ALERT - EVACUATE -SHELTER Mapping Our Way To Safety

Overview and Suggested Team Member Roles   Purpose: The 4-H Alert, Evacuate and Shelter (AES) concept began in 2006 as the result of 4-H Youth Technology teams who were working with the Community Readiness Network (CRN) pilot project.  Both the AES and CRN purpose was to build collaborative structures in which 4-H youth could teach and/or assist adults in mastering geospatial technologies that address Emergency Management issues.  Teens are introduced to community networking, web based alert systems, learned GPS skills and GIS mapping strategies.  Since that time, additional states have been working with 4-H Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) teams, who provide extra support to their local emergency management organization addressing those emergency concerns identified by their local communities.  The national 4-H mission is to empower youth to reach their full potential by working and learning in partnership with caring adults, and fostering opportunities for community engagement and service projects.  As powerful members of their society, youth can partner with community decision-makers to affect positive change.  The AES program focuses on keeping communities safe in areas of disaster occurrences such as hurricanes, tornado, flooding through the creation of evacuation and shelter maps and through the use of advanced geospatial technologies.  AES encourages 4-H youth to use their acquired leadership skills to educate their communities and to provide assistance, and direction, to their community leaders regarding safe evacuation and shelter of local citizens. Situation: Often our government resources are pushed to the limit when planning for disasters.  This was never more evident that during the Katrina hurricane.  That disaster brought to the forefront how crucial it is to have definite strategies in place that are manageable, applicable, and above all, known to all stakeholders from decision makers to the average citizen.  Youth, specifically 4-H youth, have definite roles they can play to help ensure that planning is optimized and informational resources are available to all.  Working in SET teams that include emergency management personnel, GIS experts, and county extension personnel, 4-H youth can affect the safety and well-being of their communities and assist their community leaders in the education of hurricane safety measures.