Faith-Based Disaster Preparedness Forums

What can you do to help your congregation prepare for a disaster event?*

Attend the Seattle Faith-based Forums! ****

Register Now: http://seattlefaithbasedforums.eventbrite.com/ ****

You are invited to attend the upcoming free Faith-Based Forums! ****

In a disaster, Faith-Based Organizations (FBO’s) are often a trusted resource for their members and the community. These forums have been organized to create an opportunity for leaders and/or their designees of FBO's to come together with local government, service providers and emergency management to talk about being ready for a disaster. As an FBO, you have the opportunity to attend one or more forums on behalf of your congregation and be a part of the discussion on disaster preparedness. ****

We value your presence in this important conversation. Can’t attend? *

Please send a member designee who can serve as an ambassador for your congregation.

Four sessions will be held around the city and all are FREE! The following is a list of dates and locations:****

***Wednesday, April 10, 8:30 am-11:30 am* at Delridge Community Center (4501 Delridge Way SW) ****

***Tuesday, April 16, 6:00pm-8:50pm* at Yesler Terrace Community Center (917 E Yesler Way) ****

***Saturday, April 20, 8:30am-11:30am* at Northgate Community Center (10510 5th Ave NE) ****
***Forum Finale, Save the Date!!!
Wednesday, April 24, 8:30am-12:30pm* at Mount Baker Rowing & Sailing Club (3800 Lake Washington Blvd S) featuring:
*The Interfaith Amigos!*
http://interfaithamigos.com/Home.html ****

The forums are being hosted by the City of Seattle, Seattle-King County Public Health, and the American Red Cross of King & Kitsap County. ****
All sessions are free, and include:****

**Engaging conversations and information sharing****

**Display of available community resources****

**Disaster related giveaways****

**Food and beverages****

Space is limited. Register now and be a part of preparedness for your congregation! http://seattlefaithbasedforums.eventbrite.com/ ****


Feel free to forward this to your FBO contacts!! For questions, please contact Tracy Connelly via email at tracy.connelly@seattle.gov or by phone at 206 615 0287,
www.seattle.gov/emergency  


Further cheerleading from an initial email


As major natural disasters continue to occur worldwide (Hurricane Sandy, the Russian Meteor explosion, the Chilean earthquake, etc) the level of interest in emergency preparedness in our region continues to grow. The greater Puget Sound area is at risk for earthquakes that are similar in magnitude and devastation to the March 11th earthquake that occurred off the Japanese coast. When our area experiences a similar earthquake the success of our response and recovery will heavily depend on the resilience and self sufficiency of our community.



Faith-based organizations have played a critical role in responding to disasters big and small. Community members look to these institutions for information, resource services and spiritual guidance in the event of a major disaster. That is why we hope you will accept this invitation to join us at one of our forums in a discussion on ways we can build true partnerships that will serve as the foundation for our response and recovery to disasters. The program will feature videos of community resiliency and inter-faith collaboration, Conversation Café style discussions and resources. Such as, Seattle Public Utilities will be on hand to offer free recycling and food waste signage and stickers for bins at faith-based facilities, rebate opportunities and Utility Rate Assistance!


As to RantWoman in particular: RantWoman has already   --signed up for the only date she can attend even though her faith community is in another neighborhood and not many members even live near the session RantWoman will attend.   --forwarded this by email several directions   --Let Facebook slurp info up and send to all her friends or hopefully all her friends only in Seattle   --digested it in a weekly bulletin announcement AND provided a live interface.   So maybe the blog is redundant, but tough.   RantWoman's previous experience about her faith community:   A number of years ago RantWoman's faith community was contacted and asked whether we would be willing to let the Red Cross come in advance and then put us on a list. We said "call us when the disaster happens and we will let you know what we can do."   RantWoman's house of worship is currently a SHARE shelter. RantWoman remembers efforts to support the SHARE group during the Snowpocalypse; RantWoman was not involved because RantWoman was frozen without bus transport elsewhere.   RantWoman's house of worship often finds volunteers to staff for shelter presence during especially severe weather or during holidays when lots of ordinary places to hang out are closed.   RantWoman from time to time has conversations with others from her community. Most of the conversations quickly boil down to what are people doing in their own neighborhoods, a place to start at least.   RantWoman guess her community might be about average in enthusiasm (hah!) about this topic.