The Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) whole community concept defines a community-based approach to disaster management. The whole community is meant to create a platform through which all members of the community are involved in dealing with disasters. The residents and all sectors within a community have a significant role and a shared responsibility in taking the appropriate actions that will protect themselves, their families, and their properties and organizations. The involvement of members of a community plays a critical role in enhancing the security and resilience of the whole nation. The engagement of the whole community in an authentic dialogue helps in empowering the agency in identifying the community’s needs and the available resources that are necessary for addressing any disaster emergency. The whole community concept is important because it ensures that there is a more informed, shared understanding of community risks, capabilities, and needs, an increase in resources by empowering the members and creating a more resilient community. This paper will discuss the whole community concept which plays an integral part in both mitigation and preparedness planning which are aimed at reducing and eliminating disasters or hazards.
The goal of the whole community concept is to understand and meet the real needs of the whole community. To do that, a vital element of the whole community concept dictates that planning must be community-based, involve the whole population. An understanding of the population is crucial because it helps in accounting for the various groups in the community such as people with disabilities, people with access and functional needs, and the needs of children (Craig, 2010). Other considerations are pets and service animals during planning. Another key element of the whole community concept is the inclusion of all stakeholders within the community. This means that the whole community is involved and represented during planning.
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Another element is the engagement and empowering of all aspects of the community which will help stakeholders in planning for and meeting the real needs of the community. It also helps in strengthening the local capacity in dealing with the consequences of all possible hazards and threats. Another critical aspect of the whole community concept is strengthening what works well in the community on a daily basis which aids in building the resilience of the community (Grimm, 2014). It can be done through the development of ways that strengthen and support the assets, networks, and institutions that already are working well for the community and are addressing the issues that affect the community on daily basis.
Strategic plans are aimed at describing how a jurisdiction intends to meet its responsibilities in respect to emergency management or homeland security which should over the long-term. The plans are guided by policies emanating from senior officials and come up with planning priorities (Craig, 2010). On the other hand, operational plans give descriptions of responsibilities and roles, integration, actions, and tasks that are needed by jurisdictions or their agencies and departments when there is an emergency. To operationalize the plans, jurisdictions use them to assign responsibilities, goals, and roles which are assigned to the agencies and departments by the jurisdiction. Unlike strategic plans which only describe how jurisdictions intend to meet their emergency responsibilities, operational plans focus more on the spatial, temporal, and physical-related dimensions of the operations (Craig, 2010). Therefore, operational plans are more comprehensive and complex than strategic plans but less defined than tactical plans. Tactical plans aim at managing resources, personnel, and equipment whose role is direct in incident response. There is usually pre-incident tactical planning that is based on the existing operational plans. It helps in the pre-identification of exercise, personnel, training, and equipment required. The needs can then be provided for through different means such as procurement, technical assistance, leasing, or aid.
Mitigation and preparedness are both intended at reducing and eliminating effects to people and properties from hazards and other forms of disasters. Mitigation is important since its goal is to reduce and eliminate risks associated with hazards. The focus is on creating long-term solutions for reducing risks. To complement that, preparedness is important because there are chances of disaster or hazards occurring even when there are mitigation measures. Preparedness focuses on increasing readiness to respond to hazards that may occur to minimize and eliminate any effects that may be caused by the hazard. When there are effective mitigation plans, the risk of hazards occurring is reduced (Kapucu, 2015). However, there are uncertainties like natural calamities which mitigation can do little to prevent. Therefore, there is a need to have a preparedness plan that will solve the problems that may arise as a result of the occurrence of disasters.
The vertical integration cycle involves planning both up and down the different levels of government. The concept is based on the fact that the foundation for operations is at the local level and support comes from the federal, state, territorial, regional, private, and tribal sectors. Therefore, support moves from the higher level to the local level. On the contrary, the horizontal integration cycle is focused on plans that integrate operations across a certain jurisdiction (Craig, 2010). That is, a department or agency writes its plans that provide a standard of operations. Unlike the vertical cycle which is only supported from the top, the horizontal cycle is intended at meeting internal needs or regulatory requirements.
In conclusion, Whole Community Concept is important in the success of any plan that is intended at solving the problems that may arise from disasters. The concept creates a means through which all groups within a community are represented during planning. It makes it possible to account for all groups within the community and therefore taking care of the specific needs.
References
Craig, F. W., (2010). Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans: Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101
Grimm, D. (2014). Whole community planning: Building resiliency at the local level. Journal of business continuity & emergency planning , 7 (3), 253-259.
Kapucu, N. (2015). Emergency management: Whole community approach. Encyclopedia of public administration and public policy , 3 .
