Canton on Emergency Management

Emergency Management Solutions - March 2020

Download EM Solutions March 2020

It's Not Too Soon to Look to The Future

    By Lucien Canton

Responding To Coronavirus & A Second Major Event

    By Tim Riecker

Southwest's COVID-19 Crisis Communications And What You Need To Be Doing

    By Erik Bernstein

It’s Not Too Soon to Look to The Future: Thinking Ahead Can Open Opportunities

 

Download Looking to the Future

It's Not Too Soon to Look to The Future

Thinking Ahead Can Open Opportunities

In These Dark Days, Social Media May Offer a Gleam of Light

Social media has always been a two-edged sword. It is the purveyor of misinformation and has been responsible for generating a lot of fear over COVID-19. There’s evidence that it’s being used by foreign governments to generate much of that fear and there is no question that it is being manipulated for political purposes.

Yet, in this time of doubt and fear, social media can also provide us with tools that allow us to counter that fear with simple human decency.

• Within minutes of the announcement of the public health order directing a “shelter in place” for six San Francisco Bay Area counties, the regional leader of a social organization of which I am a member posted instructions on Facebook cancelling all activities and providing guidance for how events would be rescheduled when the order was lifted. His manner was calm and business-like and spoke volumes about his leadership. Within a few hours, instructors scheduled to teach at the cancelled activities had posted offers to hold their classes online. Other members organized chat sites to provide companionship for anyone who was feeling alone and isolated. Someone organized a site to help the artisans who would no longer be able to sell their goods at events. Still others offered their services for anyone needing assistance in shopping or running errands.
• Our church cancelled services last week in accordance with the directives that preceded the public health order. This Sunday our pastor offered a prayer service via conference call and is exploring the possibility of streaming the service next Sunday. The church is organizing a “buddy system” that matches volunteers with people in high-risk categories who may need help with shopping or other needs. The pastor has already called everyone that might need help to identify any immediate needs.
• Even before this, our neighbors began reaching out on the Next-Door app to offer assistance to those who were self-isolating. A lot of these volunteers were teens and young adults and the offers were free of any charges. One mother offered the services of her sons to help teach them lessons on selflessness.

Why are these acts of kindness so important? One of the lessons learned in previous pandemics, such as the 1918 Influenza Pandemic, was that many people died needlessly because there was no one to care for them. Fear kept neighbors from checking on the sick and providing food and hydration. Social isolation is not confined to pandemics; many of the deaths in the 1995 Chicago heat wave were the result of people living alone without friends or neighbors to help. Social isolation, as distinct from social distancing, can kill.

Even more important is that these simple acts remind us that we are in this together and share a common humanity. If history is any guide, things will get worse before they get better. But history also tells us that most of us who contract COVID-19 will survive. How will you remember these days? As a time when we came together to face a crisis or as at time when fear kept us isolated?

Emergency Management Solutions - February 2020

Emergency Management Solutions

Pandemic Planning: Think Strategically

    by Lucien Canton

Operational Readiness in Emergency Management

    by Timothy (Tim) Riecker

Quick Coronavirus Crisis Communications Tips

    by Erik Bernstein

Emergency Management Solutions - January 2020

Emergency Management Solutions January 2020

Has PowerPoint Had Its Day?A Bad Tool or a Misused One?

    by Lucien Canton

Public-Private Partnerships Should be a Two-Way Relationship

    by Timothy (Tim) Riecker

A Different Take On Peloton's PR

    by Erik Bernstein