PREPARING EMERGENCY EDUCATION RESPONDERS THROUGH SUSTAINABLE LEARNING NETWORK MODULES (PEER-SLN)

• Sponsoring Institution: National Institute of Food and Agriculture
• Project Status: ACTIVE
• Funding Source: OTHER GRANTS
• Reporting Frequency: Annual
• Accession No.: 1026737
• Grant No.: 2021-41210-35032
• Cumulative Award Amt.: $99,460.00
• Proposal No.: 2021-04476
• Project Start Date: Sep 1, 2021
• Project End Date: Aug 31, 2025
• Grant Year: 2021
• Program Code: [MB]- ESNP Special Needs

Recipient Organization
AUBURN UNIVERSITY
108 M. WHITE SMITH HALL
AUBURN,AL 36849

Performing Department
ACES

Non Technical Summary
The goal of this project is to develop sustainable learning network modules and trainingresource materials to help the Alabama Emergency Management Agency (AEMA) and countylevelEmergency Management Agency (EMA) leaders coordinate emergency response activitieswith state and local Extension professionals and local volunteer organizations. The "PreparingEmergency Education Responders through Sustainable Learning Network Modules" (PEERSLN)will expand the Alabama Cooperative Extension System's contributions to the ExtensionDisaster Education Network (EDEN) through education, exploration, and engagement.The projected outcomes of this program will make a positive impact on Alabama communities by providing a single resource to guide thecollaborative efforts of EMA leaders, Extension, and community volunteer organizations andtheir volunteers.The outcomes of this project will be:1. The developed learning modules and their associated educational content will establish aplatform for meaningful collaboration between EMA leaders, local governmental leaders,and community volunteers that can be sustained by Alabama Cooperative Extensionspecialists, CECs and Auburn University Agricultural Educational faculty.2. A scalable application of educational and training curriculum, by leveraging the EDENnetwork to create a community of practice that can be built upon to meet needs for othersfacing disasters.3. Online educational video curricula modules and in person training materials will ensurelocal disaster teams will have the tools and skills necessary to identify critical needs,provide timely assistance, and support recovery efforts before, during, and after anemergency incident.4. Projects will further strengthen Alabama Cooperative Extension and Auburn University'sland-grant mission to "improve the lives of the people of Alabama, the nation, and theworld through forward thinking".A.2: This proposal is grounded in the key areas

Animal Health Component

(N/A)

Research Effort Categories

Basic

(N/A)

Applied

(N/A)

Developmental

(N/A)

Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)	Subject of Investigation (SOI)	Field of Science (FOS)	Percent
807	6050	3020	100%

Knowledge Area
807 - Disaster Preparedness, Mitigation, Response, and Recovery;

Subject Of Investigation
6050 - Communities, areas, and regions;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;

Keywords

disaster preparedness

extension disaster education network

online learning

training

Goals / Objectives
The goal of this statewide project is to develop sustainable case study modules, through theEDEN platform. These modules will provide volunteer organizations, local government leaders,and county emergency management entities in Alabama critical tactics to identify needs ofindividuals and communities before, during, and after natural disasters. Along with the materialsand trainings, the project will pilot a new method for mobilizing this information in the form of a"chat bot". This proposal is well situated within the requirements of Smith-Lever Special Needsprogram to addresses national, regional, multi-state, or state educational leadership as a resultof a natural disaster.

Project Methods
The Alabama Cooperative Extension System has extensive resources accessible to the StateSpecialist, CECs, and on and off campus partners. Each of Alabama's sixty-seven countieshouses an Alabama Cooperative Extension office lead by a County Extension Coordinator.Every office is easily accessible to the public, and includes office space, storage, classroom andor meeting space. All county offices have digital resources such as laptops, projectors, andprinters on hand for instructional and work use. Each county office is connected the UniversityInternet and offers high speed internet access to employees and guests. Each facility isaccessible, and any meeting sites selected for meetings and trainings will be ADA compliant. Forthe purposes of this project, CECs in the following Alabama counties are ready and able toparticipate: Baldwin, Barbour, Butler, Clarke, Coffee, Colbert, Conecuh, Covington, Crenshaw,Elmore, Escambia, Geneva, Houston, Lauderdale, Lee, Mobile, Pike, and Tuscaloosa. Thesecounties represent the most recent areas impacted by natural disasters across Alabama.On the Auburn University campus, the Alabama Cooperative Extension system houses centralresources made available to on campus faculty and staff as well as to field personnel. Centralresources include a communications and marketing team, the information technology team, and acentral business office which includes human resources and budgetary staff. The nationallyrecognized and award-winning Alabama Extension Communications and Marketing team hasextensive staff and technological resources we will leverage to help ensure our digital and printmaterials are assembled and delivered at the highest quality. On staff are videographers, graphicdesigners, instructional designers, copy editors, and project managers ready to bring ourprogrammatic materials vision to life. Members of this team will be instrumental as we produceour videos, create print and digital curriculum materials, expand the Emergency Handbook, printour educational materials for distribution, and make our materials publicly available online.Similarly, our information technology team has as extensive experience in website and datamanagement, hardware acquisition, management, and maintenance. The IT team will be essentialas we launch our online course modules and acquire any necessary hardware such as laptops,projectors, video cameras, and other equipment. The IT department will also help the project inthe development and launch of the "chat bot". This self-learning software device allowscommunity members to have 24/7 access to resources in a human type conversation.

Progress 09/01/22 to 08/31/23

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences reached during this initial period include Emergency Management leaders at the state and county levels and Extension personel. This engagement included project pioleting in four of the 18 regions. Fourteen additional regions have been brought on board and trainings are being scheduled. A Meeting of all listed and interested County Agents, Regional Agents, and County Extension Coordinators, along with Extension Communications staff, and Extension Evaluation staff was held to bring everyone involved up to speed and determine the capacity for moving forward. This meeting was used to discuss the progress of the piolet regions and give the participants a chance to disucss with others modifications or best practices for ensuring this projects implimentation in new areas. Changes/Problems:The most major change in the project since the last report was field was the complete change in leadership. The change in PI, done through the project change request process, has led to a shift in the timeline of the project. Three new individuals, though tangential or secondary to the project originally have stepped up to see it to completion with the shift of the original PIs to other opportunities. The time needed to evaluate the status of the project, become aware of the personal and sub-personal involved, and the loss of momentum as often accompanies leadership change mid-stream, has resulted in outputs and events have not keeping pace with the initial plan of the project. The new team has regrouped, held team meetings, developed a plan for moving forward, and is back on track to be able to see this project to successful completion. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?A meeting that outlines the best practices as determined by the initiation of the piolet counties of this project was held. In that meeting the piloting counties shared what worked well, what took more time or effort than they intended, and where more effort would be needed. This information was given to the counties that will be conducting the bulk of the project.Trainings have been scheduled for the remining counties in the near future. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Four piolet communities have been engaged.The county based personnel have been engaged with the project and the edited training materials are being disseminated. They have been shown the materials in a general meeting held to share best practices and experiences derived from the piolet process. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?The remaining balance of counties will begin to move forward on the plan generation. Each of the counties will be engaged wit the process of planning. These plans will then be sent back to the grant personnel to be able to develop case studies and best practices.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The most major accomplishment has been that the project has moved through the piolet phase. Four counties have conducted extensive training with their VOAD communities and regional leadership. These groups have engaged with the project and are into the planning phase. The second and most impactful accomplishment has been a result of these community leaders and volunteers and the extension personnel who have engaged with the project. These groups have reported back to the project team the needed changes and alterations that would allow for the project to be more smoothly implemented. These piolet groups have been forthcoming with their hesitations and any issues they might have had in the process of engaging with the initial portions of the disaster planning process. These have been considered and important edits have been made to the educational pieces and facilitation guides. These edits should result in the easing of burden on VOAD groups and their constituency thus mitigating some of the concerns with regards to time and dedication to the project that threatened project buy in.

Publications

Progress 09/01/21 to 08/31/22

Outputs
Target Audience:The target audiences reached during this initial period include Emergency Management leaders at the state and county levels. This engagement included notice of project initiation and a comprehensive needs assessment conducted via phone and online surveys. Changes/Problems:The IRB approval process took far longer than project leadership anticipated on the Auburn campus. Given the protocols set forth during COVID-19, the university placed rather strict policies into place regarding research and in-person meetings - particularly within university settings and in county extension offices. Consequently, the IRB was not granted on our intented timeline which forced our needs assessment process to start later than preferred. Given the findings of the needs assessment, we did find a very important theme regarding lack of Alabamian understanding of storm mitigation and preparation practices which the research team found quite alarming. Some members of the team recruited new project leaders to help prepare a second project proposal tailored specifically to addressing these challenges - particularly among vulnerable communities. Our intention is to align these two projects into two parrallel timelines to maximize stakeholder engagement among EMA, community members, community leaders, and other key stakeholders. Consequently, a formal request for a no cost, one year extension on this project would be greatly helpful to ensuring our work is completed with the time and care required. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has prompted additional needs for training among those leading these efforts from a statewide leadership perspective as well as a field staff perspective. Several project leaders attended the recent EDEN conference in Grand Rapids Michigan which provided ample opportunity to learn helpful Extension practices related to Extension's role in providing emergency preparedness,mitigation, recovery and response support of EMA leaders. The EDEN training highlighted key FEMA training programs Extension team members will need to complete from both the state and local office levels. Additionally, the summative project efforts have prompted Alabama Extension leadership to strengthen theirdisaster response planning protocols for the system which will touch all corners of our infrastructure. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The needs assessment findings were shared with local EMA leaders for feedback. No further dissemination of materials has been completed at this time. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Looking ahead, the pilot phase of the program will be completed early next year and will follow shortly thereafter with a training to prepare the remaining 15 counties (or more) with the training needed to complete the project implementation in their respective counties. One or moreof the counties in the group of 15 will be used for video recording and module production. Thomas the Chat Bot will be investigated further in this cycle as well.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? Two major accomplishments were generated during our first year. The first accomplishment was the successful development and implementation of a comprehensive needs assessment which will inform our activities as researchers and practitioners in carrying out our project. The data collected from the needs assessment verified our initial hypotheses regarding the need for additional coordination and support of volunteers and other similar groups to increase efficiency of EMA leadership in the mitigation, preparation, response, and recovery processes. Additionally, the needs assessment findings also demonstrated a tremendous need to provide education to community members regarding disaster mitigation and preparation practices. These findings have informed our curriculum development and prompted the need for additional funding to address educational challenges among Alabamians on these topics. The second accomplishment was the successful revamping of the existing Ready Communities curriculum which will become the backbone of our training and education efforts among those participating in traditional VOAD operations at the county level. This curriculum was updated to reflect more common gathering and engagement practices following COVID-19, and sought to focus more on engaging more groups beyond the traditional scope of EMA volunteer groups. We successfully have trained our pilot county leaders in this revamped curriculum and the pilot programming efforts aim to be completed by March 30, 2023.

Publications