Launching Your Anytown Prepares Organization
Partners
As we have emphasized again and again, don't go on this journey alone. Start by identifying key people you know who will be able to contribute to your Anytown Prepares organization. These people will bring interest and skills to the table that will help nurture your organization into existence and determine to somne extent what it looks like.
A Name
Once you have identified and met with these key people, come up with a name for your readiness organization. The simplest choice is your community name followed by the word Prepares. Some early adopters of PYC have done this, including Carmel Prepares, South Whidbey Prepares, and Anderson Island Prepares.
A Logo
Next, you need a logo. Try something simple like a circle with your name and some recognizable image in the middle. Here's what some of the adopters of PYC have done:
A Website
At some point you will want a website for your organization OR pages on a "parent" organization's website, such as your local government's official website. The website/pages should include the following:
A mission statement.
A clear definition of the area you serve.
An organizational chart that incldues your partners.
An About page
Contact information.
Basic household preparendess tips.
Information about Ready Your Street.
Social Media
To recruit volunteers and raise awareness about emergency preparedness create at least on social media page, focusing on the type of socil media that is most popular in your community. Consider NextDoor, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, for example.
A Way to Accept Donations
At some point you will need to fundraise to pay for supplies and training programs. That's when you need a way to accept payments. If you are working under an umbrella organization, work with that organization to establish a system for collecting funds. If you are creating a nonprofit, you'll want your own organizational bank account.
Background Checks
As your organization grows, you will eventually no longer know every person who volunteers. That's when you're going to want to implement background checks. This step will help protect your organization and the public when you start having volunteers provide Psychological First Aid or medical care or when they start working with vulnerable populations, like children and senior citizens.
The easiest way to do this is to partner with your local police department and have them conduct the checks for you.
A Way to Track Volunteers
As people join your organization as volunteers, keep track of who they are, how to reach them by text and cell, and what their skills, credentials, and trainings are. You can use a notebook or a simple computer spreadsheet when you first get started. At some point you may want your Logistics Team to be in charge of managing your volunteers.
Eventually, as your organization grows, you will want to create a volunter management system that tracks whether volunteers have background checks and whether their certifications are current. The system will track the teams the volunteers serve on and will help you issue ID badges. It will also help you keep track of volunteer hours and assign mission numbers to deployments. This will become crucial when you are able to provide insurance coverage to your volunteers through your local government, for example.
You can create your own manual volunteer management system using a Google spreadsheet, for example, or invest in automatic software like the following: