video public service announcements for the hmong, vietnamese, and the deaf /hard of hearing community, using scripts translated by the local communities with volunteer presenters on the video from those local communities. -another collaborative committee, the disaster resistant business council, is a public/private partnership designed to educate businesses and nonprofits about the need for emergency and continuity planning, to offer networking opportunities for those interested in business emergency and continuity planning, and to assist in promoting the critical role of businesses and nonprofits in a community's disaster resiliency. Building off of the success of a 2014 a day without business symposium in april 2014 attended by over 100 people, the drbc has used presentations during this fiscal year to various groups on the need for business continuity and emergency planning for small businesses. We have participated in planning meetings with the chambers of commerce and the state agencies on how to better promote this important aspect of resilience. Although not a part of our small business /nonprofit outreach, drbc members assisted tulsa partners with a small workshop for schools and other institutions with campuses in june 2015, attended by 20 people. Another a day without business symposium is planned for the following fiscal year as is a disaster management workshop for long term care facilities. -another collaborative committee coordinates the millennium center for green and safe living, using a center without walls concept to support the use of higher building standards, working in conjunction with the city of tulsa's storm water drainage and hazard mitigation advisory board, the insurance institute for business and home safety (ibhs), the federal alliance for safe homes, the national storm shelter association, and other programs promoting stronger residential construction. Support for this effort is present in the city of tulsa multi-hazard mitigation plan. The steering committee members represent the disciplines of architecture, engineering, construction, mortgage lending, hazard mitigation, storm water management, low impact development (lid) and sustainability. Much of this has focused on planning rather than on actual outreach during this fiscal year. Tulsa partners also participated in a voluntary basis with other stakeholders in the city of tulsa's successful rockefeller foundation 100 resilient cities application, which will involved collaborative community building activities focused on resilience, and which will tie in well with our millennium center outreach and other activities and programs. -tulsa partners participated with the oklahoma voluntary organizations active in disaster, oklahoma emergency management, and a variety of local social service organizations in setting up a tulsa area long term recovery committee to respond to the long term needs of those affected by a march 25 tornado which damaged the lives, properties and homes of some three hundred residents in the tulsa area. Tulsa partners serves on the steering committee for this endeavor and our executive director serves as co-chair of the steering committee, which will continue operations for at least a year. -tulsa partners also receives annual funding from state farm as a platinum donor to support our mission through identified activities. This fiscal year included work on identifying ways to promote disaster resistant construction in disaster recovery areas, and on the creation of a community resilience speakers bureau, which as of june 2014 had about 25 speakers listed on our website and able to share information on a variety of topics. During this fiscal year, tulsa partners was funded by three contracts which related to work achieving our mission. 1. We assisted the city of tulsa in work related to public information and education related to disaster resistance. Tulsa partners oversaw development and implementation of a program for public information related to the national flood insurance program's community rating system. Adopted by the city council and mayor, this planning document included the activities of public and private stakeholders who could share key messages related to disaster preparedness, mitigation and resilience. A key component of the program was to include ways of measuring the success of these outreach efforts, something which tulsa partners hopes to utilize in future years. Working with the u. S. Army corps of engineers' oklahoma silver jackets program, the city of tulsa and tulsa county, tulsa partners oversaw two summer 2015 interns from the university of oklahoma /southern climate impacts planning program. These interns developed and implemented a flood risk awareness survey for people living behind levees in west tulsa, which was a project included in the city of tulsa program for public information. This baseline survey will allow for measuring the success of outreach activities. These same interns also met with stakeholders participating in the city of tulsa program for public information to delineate the stakeholders' outreach activities. 2. We completed work on an agreement with save the children for recovery and resilience activities for those affected in central oklahoma by the may 2013 tornados. The work, mostly done in the prior fiscal year, included efforts in education, child protection, and miscellaneous activities related to resilience for children and their caregivers. Among the highlights: 2002 oklahoma children were successfully provided resilient and ready (get ready get safe) training. A total of 93 shelter managers, employees, volunteers, and caregivers tasked with supporting children in times of emergencies participated in the child friendly spaces program with a total of 82 completing it. Ten child-friendly spaces were also positioned or used in central oklahoma. A community preparedness index developed by columbia university was piloted in the city of norman, as was a draft children's annex to their emergency operations plan. An oklahoma children in emergencies working group was developed and is still operating. And in the summer of 2014, tulsa partners coordinated efforts between the national storm shelter association and save the children to install community safe rooms at the agapeland learning center in moore, whose facility had been destroyed. 3. We completed work on a contract with the national hazard mitigation association and fema on work to coordinate a nation-wide resilient neighbors network, a part of our collaborative mentoring on a national scale. This work included the development of a special report on storm shelters in oklahoma.