Page 11 - Creating a Community of Resiliency

Executive Summary
R&R agencies. We do not have the funding to review plans and/or make recommendations to specific plans.
 Have a plan for ALL emergencies: earthquake, fire, threats of violence, pandemics, water, electricity, gas, wind, etc.
 Have frequent practices/drills and communications .
 Ensure involvement at ALL levels.
 Specify roles of individuals at ALL levels. Ensure the plan is (a) in writing and (b) accessible for all staff.
Parent Involvement at the Child Care Sites: Establish and schedule parent involvement opportunities such as the following:
 Review parent contact information monthly.
 Call parents regularly to give short update (“how your child is doing today”)—
serves as a check on contact information.
 Have a sheet next to the sign-in sign-out form “Update your emergency contact information.”
 R&R agency can call parents if the provider exhausts all contact information and none are current.b
 Hold a family spaghetti night with child care to bring parents in for important information.
 Share emergency drill /evacuation plan with parents at orientation to child care.
 Invite the local fire department to come in uniform; have them demonstrate what it might actually look like (including crawling on the floor) so that it would be less frightening and more familiar if there were to be a real emergency.
 Establish an emergency response team/advisory committee made up of parents.
 Develop a phone tree for rapid communication.
 Establish your OWN emergency response community: parents and close neighbors and businesses. Establish and make this connection BEFORE an emergency. As it was with Katrina, Sandy, and the 1994 earthquake, it is possible that police and fire will NOT be able to come. This needs to be clearly communicated because many providers seem to think that 9-1-1 will help them in a widespread disaster.
b This can only be for children who receive subsidized child care and the parent’s information cannot be given to the provider, in which case the R&R would have to contact the parent on behalf of the provider.
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