Leadership: Introduction

In most disaster scenarios, communities with effective and established leadership structures have significantly better outcomes than those without. During a widespread regional disaster, professional and governmental emergency services (such as FEMA) may be overwhelmed or unavailable. When that happens, local leadership becomes the center of disaster response and recovery.

When the whole community comes together to tackle a challenge with everyone playing a well-defined role, the end result is more effective. During a disaster, because professional first responders will be overwhelmed, local residents will become the first responders. This is when a highly organized leadership will be crucial.

Key Players

The Leadership Lifeline is managed by a number of key people at a range of levels from Household and Street Levels up to the federal government.

• Heads of household.

• Ready Street Captains and Co-Captains.

• Neighborhood Coordinators.

• Disaster Hub Managers.

• Community-Level Meeting Place Managers.

• Your Anytown Prepares leadership.

• Your local Emergency Manager.

• Your Fire Chief.

• Emergency response leaders at the Municipal, County, State, and Federal levels.

In order for all these people to work together, we recommend that you form a partnership among your Anytown Prepares organization, your local government, and your fire department. At Bainbridge Prepares, for example, the Bainbridge Prepares Partnership is composed of our nonprofit, the City of Bainbridge Island, and the Bainbridge Island Fire Department. 

Key Functions

The main areas of focus in the Leadership Lifeline are as follows: 

• Planning: Preparing the community for emergencies and establishing disaster plans and standard operating procedures.

• Back Office: Managing your Anytown Prepares’ budget, communications, personnel, nonprofit status, legal standing, and website.

• Funding/Grants: Securing financial support for your Anytown Prepare’s operations and resources.

• Insurance/Liability: Making sure that all volunteers are covered by insurance when officially deployed and that your Anytown Prepares organization is protected.

• Volunteer Administration: Tracking volunteer hours for reporting to the county and state, ensuring volunteers are background checked and credentialed, ensuring volunteers’ certifications and trainings are up to date. 

• Outreach: Communicating news, information, and key messaging to the public, with key stakeholders and partner entities, and internally, within the organization.

• Agreements with Local Businesses and Organizations: Creating Memorandums of Understanding and legal contracts with partners, potential resource suppliers, and facility owners and managers. 

• Program Management: Running training exercises, managing educational events, supporting public events with volunteer help, and ensuring compliance of local Anytown Prepares teams that fall within a national organization (like Community Emergency Response Team and Medical Reserve Corps).

• Equity: Ensuring equitable access for all community members and visitors— regardless of physical ability, age, gender, race, economic status, sexual and gender orientation—to emergency services.

• Business Continuity: Preparing local businesses and organizations for emergencies and helping them recover after a disaster to stabilize the local economy.

• Damage Assessment: Tracking the damage caused by the disaster.

• Logistics: Managing and updating emergency resources, including supplies and equipment.

Household

At the Household Level, leadership is about making sure there is an overall emergency plan for members of the household. This overall plan should include four subplans:

• A Meeting Places plan. Where will family members meet up if they are separated when a disaster strikes? How and to where will you evacuate if need be?

• A Communications plan. How will household members communicate with one another and with out-of-area family if there is a disaster?

• A plan for gathering, storing, and refreshing Supplies. How will you ensure your household has what it needs during a disaster?

• A Recovery plan. How will your household manage recovery in terms of rebuilding, getting an insurance payout, and managing finances?

Street

At the Street Level, you will choose leaders who can help coordinate and implement immediate response efforts. Community preparation and volunteer commitment prior to the disaster is crucial. Street-level leaders organize neighbors for Search and Rescue, track and manage shared Resources, coordinate Medical Care, and maintain Communication with higher levels of organization.The residents of a street should identify and train backup leaders as well in case primary leaders are injured, unavailable, or overwhelmed during an emergency.

Neighborhood

At the Neighborhood Level, leadership coordinates all the Streets of a Neighborhood and manages Disaster Hubs. Leaders at this level will need advanced training in the Incident Command System, resource management, and communication protocols. Disaster Hub leaders should be trained to manage the Disaster Hub facility and all its resources and services.

At this level, you will want to establish leadership succession plans and cross-train multiple people in essential coordination skills.

Community

At the Community Level, established leadership structures will want to interface easily with professional emergency services when they become available. These community leaders should be able to coordinate autonomous responses when isolated. Community leaders must understand legal authority, resource allocation principles, and how to maintain order while coordinating large-scale relief efforts.