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Posts tagged Safety
5-Minute Message: Safety Tours
A great way to have everyone know what’s in place to keep them safe is to have them see, hear about, and touch what is available. To make it fast and easy, create a short, high-energy safety tour of your office space.
CARD’s safety tour includes: first aid kit, whistles and flashlights at every doorway, evacuation instructions, picture and location of our rally point, fire escape, fire extinguishers, locations of our office go-kit, a nonstructural hazard mitigation display, and a restroom filled with Potty Posters and various safety supplies.
Thread safety and preparedness components in your usual tour of your space for guests, and be sure that all staff (whether paid or volunteer) participate in a full safety tour as part of their orientation. Make sure your safety tour demonstrates your commitment to preparedness and safety!
5-Minute Message: Required to be Prepared!
Requiring your staff to be prepared, trained, and ready to deal with emergencies helps our communities to be more self-sufficient, better able to respond, and ultimately more empowered. Simple requirements for staff include:
- Carry a whistle and flashlight – and know the code (1=Yes, 2=No, 3= Help)
- Keep employee emergency contact information updated
- Program cell phones with key contact information, medical data, rally points, etc.
- Have basic safety and preparedness information in wallets, glove compartments, back packs, etc.
Check periodically to make sure that everyone is maintaining this simple level of required preparedness. Have your team track the successes that arise from having these tools with them every day. This will help your employees to be heroes for themselves, their families, and their communities. They will become more confident as they walk the world prepared.
5-Minute Message: Information vs. Implementation
Preparedness educators often seek to inform their audiences about specific hazards and threats, paying extra attention to the most likely threats for a particular geographic area. News outlets also put out large blocks of information. Educators then provide standardized information on what they think the audience “should do” to address the threats. For motivated audiences it’s often not a lack of information, it’s a lack of implementation.
Review your preparedness offerings with an eye toward easy-to-implement solutions. Create a list of the “low-hanging fruit” – safety/preparedness tasks that virtually any group CAN DO quickly and will leave them with a sense of meaningful accomplishment. Help your audiences to answer the simple questions: “What can I do today?”, “What can I do this week?”, and “What can I do this month?”
Tip: Share STAT messages – it’s a simple thing you CAN DO to help your colleagues and community members get prepared!
5-Minute Message: Spring into the Great Outdoors
The warmer weather that Spring brings encourages outdoor activity. This is a great time to plant some preparedness ideas with anyone responsible for maintaining outdoor and green spaces near homes or offices.
Some helpful actions to make outdoor spaces more safe and secure include:
- Search the space to find the best places for people to congregate. Good spaces are often flat, easily accessible and far from falling hazards, power lines, gas mains, etc.
- Clear the area of common natural hazards, including rocks, vines, dead leaves, fallen branches or overgrowth.
- Choose plants, flowers, trees, and ground-cover with preparedness in mind. Depending on your likely hazards, consider fire resistant, low maintenance options which stand up to weather extremes, and won’t attract bugs, vermin or other pests.
Tip: Make sure everyone knows specifically where to rally in your outdoor space.
5-Minute Message: Spring Cleaning
The month of March ushers in Spring and the Vernal Equinox. That means it’s a perfect time for a vitally important (but often dismissed) aspect of preparedness and safety: cleaning! Make the following part of your 2010 Spring cleaning:
- Ensure emergency exits are clear and that paths leading to them are unobstructed.
- Get rid of dangerous items you don’t need, e.g., old paint or chemicals, expired food, hazardous materials no longer needed.
- Store combustible and/or flammable items in a safe manner – away from sources of heat, flame, or sparks, etc.
- Clear safe spaces under desks, tables and counters, where people will go to Drop, Cover, and Hold On in earthquakes and other emergencies.
Tip: Recycle or dispose of all hazardous materials properly! Being green and environmentally conscious is itself a preparedness action!
5-Minute Message: Communication – WHAT You Should Communicate
Once you know WHO you should communicate with, and HOW you are going to get your message out, it is important to know WHAT to communicate. Some of the important messages to communicate will include, but are not limited to:
- A report on your agency’s operational status
- An assessment of any resulting damage to your facility
- What services are offered and whether changes in offering these services has occurred
- The necessary funds required by your agency
- Whether volunteers are needed and for what purpose
- The hours of operation for your business
- The safety of your staff, volunteers, consumers
- Your agency wishlist
- Any other additional needs
Tips: Create templates for basic messages so that you’ll be able to edit it and release your message quickly.
5-Minute Message: Your 2010 Preparedness Message
This coming year, communities across America will be bombarded with many different preparedness messages. The majority of these messages are intentionally generic, so that they can be shared nationwide. Most people, however, are much more likely to resonate with, and take action on, a more personalized and specific message delivered by a trusted messenger. Choose a preparedness action that you can passionately champion in your community throughout 2010. Make sure it’s something you have actually done and currently maintain, so that your conviction is real, your words honest, and you have actual success stories to share.
Remember: Everyone can do something that will leave them feeling safer, more confident and more prepared. Everyone. For an example, see how CARD staffer Maryanne Tracy-Baker walks the world with safety stashed in her crutches and champions this message everywhere. See “What’s Up Your Crutch?” on YouTube!
5-Minute Message: A Toast to Your Safety!
This time of year people of good cheer get together, raise glasses, give thanks, and make toasts! For safety aficionados, this is an opportunity to thank, acknowledge, and praise people whose efforts and support made your organization safer and more prepared.
Remember to be specific: if they checked every fire extinguisher, posted safety signage everywhere, placed hand sanitizer throughout your agency, and made safety fun and empowering for everyone – acknowledge those things. This shows that you noticed their efforts and everyone listening learns what it takes to make preparedness a reality. Share stories of amusing or funny things that happened along the preparedness path. The happy holiday setting is a perfect time for preparedness to be seen as a generous positive activity; undertaken not out of fear of disasters, but out of love, care, and appreciation for the people present.
5-Minute Message: Decorate for Safety!
Whether it’s hanging a simple wreath, stringing festive lights, or erecting a major outdoor holiday display, this time of year causes us to pull out and put up many kinds of decorations. This is a great opportunity for safety and preparedness enthusiasts! We can demonstrate and insist on proper ladder use, ensure that decorations do not obscure fire alarms, extinguishers, first aid kits, or exits, and remind people of and help them to follow the safety instructions on packages. While you’ve got the ladder and tool box out, it’s also a great time to post safety signage and nudge notices, install smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, attend to minor repairs, and use some museum wax or earthquake putty to secure breakables. Holiday decorations may get more notice, but decorating for safety can save lives!
For free safety signage and nudge notices, please visit: http://cardcanhelp.org/resources/
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