Fariha Ali is a Field Correspondent for Know Disasters and also works as a GIS Associate in Genesis Ray Energy Pvt. Ltd., Gurugram.
Learning is the way of understanding, but changing words into action is a task. The Sendai Frameworkbelieves that the children and youth are agents of change and should be given the space and modalities to contribute to DRR.Many countries have guidelines and initiatives to involve children and youth through awareness programs where children learn about different types of disasters, their occurrence, and magnitude. Let’s Learn about practices in one such country that takes steps toward children and youth’s learning about Disaster management.
United States of America (USA):
Developed jointly by FEMA, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Red Cross, the National Strategy for Youth Preparedness Education: Empowering, Educating and Building Resilience (National Strategy) envisions a nation where youth are empowered to prepare for and respond to disasters. Partners at the local, state and national levels work together to elevate the importance of youth preparedness, educating youth on the specific actions to take during and in the aftermath of a disaster and encouraging youth& children to spread the message of preparedness to their communities. Together they aim to create more resilient communities and more prepared adults of the future.The vision of the National Strategy is to create a nation of prepared youth. Youth are empowered to prepare for and respond to disasters, educated as to specific actions they can take before and after a disaster, and equipped with knowledge and skills that will make them more resilient when faced with catastrophe. Instilling preparedness knowledge and skills in youth also helps develop a future population of prepared adults.
Purpose
The purpose of the National Strategy is straightforward: to couple national attention on emergency and disaster preparedness with community action that focuses specifically on youth readiness for disasters and related events. The National Preparedness Goal identifies preparedness as ‘five mission areas: Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery.’ Thisnational strategy envisioned alignment of attention and action on youth preparedness with the support of organizations at the federal, state, and local levels that commit to engaging, empowering, and building resilience in youth through preparedness education
Priority Steps
- Elevate the importance of youth preparedness learning programs at the national, state, and
local levels - Evaluate the quality and effectiveness of existing and new youth preparedness programs
- Support the implementation of youth preparedness learning programs
- Create positive relationships between youth and the first responder community
- Link youth preparedness to family and community participation, especially in communities where English may not be the first language spoken (or understood) among adults, in other underrepresented communities, and inclusive of individuals with access and functional needs
- Make school preparedness a key component of youth preparedness
- Build and strengthen productive partnerships among stakeholder agencies and organizations
- Identify opportunities to embed youth preparedness in youth culture
- Design a sustaining, locally driven model for developing, designing, and delivering programming.
