Providing Access to Resilience-Enhancing Technologies for Disadvantaged Communities and Vulnerable Populations

John J. Kiefer; Jay A. Mancini; Betty H. Marrow; Hugh Gladwin; Terina A. Stewart 

Community and Regional Resilience Initiative

December 1, 2008

Our intent is that this report will bring to light many concerns related to technology use and will uncover practices that can be applied in any community to better prepare them to deal with disasters. Since the overwhelming responsibility of making sure that all citizens are taken care of often falls to the emergency managers of a community, this report is designed to provide them and their associated colleagues (i.e., planners, managers, leaders from community organizations, and government officials) with an understanding of the available tools and technologies that can make their jobs of dealing with the vulnerable populations easier. If this part of their job is streamlined, they can focus the bulk of their time, energy, and resources on improvements that will affect the entire community. Emergency managers are not able to avoid disasters, but with the right tools, they are able to be better situated to deal with catastrophes and in the long run, improve the overall resilience of the community where they serve. The success of community resilience lies in the collective partnership of people, social networks, and available tools. In this case, technology is the tool we focus upon.

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