Preparedness sounds like momsense…

I can’t apologize for my pitiful puns.  Or won’t…maybe it’s won’t?

This month I’ll be joining other preparedness-minded moms in discussing some of the most important topics America’s PrepareAthon has to share.  While I was preparing my little section of slides (chatting about communication, surprise surprise!)  I really had to take a minute to wonder, what do other moms need to hear that makes them truly take a step in preparing their family?  Better yet, how can those steps be as feasible as possible?

If you work in preparedness and connect to the community at any point, I’m sure you’ve wondered this yourself.  Let me share with folks what doesn’t work.  Moms, dads, family members, feel free to chime in in the comments section.

This Doesn’t Work

• Acronyms
• Bestowing ALL of the information you know upon others
• Anything where you mention a directive, presidential and otherwise
• 10,000-foot-tall fear tactics
• Information that requires training to understand

These things don’t work because they don’t matter to anyone outside of the field.  If you’re not in the preparedness business, all you need to know is what will keep you and your family safe, and the time and financial cost of it.  Nobody disagrees they’d like to be prepared during an emergency or disaster, but if we’re all going to live like “that will never happen here”, we have to know that preparing for it is worth the effort.

This Does Work

• Reasons that what you’re saying is important
• Free things
• Easy things
• Plans that also improve daily life
• Simple, relatable language
• Realistic examples
• Understanding who you’re talking to

Some of us enjoy a family game night, movie night, standing dinner, Sunday drive. My family and I enjoy lots of those things, but we also enjoy family preparedness.  I know, it sounds like I made that up just so you’d listen to my blog and trust my opinion.  But hearing my kids process what they think is safe and smart, giving me their feedback on where our family meeting spot should be if we have a house fire, taking a few moments in the car during a bad storm to talk about sheltering, or teaching them a song that helps them remember my phone number – these are things that bring us really close together.  I continue to be amazed by the way they see the world and in turn, I don’t fear their safety the way I would if I sent them out in to it completely unprepared.

So fellow emergency management folks, let’s communicate with the community the way they need to hear it, not the way we want to say it.

Fellow moms (and family members, et al), bare with us while we share something that is desperately important to us, to help us all reach our goal of keeping our families safe.  After all, it takes a village…

If you’ll be joining me on this webinar, I’ll have 7-10 minutes of solid reasons why you need a communications plan, how to create one and how to make it successful.  Don’t wait!  Register for the webinar!