In March or April of 2005 I will be starting a program to teach prepardness to residents in my local community. I am hoping to get the local police, fire, EMS, local industry, and volunteer organizations involved. I work for the county health department as a public health preparedness planner. Part of my job is this public outreach and education. The other part consists of developing contingency plans for the health department and the community. For my plan to educate the public I want to put a small PSK into their hands. I have considered having the following gear to put into their packs:
Whistle
LED squeeze light
Small first aid kit:
AMK pocket medic style case or Ziploc type bag
Bandaids
Alcohol wipes

I don’t believe I can go much farther than this do to the fact of liability of handing medicine out (ie. Tylenol) or school safety (ie. matches, lighter). But I do want to put information into their hands and give them something to take away that will prepare them. My constraints are obviously budget and willingness for the community to accept what I am doing.

My goal is to promote preparedness, and to educate the community. In addition I am assisting my county emergency manager in setting up a civilian emergency response team (CERT) and a medical reserve corp (MRC). If you guys can give me any advice on how to develop my program and/or some other cheap ideas or suggestions for the kit or how to get stuff for the kit I would appreciate the input.

Thanks,

Jeremy

What a great idea! At least it might get people thinking, which puts them WAY ahead of the rest of the herd.

Sue

If people are attending your seminar freely you have an interested audience. Giving out a kit is a small but tangible connection with the education. I would add a suggested list of additional items and resources. Those truly committed will no doubt be on this forum in 6 months arguing the merits of some survival sword.

Sounds like a good deal Chris, how about a small list with contact numbers and meeting places ?

Dave

You might contact the insurance industry. They may be willing to fund some of your training. You allow them to hand out trinkets with their name and logo in return for funding, training space, or materials. Some insurance companies have training programs with multi-media they may provide for you.

Alternately think about other industries in your area that would be willing to donate supplies, materials or other products for the advertising. Maybe the local army/navy store would donate some chem lights for your kits if you mention additional prepardednes supplies are carried by that store.

Two ways to work the local merchants. They provide free or reduced cost product for the kits you are handing out in return for free advertisting. They agree to offer follow up workshops that highlight their products in return for funding your kits or products for your kits.

Places like camping supplies, militrary surplus, home improvement, food warehouses, gun shops, knife shops, outdoor clothing, etc. Lots of supplies are carried by local merchants. Get them involved.

As already mentioned, supply a list of vendors who carry supplies in your area as well as a Suggested Packing List for a 72 Hour Kit, or Home Preparedness kit.

Thanks for the response so far. Good idea about the insurance companies. I also forgot when I did the original post to ask for website suggestions other than ETS because that is already a given. I wll provide lists and will probably provide pamplets from American Red Cross, Ready.gov, and DHS. I am planning to take this into the schools more than likely elementary maybe middle. The younger kids always seem to be interested when they see something cool or hear about it. Also if I can get the little guys (and girls) to go home and nag mom and dad to read the stuuf and put together a kit then I am making progress. I am also planning on reaching out to the elderly and hispanic and asian population in the area. So now i have a real hard learning curve to deal with. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to work with the kids. And again thanks for the suggestions.

I would suggest some sort of water purification, probably Iodine based. If we are afraid to recommend this based on medical fears, then what good is it to prepare? Hey, maybe you'll get sued--and maybe lives will be saved.

There comes a time to go out on a limb--comments anyone??

Regards, Vince

Edit: My apologies if you were asking about preparedness solely for children. Anytime you are dealing with kids you must be extremely careful about dispensing chemicals of ANY sort--especially if parents are not consulted beforehand. My initial reply referred to adult-directed kits only.

In response to your question on how to work with the kids, I'm sure that there are plenty of parents on this forum who have taught their own children basic skills, so they should also have plenty of suggestions.

I've taught kids (fine art and drama), and I've found that having activities that promote participation from your audience is a great way to get them interested and absorb the information, especially if they're little. Role-play and getting them to act out scenarios makes it more fun for them, and it's also kinda like practice. Really engage the kids in the presentation by getting them to raise their hands and answer questions. Children also tend to respond well to a cheery sense of humor.

If you have any friends who are cops or firemen or anyone in a snazzy uniform who can supplement your lecture, kids really dig that, too. (I did when I was little, but maybe that's why now I can't resist a man in uniform <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> Sometimes hearing the serious stuff straight from a uniformed authority figure can make a deeper impact. Being honest about the reality of things might scare them a little, but then they are more likely to discuss it with their parents later. That's my experience from bringing in the cops to talk about strangers to the wee ones.

And be careful with packaging the whistles - if there is no packaging or plastic barrier, the young children unable to resist playing with the whistles may interrupt your lecture (if passed out beforehand), or drive the classroom teacher insane (if passed out afterwards).

Good luck and thanks for doing your community a favor.

And you know how everyone here wants to know what everyone else is carrying...

Why not prepare some stuff, from the Altoids tin to the car kit? You could take it out of the container & explain what each thing is for. Or even just laid out like some of the posters here do.

Also, the local Mormon (LDS) churches put on programs like this every year. They might point out some interesting facets.

Sue

I would rethink the iodine recomendation. Thyroid issues and iodine allergies are very common and iodine can have severely detrimental and even fatal effects on such people. I would stay away from chemical treatments all-together just as youre staying away from handing out Tylenol. Water purification is great. Explain the benefits of boiling water instead of handing out chemicals that can cause illense or death.