The primary responsibility of government is protecting the health, safety and welfare of the entire community. In today’s environment, there are many ways to communicate preparedness and emergency information. By identifying local populations and vulnerable groups, a municipality can determine in advance the appropriate channels to get support services and information to these groups. A sustainable community makes every attempt to support its entire population, including those who are most vulnerable. 

Vulnerable populations during emergencies are often defined as: any individual, group, or community whose circumstances create barriers to obtaining or understanding information, or the ability to react as the general population. Circumstances that may create barriers include, but are not limited to age; physical, mental, emotional, or cognitive status; culture; ethnicity; religion; language; citizenship; geography; or socioeconomic status. To fulfill its responsibility to protect the health, safety and welfare of the population, government must know, in advance, how it will meet the varied needs of each. 

This action requires the municipality to have an understanding of what vulnerable populations exist within town and their risk factors during emergencies. To accomplish this goal, the municipality needs to identify and regularly make efforts to register individuals with disabilities and other access and functional needs using the State of New Jersey’s “Register Ready-NJ’s Special Needs Registry for Disasters”, and identify the ways in which the town will communicate with the full population of vulnerable individuals during an emergency via key community stakeholders and alternative communication techniques. 

Why is it important? 

During emergencies, barriers such as physical, mental, emotional or cognitive status; culture, language, socioeconomic status, age, and/or religion may put certain individuals or groups at risk, preventing them from receiving important information or getting out of harm’s way.

While every municipality in NJ is required to have an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) which includes both an Alert, Warning & Communication Annex and an Emergency Public Information Annex, and each has a defined purpose of communicating with residents and businesses in the municipality, neither includes a section detailing specific communications communities within the municipality. Demographics of the community are not discussed. And, while each lists stakeholder and media contacts, there is nothing correlating population to the appropriate media type. In many EOPs, social media is completely left out, meaning the likelihood that younger populations are receiving emergency messages decreases.

As a supplement to, and in support of, a municipality’s EOP, this action seeks to ensure that municipalities reach all vulnerable individuals with necessary information during emergencies. This would include taking advantage of available resources such as “Register Ready-NJ’s Special Needs Registry for Disasters” to identify and keep track of residents with disabilities and other access or functional needs; and utilize alternative communication methods and community stakeholders to get important warnings and updates to others who are at-risk.