Project Abstract
Emergency Preparedness Demonstration Program for Disadvantaged Communities


Problem
Disadvantaged communities bear a disproportionate share of the impacts of natural disasters.
They experience elevated probabilities of losses of life and injury, social disruption, and experience
greater difficulty recovering from disasters due to lower incomes.


Objectives
The primary goal of this multi-year project supported by the Federal Emergency Management Agency
($1.5 million) is to identify and overcome barriers for increasing awareness of disasters and building
capacity for emergency preparedness in disadvantage minority communities in Delaware, District of
Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia.  MDC and the Center
for Urban and Regional Studies of the University of North Carolina will work in partnership with select
communities to tap their knowledge and leadership abilities, transfer new knowledge, and build their
capacity to increase levels of awareness and preparedness.


The project consists of three core objectives:
    1. To build community capacity to undertake coordinated action to develop and implement
        emergency preparedness plans.
    2. To raise awareness and knowledge of community residents about the potential vulnerability to
        harm from future disasters, and the measures that can be undertaken to reduce the vulnerability.
    3. To reduce community vulnerability to harm from disasters while respecting local needs.


Implications
Field research, community-based reflection, implementation of demonstration programs in selected
communities, and evaluations of demonstration programs will be used to develop a model emergency
preparedness program for disadvantaged groups nationwide.


Investigators
David Dodson (President) and John Cooper (Project Manager), MDC. Philip Berke (Principal
Investigator), and Jim Fraser and David Salvesen (co-Principal Investigators), Center for Urban &
Regional Studies, University of North Carolina.  Contact persons: John Cooper, MDC, Chapel Hill, NC:
jcooper@mdcinc.org, 919 968-4531, and Philip Berke: pberke@unc.edu, 919 962-4765.