Spotlight on Initiative
Disaster Preparedness for Vulnerable Populations Program
The Disaster Preparedness for Vulnerable Populations (DPVP) program is an innovative interdisciplinary pilot program of the Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE) at San Francisco State University. DPVP is supported by 2006 grant year funds from Bay Area SUASI. Dr. Gerald Eisman is ICCE’s Acting Director and is also an active member of Bay Area SUASI’s Citizen Preparedness Work Group.
The DPVP program sends students into the community to provide a wide range of disaster preparedness outreach activities. DPVP also enables members of public housing communities to attend courses alongside SF State students on campus, in specially-tailored courses that will prepare them to train others within their community in disaster prevention, mitigation and response.
A Two-Tiered Approach to Aid Hard-To-Reach Communities
Launched in September 2007, DPVP is designed to target two of San Francisco’s most difficult-to-reach populations – residents living in public housing developments operated by the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) and homebound senior citizens served by the San Francisco In-Home Supportive Services Public Authority (SFIHSSPA), a non-profit organization publicly funded to match home care workers with the needs of this community.
DPVP is reaching out to these distinct groups through a two-tiered approach. Tier 1 targets the residents of Sunnydale – the largest public housing development in San Francisco, located on the remote southeast edge of the city. Tier 2 targets low-income seniors who suffer from chronic and disabling conditions and who receive personal assistance services through SFIHSSPA.
Tier 1
The Tier 1 project is a community-campus partnership that engages the Sunnydale community in a collaborative, multidisciplinary disaster preparedness process that enables them to participate in select Engineering, Nursing and Psychology courses that have been tailored to incorporate disaster-related curriculum. As part of the campus-community partnership, 12 Sunnydale community leaders are participating in these courses through San Francisco State’s College of Extended Learning Fee Reduction Program, and will earn college credit upon completion. SF State students are working with the community representatives to train them in how to determine structural damage following a major earthquake, conduct medical triage during a disaster, and provide crisis counseling after a disaster.
In an informal discussion of the program, Dr. Eisman pointed out that although the pilot project has been very worthwhile, it has also been very challenging. “The members of the community with whom we are working are facing daily emergencies,” he said. “Although they see the importance of long-term disaster planning, it is sometimes eclipsed by more immediate issues in their everyday lives.”
Tier 2
In August, SFIHSSPA and SF State mailed a letter to approximately 8,000 IHSS consumers, targeting speakers of English, Spanish, Mandarin and Cantonese. The mailing resulted in 430 responses requesting in-home visits by SF State students to provide individual lessons in disaster preparedness and ensure that IHSS consumers are participating in the San Francisco Department of Emergency Management’s Vial of Life program, so that emergency responders will have immediate and vital information on them during an emergency.
During the home visits, students also work with the consumers to complete the forms required to enroll in the San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Disaster Registry Program. The Disaster Registry Program maintains a list of registrants and distributes them to San Francisco Fire Department stations to provide information to emergency responders following a disaster. In the three-month period from September to December 2007, SF State students enrolled approximately 500 IHSS consumers and other at-risk individuals in the Vial of Life and Disaster Registry programs. 
As part of the program, SF State Nursing students also conducted Disaster Preparedness/Health Fair programs at five Single Room Occupancies (SROs) and senior residences with significant IHSS populations.
Disaster Preparedness & English As A Second Language (ESL)
Also underway at SF State is an ESL Emergency Preparedness project in which faculty and students in the Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages program (TESOL) are developing and piloting curricula on emergency preparedness for immigrant-learning ESL courses. The project is making use of Learners’ Lives as Curriculum (LLC), an innovative approach to curriculum development in which learner narratives are used as catalysts to jump-start discussions of themes that are relevant to learners and are sources for systematic language and literacy development.
More About The Institute for Civic and Community Engagement
The Institute for Civic and Community Engagement (ICCE) provides opportunities for civic engagement and leadership development for students, faculty, and community members. Through its Community Service Learning program, ICCE provides more than 8,000 students a year with service-learning opportunities. Each year, SF State students work with hundreds of community partners throughout San Francisco. In 2004, SF State became one of the first universities in the nation to include community volunteer work hours completed as part of coursework on transcripts.
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This project is supported by Award No. 4123-06, awarded by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Office of Grants & Training (G&T). The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Homeland Security.