Ready Washtenaw Human Services Emergency Response Network

The Ready Washtenaw kick off event took place in September. Many of the presentations are available below. Contact us to receive information about future events. More resources are available to help you or your organization plan for emergencies.

Our community has wealth of agencies with expertise in human services, but currently has no systematic way of coordinating services post disaster. 

Whether a disaster is on the scale of a hurricane or a tornado, or an apartment fire that dislocates several families, strengthening the linkage between emergency operations and the human services community is critical to ensuring that a community’s total response is timely, coordinated and effective.

In 2005, individuals and families were evacuated from the Katrina disaster area to Washtenaw County and our local human services community rallied to their assistance. In the spirit of cooperation, multiple partners and agencies came to the table to share their expertise, resources and skills in addressing the human services issues this opportunity presented. In evaluating our success at a post-event debriefing, partners made a commitment to build on the strengths of our community and develop a sustainable structure for a human services response mechanism for future disasters.

The Washtenaw County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) provides support and coordination to emergency services agencies and personnel during a large-scale emergency or disaster. Our goal is to strengthen the Human Service Annex of the EOC by forming the Human Services Emergency Response Network (HSERN) using the Washtenaw County Emergency Action Guidelines.   The Washtenaw County Emergency Action Guidelines provide the framework for a comprehensive, coordinated response to disasters and community emergencies for Washtenaw County. 

The purpose of this HSERN conference is to educate human services agencies and their staff of social workers on how to develop a plan in case of large scale community emergency that will address consumer needs, staff needs, business continuity, confidentiality issues, special needs, etc. Participants will learn how to incorporated individual/family emergency preparedness assessment and training into the routine operations of their client assessment process. Participants will also have a chance to begin work on a plan and develop an implementation process to be used upon return to their organizations, and finally participants will pledge their commitment to participating in the Washtenaw County HSERN in order to better serve the members of the community should there be a need.

For more information or to learn about future events, contact Angie Zander, Management Assistant at Community Support and Treatment Services, 734-544-6712 or zandera@ewashtenaw.org.