The Greenwood Community Council is leading a new effort to make sure our neighborhood is ready in a major emergency. The first meeting of a new group, tentatively called the Greenwood Preparedness Action Network, will meet at 7 p.m. Monday in the Greenwood Library, 8016 Greenwood Ave. N.
In January the Greenwood Community Council meeting focused on organization for emergency and crime preparedness. In the best case, we would prepare ourselves for emergencies at three levels of organization – the block level, the neighborhood level, and citywide. At the meeting it was agreed that Greenwood should be organized for preparedness in a way that complements and leverages block-level and citywide efforts.
Neighborhood-level preparedness can help by:
• Providing communications between blocks and the city during a crisis
• Providing resources useful for block-level preparedness efforts
• Providing a physical location to gather
• Providing a physical location to where emergency supplies are stored
The meeting is sponsored by the community council, but by the end of the meeting we hope leaders will emerge who will carry the effort forward. Ideally there will emerge a core group who enjoys meeting semi-regularly, and who keep in touch with block-level captains and volunteers.
Proposed meeting objective:
• Develop objectives for the year.
• Determine key roles and who will fill them.
Here’s a proposed agenda:
• Welcome (incl. brief statement about why we’re here, what we hope to accomplish in the meeting).
• Round-robin Introductions (incl. name, where do you live, why do you want to be involved in the GPAN).
• Overview of the Seattle Emergency Preparation Program and Implementation in Broadview (Dale Johnson)
• Open brainstorm / discussion about what the group wants to accomplish in 2013
(such as: apply for a small and simple grant, map the block watch captains, etc.).
• Next Steps (incl. do we have critical mass of people in the room who are willing to move this forward).
• What are key roles and who will fill them? For example, who will
◦ Plan agendas, facilitate meetings and handle notices and logistics.
◦ Develop list of block watch captains and volunteers.
◦ Catalog existing emergency and crime preparedness resources.