Project Abstract
The Hawaii Department of Health’s Office of Public Health Preparedness supports this statewide MRC Preparedness and Response Project. The goals of this project are: 1) to build preparedness capacity within the Corps to provide education, training and outreach to community members, as an extension of the Department of Health, and 2) to build response capacity of the MRC through increased disaster training and exercise opportunities. The objectives of this project are: 1) to identify preparedness education, training and outreach needs of the statewide community, 2) to build statewide teams of volunteers based on identified preparedness and response focus areas and training packages, 3) train and equip volunteers to deliver education, training and outreach services, either solely or in conjunction with community/agency partners, 4) to identify exercise and disaster response training needs of the Corps, based on the response needs of the DOH, hospitals and healthcare partners, 5) to plan and implement exercise and training opportunities that address these response gaps, and 6) to increase membership of the Corps. Expected outcomes of this project are: 1) a better trained, better utilized, better prepared and better equipped Corps, 2) better prepared communities within the State, to include those who are the most vulnerable, 3) improved understanding of what the Corps’ role is in surge capacity by hospital, healthcare, emergency management and community partners, and 6) increased response capacity to support DOH and its partners. Expected products include: 1) environmental scan or needs assessment data, 2) a final report, including evaluation results, 3) training packages, and 4) a statewide training and exercise plan.