- Hurricane Preparedness Week: May 24-30, 2009
- Home and National Safety Months: June 2009
- Lightning Safety Week: June 21-27, 2009
Citizen Corps supports weekly and monthly outreach themes which encourage and promote civic engagement, public safety, preparedness, resilience, and volunteerism. The outreach themes are intended to be used as an opportunity to jumpstart work with additional Citizen Corps partners and affiliates on promoting awareness, planning events, and media outreach to strengthen community preparedness at the state and local level. Local Citizen Corps Councils and partners may contact local representatives from the organizations below to learn how the community can benefit from involvement, reach out to citizens about participation, and involve the local media in distributing information on these events. These events will help raise awareness for local Citizen Corps activities and ultimately increase community preparedness, training, and volunteer participation.
The following are the upcoming events for the end of May and June…
Hurricane Preparedness Week (May 24-30, 2009): Hurricane Preparedness Week can be utilized by local and state Citizen Corps Councils and partners to educate, train, and prepare the public prior to the official start of Hurricane Season on June 1st. The following NOAA and FEMA Hurricane Preparedness websites were created to inform the public about hurricane hazards and provide knowledge which can be used to take protective action. This information can be used to save lives at work, home, while on the road, or on the water. Visit http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/intro.shtml and http://www.fema.gov/hazard/hurricane/hu_season09.shtm for more information and resources.
Home Safety Month (June 2009): Each year during June, the Home Safety Council, a National Citizen Corps Affiliate, works to educate and motivate families to take actions that will increase the safety of their homes. This year’s Home Safety Month campaign theme – Hands on Home Safety – asks the public to take some simple steps to create a safer home environment from the five leading causes of home injury – falls, poisonings, fires and burns, choking/suffocation and drowning. Visit the following website to obtain information and resources that Citizen Corps Councils and partners can share with community members to encourage them to take a hands-on approach to making their homes safer: http://www.homesafetycouncil.org/homesafetymonth/homesafetymonth.aspx.
National Safety Month (June 2009): Every year the National Safety Council, a National Citizen Corps Affiliate, promotes National Safety Month, an initiative that focuses on heightening awareness of important safety issues. The National Safety Council asks employers to help prevent work place injuries and individuals to protect their loved ones from injury. Visit the National Safety Month website to learn about opportunities for Citizen Corps Councils to become National Safety Month Sponsors or to become Safety Ambassadors. Additionally, the site offers resources, in both Spanish and English, to support each of their June 2009 weekly themes. Visit http://www.nsc.org/nsm to learn more.
Lightning Safety Week (June 21-27, 2009): Summer is the peak season for one of the nation's deadliest weather phenomena – lightning. In the U.S., an average of 62 people are killed each year by lightning; hundreds of others are injured. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a National Citizen Corps Affiliate, has recently posted new resources that Citizen Corps Councils and partners can use to increase lightning safety awareness, such as a brochure titled ‘Lightning Safety for You and Your Family’ and a lightning safety quiz for kids with Leon the Lightning Lion. Visit the NOAA Lightning Safety webpage at http://www.lightningsafety.noaa.gov/ for more details.
A complete list of weekly and monthly outreach themes for 2009 is available on the Citizen Corps website at http://www.citizencorps.gov/news/themes.shtm.
Sincerely,
FEMA Community Preparedness Division
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