As organizations serving vulnerable populations, Network members often need to mobilize quickly during emergencies. While agencies have risen to the occasion with innovation, excellence, and expediency, many have experienced trauma and challenges of their own. Unfortunately, Network member responses have often been forced to “reinvent the wheel,” in a more reactive versus proactive approach.

In response to the increasing frequency of crisis challenges faced by our member agencies, The Network’s Center for Innovation and Research (NCIR) has invested in the development of an Emergency Preparedness Toolkit. The creation of the Toolkit was supported through the review of tools and strategies from member agencies and third-party resources. With the aim of helping agencies plan and act during crises, the Toolkit is designed to ensure rapid and effective responses.

The toolkit incorporates innovations and lessons learned from the COVID pandemic and other crises, such as wildfires, hurricanes, and mass shootings. The Network is fortunate to be positioned to share these strategies and build on the lessons learned to allow all member agencies to improve preparedness, increase quality assurance, reduce workplace trauma, and save costs.

Through the Toolkit and future initiatives, NCIR seeks to strengthen the sector’s capacity for emergency response through pre-planning. The Network also supports member agencies by representing them on the JFNA Emergency Committee and securing funding for responses, staffing, and program resources.

The Jewish human service sector needs a variety of emergency response tools to serve both clients and the broader community. This Emergency Preparedness Toolkit helps agencies create responses and plans to ensure safety, security, and operational continuity. In community-wide emergencies, organizations may need to expand efforts to provide food, shelter, volunteer coordination, and emotional support. Network members, with their connections to Jewish and community organizations, often become central players in community response, and may assist or receive help from other agencies in response to emergencies.

Being prepared to assist the broader community requires the right resources, policies, and procedures. This includes instituting an emergency response team, training staff and volunteers, establishing communication channels with emergency responders, and ensuring the organization has the capacity to operate during and after emergencies.

The Toolkit is not a one-size-fits-all guide but a workbook with guiding questions to help agencies make decisions and actions that suit their needs and resources. It provides direction in developing an emergency preparedness plan.

The Network’s Emergency Preparedness Toolkit is an offering of The Network’s Center for Innovation and Research made possible with funding from The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Woltz & Folkinshteyn, P.C. and Alert Media. The toolkit was written in collaboration with the expertise of the Joan and Stanford Alexander Jewish Family Service. More than 15 member agencies provided sample documents to help to build the accompanying resource library. These resources provide valuable experience and expertise from the Jewish Human Services sector.