​Emergency Management & Community Resilience: A Capacity Building Toolkit for Health Centers

With natural and man-made disasters becoming more frequent and increasing in cost of recovery, it is increasingly recognized that community resilience is critical to reduce long recovery periods. The need for community health centers (CHCs) to effectively prepare and work together with other community stakeholders has never been more important.

The Primary Care Capacity Project's (PCCP's) coastal network quickly identified emergency management as a key priority and, in response, LPHI developed the Emergency Management Initiative (EMI). The EMI project partners - RAND Corporation, Primary Care Development Corporation, and 4 Gulf Coast Primary Care Associations - were selected to create a comprehensive approach to emergency management design by providing both primary care emergency management and community resilience expertise, spanning from planning to response to recovery.

With expertise from partners, LPHI developed the Emergency Management & Community Resilience: A Capacity Building Toolkit for Health Centers. This comprehensive resource - containing 14 work plans, over 30 tools and templates, and links to best practices - is relevant for any primary care association and primary care center, especially Federally Qualified Health Centers, Look-A-Likes, Rural Health Centers, and other CHCs. The toolkit is more than a series of templates; it is a coaching tool to create a well-prepared primary care system that supports the timely recovery of CHC operations and communities. It aims to integrate emergency management into existing CHC operations and community outreach.

For additional information or questions please contact Barrie Black at ablack@lphi.org.