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Emergency planning is a great leveller
in that faced with either natural disaster or terrorist
attack, we are all vulnerable, and we are all faced,
equally, with unpredictability. We know that hurricanes
happen, that suicide-bombers blow themselves up; but
it is in the nature of both that we do not know until
the actual moment of impact where and when the blow
will strike. Persons with disability are amongst our
best resources for learning how to plan for such random
eventualities since they know from everyday experience
where the challenges and pitfalls of unpredictability
lie, and what can be done to avoid, or cope with them.
They have become much more adept at dealing with uncertainty
and sporadic risks and have much to offer the community
as a whole, if the community will only stop for a moment
to listen, to learn and to imitate.
But currently this is now how planning for emergency
is approached, at least not consistently. Planning tends,
however well intentioned, to reflect a view that emergency
services are primarily those that are provided by the
able bodied to those who are not. Of course, at one
level this may be true – but only in the moment
of acute need. In all other respects, it is best to
start with the day to day experiences of those who face
a daily stream of challenges and observe how they deal
with them. This is not a particularly complex of extended
process; it is more a question of approach and attitude.
Once we start to look in the right way, we all make
rapid progress.
At the January 2006 conference in Tampa, there was
a wake-up call for all of us in this regards – an
overnight fire in the conference hotel. The incident
happily ended with no injury, but it exposed that even
the best prepared were not well-prepared enough, especially
for night-time scares. Debriefing the following day
with all participants on lessons learned, the common
conclusion was that we need to keep fresh, and keep
refreshing, the knowledge of how to deal with emergencies,
because in the real ones we may only get one shot.
Our practical approach to Emergency Planning focuses
on two themes:
- the planning process: a way to approach this is captured in
the form we have developed for this purpose. We see the process as community-based
and participative not private, not an individual obligation. We need
to realise that at any one time we may be helper, or victim, or both;
and we need to prepare collectively accordingly.
- the self-realization process: we prepare
for emergencies because we value life and each other;
if we didn’t why would we bother. But is this
the real driver when we sit down to plan? We advocate
the use of the planning process to advance our understanding
both of our own needs, and of our opportunities to
transform those needs into opportunities to strengthen
personal and community values and bonds.
In the presentation phase of our workshops we share
a model of self-realization which we have built on the
admirable foundations of Abraham Maslow in his analysis
of our immediate and our higher order needs. We use
this model to analyze how different types of emergency
may challenge us to respond in different ways, while
at the heart of everything is dealing with the damage
fear may do to our minds and lives, if we let it. We
are happy to collaborate further with any group or community
reflecting on the same themes.
Download
PDF version.
Julian
Hilton and Woody Price, Aleff Group
Contact:
Julian Hilton jhilton@AleffGroup.com,
or Woody Price woody.price@pkv-orgtech.com |
