Florida Disaster Housing Strategy Module 7: Maintaining Operational Readiness

1. Florida Disaster Housing Strategy Module 7: Maintaining Operational Readiness

2. Module Objectives • Ensure the Disaster Housing Strategy is institutionalized throughout the jurisdiction • Identify a process to update and maintain the Disaster Housing Strategy • Develop a training program for the disaster housing team members • Maximize opportunities to exercise the Disaster Housing Strategy • Implement an improvement program

3. Plan and Policy Integration • Improve interagency coordination and communication • Monitor Plan Updates: • Comprehensive Plan Updates • Local Mitigation Strategy Plan Updates • Capital Plan Improvements • Others • Monitor regulatory changes on all levels of government particularly after large scale disasters

4. Strategy Maintenance • Monitor resource gaps and identify additional opportunities to address these gaps • Incorporate advancements in data and technology • Monitor Planned Unit Development approvals, newly purchased public lands • Update volatile information

5. Train Disaster Housing Team Members • Design disaster housing training program • Training protocols for new employees with key disaster housing assignments • Incorporate disaster assignment in job descriptions • Incorporate disaster assignment in annual employee evaluations

6. Developing a Training Program • Develop the training curricula and guidance materials • Implement the training program • Cyclical training schedule • Consider training partnerships with other groups such as the Post-Disaster Redevelopment Committee, Local Mitigation Strategy Committee or Long-term Recovery Coalition • Document training participation to build organizational depth • Evaluate the training program

7. Other Training Opportunities • Encourage external training opportunities: • Abbreviated online training of Disaster Housing • National Incident Management System Training • Division of Emergency Management Training (local/state)

8. Discussion Question Discuss opportunities for communities to raise awareness regarding disaster housing programs among stakeholders and community members.

9. Exercise the Strategy • Test the knowledge of disaster housing team members and effectiveness of the strategy through a discussion based exercise • Integrate disaster housing components into other disaster-related exercises

10. After the Disaster: Improvement Planning • Post-disaster evaluation and critique • Learn from the mistakes of others • Solicit feedback from all stakeholders • Document the recommendations in an improvement plan with specific action items

11. Module Summary • Integrated strategy throughout the jurisdiction • Maintain the Strategy throughout changing conditions • Train the disaster housing team members • Maximize opportunities to exercise the Strategy with multiple stakeholders • Implement an improvement program