Ready Your Street Team: Team Development

Step 1. Reach out to already organized neighborhoods, HOAs (Homeowner’s Associations), and Tenants’ Organizations to find people to join the Ready Your Street (RYS) Team.

Step 2. Identify a Team Lead.

Step 3. Have volunteers take FEMA IS-100 (An Introduction to the Incident Command System) and IS-700 (An Introduction to the National Incident Management System).

Step 4. Download the RYS program materials here.

Step 5. Develop a presentation for RYS parties. Identify volunteers who are interested in giving the presentations. Have them practice. 

Step 6. Work with the Outreach team to raise awareness about the RYS program and invite neighbors to organize their streets. Offer a contact form on your Anytown Prepares’ website that people can fill out to express interest.

Step 7. Reach out to interested Streets to schedule RYS parties. 

Step 8. Facilitate the parties, giving your presentation and handing out the materials packets. Help the neighbors begin to fill out the included forms. 

Step 9. As Streets join the program and have their parties, add them to an overall map of your community to avoid duplication. Assign a name to each prepared Street. 

Step 10. Once you have a number of Ready Streets, begin to offer quarterly informational meetings to the Street Captains. Encourage them to network with one another to form organized Neighborhoods of Ready Streets. Also encourage Captains to reach out to the neighbors on their Street at least annually, to request updates of information on the forms, to practice readiness, to educate new residents, and to have informal Street parties for the purpose of building familiarity among neighbors.

Step 11. Continue to generate educational materials for participating Streets and staff informational booths at community events.

Step 12. Develop Standard Operating Procedures for the RYS Team

Step 13. Create an annual plan for the team and carry out its objectives.

Step 14. Provide annual exercises and training for volunteers.