Page 68 - Creating a Community of Resiliency

Establishing a Foundation for Emergency Preparedness
 The critical role of the R&Rs in responding to an emergency
 How an R&R would prioritize responses to an emergency
 How R&Rs can support the connection and communication between providers and emergency responders during an emergency
 How R&Rs can support the connection and communication between providers and parents during an emergency
Note that when we compare the item of knowledge change regarding the critical role of the R&Rs in responding to emergencies, 66.7% cited a large knowledge change based on the first working session compared with 90.9% in Session 2. Given that this was a major focus of Session 2, this finding lends validity to both the evaluation and the delivery of the training. Additionally, the most frequently cited learning domain in the open-ended questions was the role of the R&R in an emergency (Table 18).
Table 18. What are the most important things you learned from the training?
Role of R&R 38.5 (during/immediately
following emergency)
Communication (with 15.4 parents, providers,
R&Rs, community)
Comment Category
Percent of Participants Who Gave This
Response
Being Proactive/Prepared
30.8
Other (employee safety, group learning process)
15.4
There was knowledge change in how to
support the connection and communication between providers and emergency responders—and between providers and parents—during an emergency; however, when asked what their next steps would be, most participants cited sharing information, while collaborations were cited least often. Knowledge has been increased, but the R&R agencies may need further support to put these into action— not only through sharing of information, but through development of active collaborations. R&R agencies are experts in information sharing and dissemination to the community, and this expertise may be relied on more so than a different strength that is less frequently and widely used: establishing and continuing active collaborations. This may be due to the fact that disaster preparedness, response, and recovery is a relatively new area for these R&R agencies.
Another area that might need more training is on how to advocate for child safety during an emergency. Although knowledge increased, some reported little change compared with the other areas.
As shown in Figure 15, there was slightly greater knowledge increase in how R&Rs can support providers in responding to an emergency in information sharing,
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