In an emergency, the best help is always your neighbors. Besides preparing your home for emergencies, you need to work with your neighbors to prepare to help each other as a group.
We’ve found that the South Skyline area naturally divides by geography and self-selection into a loose collection of neighborhoods.
Here’s an easy guide to organizing your neighborhood — read this first!
What is a Neighborhood?
For our purposes, a “neighborhood” is defined as groups of homes and residents that are in close proximity to each other or are characterized by other factors that lead to a formation of a “local group.” SSEPO has been working with residents in each neighborhood to locate Neighborhood Coordinators (NC) who work with their own community to develop an emergency preparedness plan tailored to their neighborhood.
All neighborhood organization efforts are local and according to the needs and wishes of the neighborhood.
What a Neighborhood Typically Has
- A private directory of residents (Google Doc) — see Neighborhood Directory
- An email list (Google Groups or groups.io) — see Neighborhood Communications
- A WhatsApp group, text list, or phone tree for contacting neighbors
- Low-power radio: GMRS or MURS radios for the neighborhood. GMRS is useful because it’s cheap, doesn’t require a ham license, and SSEPO has set up repeaters making it work across the region.
- Neighborhood drills
During an actual emergency the email list, texting, and GMRS radio will often be the primary means of contact and discussion.
What a Neighborhood Coordinator Does
- Helps organize emergency communication channels, processes and procedures
- Works with neighbors to develop emergency preparedness procedures appropriate to their community
- Keeps neighbors up-to-date with training opportunities (local CERT classes, Red Cross training, local Ham Radio training, exercises and drills)
- Interfaces with the SSEPO Board and provides updated support requirements and needs from residents
- Stays aware of local emergency equipment grants and funding opportunities — see About SSEPO for info on how a neighborhood can obtain a grant
- Helps organize neighborhood involvement in fuel reduction projects
Leveraging Existing Organizations
Rural neighborhoods often host other kinds of organizations. This can include road and water committees, as well as a FireWise Community. Since there is usually only a finite number of people in a neighborhood who like to volunteer, it’s good to find synergy across these efforts. Each of these efforts may already have lists of residents, etc. So it’s a good opportunity to kill multiple birds with one stone. All of this functions best when one is sensitive to group chemistry, and uses this to build neighborhood unity rather than competition between efforts. Diplomacy and tact for the win here!