Recipient Organization
UNIV OF HAWAII
3190 MAILE WAY
HONOLULU,HI 96822
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
The Empowering Maui County in the Wake of Natural Disaster project is in response to the Maui wildfires in August 2023 and is an adapted disaster preparedness training workshop for the community. The goal is to increase community member potential for emergency response to future disasters and to strengthen resilience and promote community building through resource and knowledge-sharing, skill-building, and leadership training.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Goals / Objectives
In response to the recent wildfires on Maui, this project will:Develop and deliver community-based workshops to educate participants throughout the community on the four parts of the emergency management cycle through hands-on educational activitiesDevelop curriculum, Extension publications, informational videos, and other educational materials to support workshop participants and the communityDevelop and support a community council on disaster preparedness to share knowledge gained with the greater community
Project Methods
The adapted disaster preparedness training workshop will serve as an education intervention to mitigate current impacts caused by the Lahaina and Kula wildfire disasters while increasing community member potential for emergency response to future disasters. The goal of this proposed project is to strengthen resilience and promote community building through the integration of specific stakeholder tools, community resources, self-care techniques, and disaster preparedness, response, and mitigation skills training. This combination will provide commercial agricultural producers and ranchers, other business owners, adult community members, and families and youth participants with the knowledge and skills to be an active part of the disaster recovery process within their own communities and make them better prepared mentally and emotionally to handle stress, educate others, and take initiative in dealing with future disasters.The workshop will be formatted to follow the Emergency Management Cycle of Disaster Preparedness, Response, Recovery, and Mitigation. Each section will be specific enough to impart knowledge and skills but general enough to allow all participants to make some connection to the material. This format will also strengthen the community-building concept through shared ideas and collaboration. The intended audience will include a variety of stakeholders such as farmers, ranchers, home gardeners, landscape professionals, teachers, parents, and youth but they will also be participating as community members working to rebuild Maui after the disaster.Youth who have recently participated in a statewide disaster preparedness training on Maui (Lund, 2023) committed to a leadership role in their community and students from Maui, Molokai, and Lanai will help form a Community Disaster Preparedness Council to be available for sharing information, answering questions, and preparing to respond in future disasters. Adult volunteers, recruited from workshop participants, will join the council and work as a team to better inform their local communities, during and after the program implementation. The Council will be led through the Maui County 4-H program Extension Agent for sustainability purposes. This evaluation is designed to assess outcomes and impacts of the project's goals and objectives through formative and summative evaluation processes. These will be measured using (a) short- term 4-H Thrive Model pre-post tests for participants; (b) demonstration of skills through observation; (c) content knowledge rubrics; and (d) qualitative data from interviews and other artifacts (materials created by community disaster preparedness council, edited videos, etc.) review.All quantitative data collected will be primary source from the program participants recruited through outreach to the community and through partnerships with community organizations through hard-copy or online survey tools. Qualitative data will be primary source from program participants, project stakeholders, and the general public. Data will be collected pre- and post - participation, and during the process of the program.