Awareness Raising Project for Emergency Situation - Assignment Example

Awareness Raising Project BE AWARE, BE SAFE Prevent * Plan * Practice 1. Rationale It is always important to enhance the quality of life and ensure the prosperity of the community. This can be achieved by eliminating the causes of fire, loss of life and property by fire. Fire safety is everyone’s responsibility and people should know the ways and means to prevent and respond to fires. 2. Aims and Objectives The campaign’s objectives are to encourage people to put in place preventive measures such as detection and suppression devices, and to plan for their safety in case of fire or crisis. The campaign seeks to develop a culture of safety or create behavioural norms around safety among the people. To create a frame of mind, well-informed population, that would push the goal of maximum safety regardless of individual concerns. 3. Target Audiences The challenge is any awareness raising campaign is to navigate through complexities in ways that get the desired messages across (Dietz and Stern 2002, p.341). There is a need to identify target groups before implementing any information programs thus it should be decided if the program should target selected parts of a diverse audience and address their particular concerns. The objective should either be to reach a large part of the population or, if several audiences need different information, to focus on key groups by addressing the main questions on the minds. Directing information to people who already have it or who do not need it is seldom a good use of resources. One aspect of determining the appropriate target is to assess whether the main voluntary actors are likely to be individuals or institutions and focus on the relevant concerns of the relevant target. “Humans often stand in the way of achieving ‘zero’ incidents” (Alston 2003, p.51). When we consider that all accidents are avoidable, it suggests that a zero accident rate is possible. We still have accidents because of human factor, as fallibility is part of the human condition. For instance, the fire that razed a nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island on February 21, 2003, killing 96 people, would not have had nearly the fatalities if a few basic awareness principles had been practiced. The evacuation plan for the building was inaccurate and not posted in full view of the crowd. If the people who were at the building had been aware of the evacuation plan, and knew where the exits to the building were, they may have been able to get out of the building before they were overcome by the fire. Another was the behaviours displayed by the Americans during Hurricane Katrina. The catastrophic losses from this hurricane might have been tempered if there had been education that is more basic and training given to the residents who lived in the area and more business had continuity plans. This disaster revealed what humans are capable of doing when desperate (Lee 2008, p.147). For this reason, the awareness-raising project will target the public and business owners. The risk of fire accidents can be reduced by awareness-raising efforts and by holding people accountable to the community for fire damage. 4. The Need to Raise Awareness All crises have some things in common (Fernandez and Merzer 2003, p.353) as there is always confusion and chaos at the occurrence of the event. Public education is a key to changing attitudes and, consequently, people’s behaviour. Social campaigns focusing on public safety do not produce immediate results but can be an effective tool for implementing desirable changes (Sajkowska 2004, p.8). Disaster mitigation measures lessen damage, but no defence can provide complete security. Thus, it is important to increase public awareness about the measures that can be taken to reduce the occurrence of disasters and the vulnerability of societies and communities to them. The aim is to foster a ‘culture of prevention’ (Guerquin 2003, p.59). Because the memory of a disaster fades away quickly, the ‘short-memory syndrome’, efforts to raise people’s awareness need to be continually maintained and enhanced. Aware citizens are likely to behave in a way that is compatible with disaster management activities. Experience demonstrated that repeated occurrence of a disaster in the same place within relatively short time might enhance the learning effect (Kirch 2008, p.279). 4.1 Perception of Risk Misconceptions and myths about natural disasters are “deeply rooted in society” (Kirch 2008, p.279). Risk perception involves one’s beliefs, attitudes, judgements and feelings, as well as the wide social and cultural values and disposition towards hazards. It depends on age, gender, education, and traumatic experience. “There are major cultural differences between individual countries and the way they view a crisis” (Bland 1998, p.149). Although most communities have considerable collective understanding of environmental hazards and how to deal with them, some underestimate the risk that they face. Others may be aware of the risk but feel there is little they can do. They underestimate the possibility that risks and vulnerability can be reduced or may simply lack the organization or physical means to change the situation and may have no alternative. These communities are often those most at risk because of their poverty or environmental degradation. Perception of risk may be formed by personal experience, recent local events or folklore. A rich tradition of coping with recurrent risks is often built into cultural practices and passed on informally from generation to generation. However, familiarity with uncommon hazards may be limited, so that people do not recognize their causes and danger signs, or the threats posed to health and the environment. Public awareness raising and mobilization programmes therefore play an essential part in reducing disaster vulnerability through increased public awareness of environmental health hazards. They can reduce vulnerability by informing people how disasters can be prevented or how their impact can be reduced. They can increase people’s awareness of the threats to health and safety that may result from a disaster or that may exist and intensify during an emergency. They are effective in encouraging people to participate in protecting themselves, their environment and their health services from disaster and the effects of disaster. The promotion of awareness and safety consciousness is not something to be considered only during disasters and emergencies. It should be routine, long-term, continuing activity that starts with the identification and analysis of risks to specific geographical areas and communities. This analysis is essential for preparedness and prevention activities, and should include information that needs to be communicated to communities at risk (Wisner and Adams 2002, p.210). 4.2 Crisis Communications Disaster risk communication is a difficult issue, especially communication of uncertainties, which requires assistance in understanding. When issuing warnings or communicated messages that a hazard is producing specific risks for a particular segment of population, the response depends on the source, channel credibility, and past experience such as relevance and accuracy of earlier warnings (Kirch 2008, p.280). A crisis communication plan is important and the creation of a crisis communications team is critical (Fernandez & Merzer 2003, p.353). Communication activities designed to promote awareness of hazards, risks, and appropriate countermeasures may take many forms. These include education in schools for children and adolescents. Special education programmes for adults, either specifically on disaster preparedness or as an integral part of ongoing health or development programmes. Public information through the mass media, information, and mobilization through local organizations and community groups (Wisner and Adams 2002, p.210). There appears to be a long-standing assumption among disaster researchers that the media are deficient in disaster reporting. The media have been accused of inaccurately reporting disaster impacts and conveying false images about disaster behaviour (Walters and Wilkins 1999, p.6). Regardless of their level of effectiveness, the media play a vital role in risk communication. For instance, while they often avoid contributing solutions to problems, they are effective at raising awareness about issues and communicating degrees of urgency. One particular issue that must be examined when considering the media’s ability to educate the public about risk is their ability to do so in a way that gives citizens an accurate perception of their personal vulnerability. Because the media’s depiction of public health and safety related issues has either a direct or an indirect effect on public behaviour, they must as accurate as possible in their presentation of risks. It is through perception that the public must judge their own risk and prepare themselves appropriately. It is important for the public not to understate risks, because they will likely not take the time and or money needed to prepare adequately themselves, but exaggerating the risk of a hazard can have drastic consequences, including stress-related health problems and financial and economic effects from business and tourism losses (Coppola 2006, p.232). There is a substantial literature on public attitudes to the environment. An underlying assumption of much of the research according to Anderson (1997, p.177), is that the media have a powerful influence upon public attitudes to the environment. Researchers believe that it is possible to demonstrate a direct casual relationship between media coverage and public opinion. Some studies suggest that the media have played an important role in influencing public opinion about environmental matters. They found a relatively strong correlation between public and media agendas for energy supply issues. Risk communication is recognized for its importance, as well as for the complex challenges associated with it. Risk communications sometimes fail due to obstacles ranging from internal and external political affairs to economic constraints to socio-cultural issues. “Risk communication not only is a value-setting activity but also carriers that potential for both good and harm” (Kasperson and Stallen 1991, p.8). There are many reasons that risk communication so often misses its intended mark despite exhaustive planning, and in many cases, such failures could have been prevented or minimized. Internal reason for failure can be budgetary shortfalls, performance problems, or schedule mishaps. Successful risk communications tend to be highly situation-depended. Practitioners who succeed in reaching target audiences with their intended messages effectively identified and mitigated for situational obstacles (Coppola 2006, p.233). Illiteracy severely limits risk or crisis communication. A message can be distributed countless ways through written media, including leaflets, newspapers, billboards, and informational booklets. However, these tools are virtually ineffective if the target population is unable to read their messages. Poor levels of education also can act as an obstacle to effective risk communication. If deprived of basic skills, for instance, a person will be unlikely to understand the statistics included in risk communication or to completely understand the specific risk factors being explained. 4.3 Marketing Strategies Social marketing combines the traditional approaches to social change with commercial marketing and advertising techniques. It adopted the lessons and methods perfected by the commercial sector to affect public behaviour and learning such as setting measurable objectives, market research, development of products and services that correspond to genuine needs, and creation of demand for them through advertising. Social marketing major’s contribution to the health communication field is a systematic audience-centred and market-driven approach to program research. Social marketing techniques and tools are particularly helpful in developing audience profiles, situation and marketing analysis, and defining the health problem and potential solutions. Social marketing strategies have been shown to be helpful in raising disease and risk awareness (Schiavo 2007, p.48). A strong communication program will both target a specific audience with a prevention message and increase the public’s awareness of prevention-related issues. Raising public awareness can also frequently result in change in social policies and practices. In addition, effective social marketing and communication can increase knowledge, influence attitudes, show benefits of behaviour change, and reinforce the desired knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour. It also demonstrates skills, increase demand for services, refute myths and misconception, and influence norms. Social marketing programs can inspire individual behaviour change but sustaining that change is difficult unless it is supported in the long run by environmental components. Often, policy changes are needed to bring about lasting behaviour change. Therefore, partnerships or alliances should be cultivated with local or national groups, corporate sponsors, medical organizations, service clubs, or media outlets that have goals similar to those of the social marketing campaign. Partnerships can increase the likelihood for success by creating buy-in throughout the community, enhancing credibility of the program through connection with well-known partners, increasing available financial and human resources, and gaining access to a greater are of expertise in health, social services and business fields (Spark 2007, p.433). 4.4 Information Sources Public education communicators must be aware of how target audiences acquire their risk information and then design their message within that framework (Coppola 2006, p.223). Many groups, especially the poor, gather much of their information through informal social networks rather than newspapers, government sources, or other formal communication methods. They may mistrust government and other official sources of information and likely disregard messages framed within that context. Another group, transient population has a limited capacity and period to learn about a hazard because they are outside their normal social and physical environment. Through targeted education material, such as hotel room placards and pamphlets, these populations have been quickly and effectively trained in preparedness measures ranging from fire to tsunami response. There are also many special needs populations in almost every community, including the elderly, young children, the disables, and the illiterate. Each of these special populations must be approached in a manner that addresses their particular method of perception and learning. 4.5 Warnings and Awareness The final goal of disaster management public education is warning. Warnings are used primarily to help recipients understand that their risk situation has changed to one with increased or certain likelihood and to provide authoritative instruction on the appropriate action to take. Warnings differ from awareness in that they instruct recipients to take immediate action. Warning systems and messages must be designed to reach the full range of possible recipients within their communities, no matter where people are or what time it is. Employing multiple systems, in partnership with various private and non-profit entities, is often the way to maximize population coverage. The various groups to consider in planning for hazard warnings include people at home, in school, at work, in public spaces, in their cars, who are disable, who speak different languages, who are uneducated or have little education, and those who are poor. Public warnings are more than just a message. Warnings are built upon complex systems designed for the specifics of each hazard, population, and environment. It seeks to detect the presence of hazard, assess the threat posed by that hazard, determine the population facing risk from that hazard, and inform the population. 5. Getting the Message Across When planning a public information campaign, consideration of several important points is required. These include the goal, aims, and measurable objectives of the campaign, target groups and setting, key messages, materials and action, monitoring, and evaluation (UN 2006, p.178). Most community members do not know that preventive strengthening is possible. They need to learn that prevention is essentially easy and affordable and much cheaper than rebuilding after a disaster. Getting serious messages across will be more easily transmitted and remembered if it is also fun (Kennedy 2004, p.165). Consequently, some project organizers conduct a wide variety of raising events through plays, concert, drawing competitions in schools, where each dealing in its own often highly imaginative way with the risk in our environment and the action one can take to reduce vulnerability. The first step in educating the public about hazards and risks is correcting feelings of apathy toward preparedness, which are often based upon incorrect assumptions concerning personal need or the ability to affect one’s fate. Correcting these feelings is best initiated by raising awareness about those hazards and risks. The actual occurrence of a disaster unfortunately is the most likely and effective means by which people are made aware of a particular hazard risk, but most disaster management would prefer that the public be enlightened long before a disaster happens. The process of raising awareness involves more than simple telling citizens what causes risk. Citizens must also be informed of how the risk affects them, why they are at risk, and where and when the hazard will likely strike. They must fully understand the risk as it applies to them and to the population as a whole in order to effectively absorb that information (Coppola 2006, p.223). The Internet is a very powerful media that can be use to deliver various campaign materials to the target group. For instance, Internet banners can be use to for both social campaigns and commercial advertising. Internet users are constantly increasing and this increases visibility of advertising materials presented on the Web. Moreover, the medium’s interactive nature provides rich opportunities for awareness-raising campaigners to show their materials. Among other advantage, banners may send the viewer to the campaign website, where he or she can find comprehensive information about the campaign. The above sample ‘clickable’ banner is intended to call the attention of a website visitor and take him or her to the campaign’s website where awareness-raising information is located. Outdoor advertising is also a very useful means of conveying campaign messages. Awareness-raising organizers may choose from among several different types of displayed on city streets such as posters and billboards placed at strategic locations. The cost of outdoor advertising is cheaper than television. Powerful message on crisis prevention and strategies will be highly visible through campaign posters. See sample poster below. Children and young people also need information about crisis and leaflets aimed at this group should be available through schools and community centre. To cover more people, crisis information leaflets can be produce and distributed across the district. Leaflets are one of the most common ways to use media and have shown some consistent results in raising health awareness (Corcoran 2007, p.77). The leaflets will contain basic fire safety prevention techniques and tips. Points about fire detection and suppression systems, escape routes, and other fire safety information. It will enumerate the elements of effective planning, implementation, and practice. Another method is the development and distribution of an awareness-raising DVD including guides and training opportunities. In today’s media-savvy world, a video or DVD is an excellent method for disseminating information. A DVD video can be use to effectively engage local businesses and civic groups to offer support for the program and to encourage other districts to implement similar programs (DuBose et. al. 2005, p. 99). Aside from basic awareness-raising contents found in the leaflets and web pages, The DVD version will show some footage of an actual disaster and demonstration of fire safety procedures and techniques. 6. Bibliography Anderson Alison. 1997. Media, Culture and the Environment. Routledge, UK Alston Gregory. 2003. How Safe is Safe Enough?: Leadership, Safety, and Risk Management. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., UK Bland Michael. 1998. Communicating Out of a Crisis. Macmillan Business. UK Coppola Damon P. 2006. Introduction to International Disaster Management. Butterworth-Heinemann, UK Corcoran Nova. 2007. Communicating Health: Strategies for Health Promotion. SAGE, UK Dietz Thomas and Stern Paul C. 2002. New Tools for Environmental Protection: Education, Information, and Voluntary Measures. National Academies Press. US DuBose Mike, Davis Martha and Black Anne. 2005. Developing Successful Grants: How to Turn Your Ideas into Reality. Research Associates. US Guerquin François. 2003. World Water Actions: Making Water Flow for All. Earthscan, UK Kasperson Roger E. and Stallen Pieter Jan M. 1991. Communicating Risks to the Public: International Perspectives. Springer, Netherlands Kennedy Joseph F. 2004. Building Without Borders: Sustainable Construction for the Global Village. New Society Publishers. Canada Kirch Wilhelm. 2008. Encyclopedia of Public Health: Volume 1: A - H Volume 2: I – Z. Springer, Germany Lee Elsa. 2008. Homeland Security and Private Sector Business: Corporations' Role in Critical Infrastructure Protection. CRC Press, US Sajkowska Monika. 2004. Protecting Children Against Corporal Punishment: Awareness-raising Campaigns. Council of Europe, UK Schiavo Renata. 2007. Health Communication: From Theory to Practice. John Wiley and Sons, US Spark Arlene. 2007. Nutrition in Public Health: Principles, Policies, and Practice. CRC Press. US UN. 2006. Toolkit to Combat Trafficking in Persons. United Nations Publications, Vienna Walters Tim and Wilkins Lee. 1999. Bad Tidings: Communication and Catastrophe. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, US Wisner Benjamin and Adams John. 2002. Environmental Health in Emergencies and Disasters: A Practical Guide. World Health Organization, Malta Read More