Public Policy Response Paper

(p.2) With that, he prepared literature summaries on the distinction of disasters from hazards; social dimensions of disasters; and emergency management. Then, he introduced two main debatable issues, including: (1) the context of "disaster" and (2) paradigms on vulnerability/risk. In the first issue, the author enumerated simple connotations of disaster in several languages and jumped to precise event-based definitions as mentioned in Britton (1987) and Fisher (2003)'s studies. As for the second issue, he emphasized that many scholars are built upon the framework of Barton (1969) on collective stress. (p.8) With that, paradigm shifts (mentioned in the article) led to the focus on "vulnerability" in studying disasters. For example, the author cited the 9/11 attack in New York as a "national" disaster on the basis of the city’s “vulnerability” in terrorist attacks. In the later parts of the article, the author summed up by listing 5 principle-recommendations for emergency managers and addressed 2 key priorities for future research: (1) alternative theoretical perspectives and (2) develop a global

The first year of our program design requires key staff within the National Invasive Species Council (NISC) and Office of Policy Analysis to develop a prioritization framework for relevant federal agencies to use in developing strategic plans to combat invasive species. This memo focuses on the development of a performance management system to ensure efficient and effective implementation of year-one goals. There are four major dimensions to this performance management system:

The government is in charge of operating the most diverse nation in the world while trying to take the best interests of as many people as possible. Controversy is unavoidable in a country with diversity among races, ethnicities, and political feelings. Public policy is not exempt from controversial legislation. Chapters 10 and 13 thoroughly discuss the issues of legal and social equality as well as policy relating to private morality. The formation of public policy relating to private morality and social equality is highly controversial because there are targeted groups that will benefit and non targeted groups that will be ignored by the policy; however a policy like affirmative action affects both targeted and non-targeted groups.

Research informs the policy making process by revealing patterns and themes, such as financial costs and crime severity, that previously may have remained unknown. As evidenced in Tierney's "Prison populations can shrink when police crowd streets" (2013, para. 13), the introduction of a computerized system in the New York police department to track crimes led to more vigilant enforcement that ultimately led to a decrease in the overall prison population and saved the city $1.5 billion annually in costs related to law enforcement and incarceration. The computerized system, which was designed to better track violent crime trends, provided qualitative data that could be applied throughout the city to instill a more efficient police force. While arrests for misdemeanors increased from the new policy, violent crimes decreased, ultimately lowering the prison population.

Scholarly assessments of our nation’s capability to effectively respond to hazards suggest a paradigm shift is needed regarding the future direction of research, policy and tactics for preparing and responding to natural and human-made hazards. This paper will provide a historical overview of our nation’s emergency preparedness and response posture, examine the need to reformulate the existing hazards paradigm into a broader resiliency framework, and suggest roles and responsibilities characteristic of government and community stakeholders in the context of this broadened approach. Mechanisms needed to achieve a successful implementation of this improved strategy will also be examined.

Shock events or disaster often cause communities to cease functioning properly. Emergency management is planned to prepare communities for these events, mitigates their effects, and responds to and recovers from these events. Part of emergency management, the recovery phase, aims to return the communities to the normal situation, or an even safer situation following the shock events. The recovery phase requires an understanding and exploitation of the dynamic interactions among the community’s physical and social infrastructures and post-response condition. Case studies of recovery processes and effects, combined with the understanding of the dynamic interactions can help in improving the process of recovery phase in the future. The purpose

Regarding the topics discussed in the introductory public policy course, Lindblom expans upon questions revolving around how “good” policy is measured. Bickers and Williams, co-authors of Introduction to Public Policy, discuss several ways in which the “good” policy question can be assessed. For instance, administrators can use the theories of Harold Lasswell which propose a democratic process to policy decision making whereby all parties are represented and outcomes are distributed among all contending groups. Administrators could follow Pareto’s policy suggestion that states that a policy can be considered “good” if no person is worse off and at least one person is better off. Lastly, the Kaldor-Hicks criterion, in essence, assumes a Pareto-superior approach to policy

Although disasters have been occurring for a long time, they are happening more frequently. Responding to these disasters has become challenging, and require assistance from all levels of government and the whole community. Public agencies and other stakeholders are doing their best to build resilient communities. However, local, state, and federal agencies and community stakeholders continue to receive criticism for inadequate response efforts. Increased frustrations by the public and negative propaganda during disasters, has caused disaster response strategies to be associated with various myths and misconceptions. I address some of the myths and misconceptions associated with public agencies and community stakeholders regarding disaster response.

Resilience is critical and should be the major focus of the community in order to be well prepared and ready to absorb the impacts or shocks of disasters and also to recover rapidly after experience any forms of disasters. Although, Erin (2016) indicated that, it is difficult for the impacted community to return to its pre-disaster status due to the fact that when a community experience disaster, there is tendency for such community to experience new physical, social and psychological transformation. Hence, disaster can be seen as a means for positive change that result in community growth if good recovery plans are in place. This is because disaster recovery gives the community opportunity to transform and growth since recovery is the activities that is undertaken to return the community to

The importance of the community’s involvement in emergency management has propelled FEMA to introduce the Whole Community concept in December 2011 in disaster preparedness (pp. 108). This approach engages all members of the community including individuals, government at all levels, organizations, businesses, community groups and others involved in preparing the community as a whole to deal with disasters. It is the philosophical belief of FEMA that utilizing leveraging all the resources of the the collective team in the community will help to prepare, protect, respond to and recover from, and mitigate against all disasters. The engagement of the community in an authentic dialogue will also empower individuals to identify their needs, the existing resources and find out ways to address any shortfall in them. FEMA also reinforces that with the community’s involvement, FEMA is better able to reach and deliver services more efficiently and cost-effectively to those affected in a disaster.

In “Community Resilience as a Metaphor, Theory, Set of Capacities, and Strategy for Disaster Readiness,” Norris and Pfefferbaum define community resilience as “a process of linking a network of adaptive capacities to a positive trajectory of functioning and adaptation after a disturbance. Basically, it is a community’s ability to return to normal after a disaster has occurred. Each community has the ability to return to adapt successfully after a stressor, but the community must be prepared with resources with dynamic attributes. Economic development, social capital, information and communication, and community competence are the four components required for community resiliency. Module 6 on ICONSnet focuses directly on the need for programs to help with community resilience.

Resilience and preparedness is a result of education in the school curricula, which teaches people what to expect and what to do in such an event. Further information is circulated through media and consolidated with national simulation exercises, which are rehearsed in the period leading up to the hurricane season. A well constructed community approach of risk assessment, identifies vulnerable people and those who can offer assistance during a disaster. The community approach means people help each other to safety early before disaster strikes. This information is taken up to national level and formulated into a community plan, which is relayed to all, so everyone knows what to do, and who to help. An amazing method of mitigation from little money and resources but made successful through strong governance and the cohesion of a willing community. Other developing Countries would achieve similar benefits from such a method of mitigation.

In the realm of Emergency Management all disasters begin and end with the local jurisdictions. So, the question remains how do we correct our course? The answer is a simple concept yet complicated at best. This short paper will talk about the topics of Education, Communication and other Solutions that professionals can use to better the readiness for their diverse community population.

use knowledge, innovation, and education to build a culture of safety and resilience at all levels;

Disaster is a blind killer as it erupts and affects thousands worldwide. The severity of disasters is expected to increase as a result of contemporary threats (biological, cyber, nuclear, etc.) in addition to increased globalization and climate change. Yet sometimes government bodies, corporations, and the like fall short in instituting preventative systems to avert a disaster, oftentimes causing the general populous to be inadequately prepared should a catastrophe occur.