November 5, 2010

Contents

Exercise Overview Feedback about the Exercise Evaluation of the Exercise Feedback about VOAD Capabilities Evaluation of Target Capability Evaluation of Task Performance Improvement Recommendations

(Click heading to jump to section)

Back toContents

Exercise Overview

Back toContents

This exercise was designed and facilitated to assess the capabilities of Santa Barbara County’s community-based and faith-based organizations to work as a unified team to support the needs of individual and families following a 6.8 magnitude earthquake.

Back toContents

Analyze exercise results in order to: Identify strengths to be maintained and built upon. Identify potential areas for further improvement. Support development of corrective actions.

Back toContents

1. American Red Cross - Santa Barbara County Chapter2. California Southern Baptist Convention Disaster Relief3. Catholic Charities - Lompoc4. Catholic Charities - Santa Barbara5. Catholic Charities - Santa Maria6. Community Action Commission of Santa Barbara County7. Direct Relief International8. Easterday Construction Inc9. Easy Lift Transportation Inc10. Foodbank of Santa Barbara County11. Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara12. ServiceMaster Anytime13. Smooth Inc14. Unity Shoppe15. Westmont College

Number of Participants: 66

Back toContents

Back toContents

This exercise was designed to evaluate the following target capability:CBO/FBO Operations Management (Unified OPS)

Assess collaboration and coordination capabilities while working from each organization’s normal base of operations.

Assess and validate policies, plans, procedures, training, assumptions, and interagency agreements.

Clarify roles and responsibilities. Improve interagency coordination and communications. Evaluate performance and identify opportunities for improvement.

This capability formed the foundation for the activities, tasks, and observations in this exercise.

Back toContents

1.Institute a unified command/liaison/communications structure (unified operations) among the appropriate Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) responding to the current event using the VOAD Disaster Procedures:

Review offers of goods, services and funds from individuals and corporations.

Match offers of goods, services and funds with the needs of CBOs/FBOs and/or individual disaster victims.

Review requests for assistance from CBOs/FBOs and/or disaster victims. Refer requests for assistance to appropriate CBOs/FBOs.

2.Provide critical situational reports regarding the recovery activities being undertaken by CBOs/FBOs to county emergency management and others as appropriate. Maintain a flow of essential disaster- related information to, from, and between each CBO/FBO.

Back toContents

Establish incident objectives, priorities and operational periods. Develop a consolidated Incident Action Plan as it

pertains to the activities of all CBOs/FBOs. Update Incident Action Plan as necessary.

Back toContents

Each CBO/FBO shares its general disaster response information with Unified OPS. Individual CBO/FBO Incident Action Plans (IAP) are

prepared and distributed. Individual CBO/FBO Situation Reports are prepared

and distributed.

Back toContents

Each CBO/FBO shares detailed disaster response information with the Unified OPS. Donation drop off locations. Needs Assessment Reports. Damage Assessment Reports. Service delivery sites. Service delivery shortfalls.

Back toContents

Each CBO/FBO establishes and maintains contact with the Unified OPS. Liaison assigned to Unified OPS. Phone contact with Unified OPS. Participation in Unified OPS conference calls.

Back toContents

Feedback about the Exercise

Back toContents

Scenarios went well. Good guidance from the moderation team. The exercise was well planned and started on time. All the partners were present except mass care. Conference calls helped keep rhythm of exercise going. Because it was computer-based, more people participated. We liked the online format of the exercise versus holding a physical

meeting. The online exercise is more realistic.

Back toContents

Good training tool for new CSBC DR team members who have not seen this aspect of an emergency.

Lots of good questions were raised. The internal dialogue among our staff members during the exercise

allowed us to consider possible scenarios and formulate plans. An excellent experience in looking beyond the agency itself to the

coordination with other VOAD members. Exercise was well structured. This was our disaster team’s first opportunity to work together. We

celebrated this fact!

Back toContents

No other agency called us asking for volunteers. It would have helped greatly if the American Red Cross (ARC) Mass

Care volunteers showed up at the Chapter to participate. Involve disaster leads in the drill since they have the experience and

overall knowledge that we AmeriCorps didn't have to contribute.

Back toContents

More participants and more diversity would be better. With more training exercises in the future, we can become more

confident in doing our work together. Other than an abbreviated phone list, there were no reference

materials available for consultation. Participants were not familiar with how the VOAD operates or what

the purpose of VOAD is.

Back toContents

Evaluation of the Exercise

Back toContents

Observations Very hard to do computer and phone calls.

Recommendations Conduct a tabletop exercise with everyone in the room. Would have been nice to have a template action plan to

help with objectives. It would have been helpful if each group had a conference

call to strategies and develop a coordinated response plan. A face to face meeting needs to be facilitated in order to

discuss response by each of the agencies in attendance. Drill needs to be face to face not computer based.

Back toContents

Feedback about VOAD Capabilities

Back toContents

Our communication with VOAD and partner agencies went well. Identified linkages for accessing services, people and agencies for

coordination of efforts. Identified agencies that are NOT in the VOAD that NEED to be

invited for future efforts.

Back toContents

Helped identify internal emergency response issues that need to be addressed in order to be in a position to respond to future incidents.

Coordinated conference call with all organizations participating in food distribution in the Lompoc area to avoid duplication of service.

We had our resource directory available and a hard copy printed in our VOAD binder.

Back toContents

We were able to reach our partner in temporary home repair and come with a plan to divide the work into areas.

We were able to come up with an ad hoc action plan that seemed to hold up under the scenario.

It re-enforced the challenges and needs to be addressed pre-disaster.

Internal Disaster Plan was up to date and only minor changes/updates are needed.

Back toContents

Our board members showed up to help. VOAD leadership was very helpful. Understanding our organization’s roles. All the VOAD members who submitted reports indicated that they

had contacted other VOAD members about needs and had coordinated activities with them.

Back toContents

This exercise identified key agencies that may be responsible for recovery efforts.

Our plan for the day went smooth. We all came together as a community. We had a good communication.

Back toContents

The organizational structure of VOAD and our own company’s disaster response plan.

Coordination efforts with the other for-profit associations and companies.

Phone communications outgoing and incoming were useful to facilitate triage efforts and assess our ability to meet needs in a timely way.

Communication with VOAD was helpful and close communication with regional Catholic Charities administrative team.

Learning the functions and operations of the other VOAD members and hearing about their disaster plans was helpful.

Back toContents

The assumed coordinated efforts of the SBCA needs to be established before any major event. SBCA needs to join VOAD.

Safety equipment and emergency communication devices need upgrade.

Clarify how homeless issues would be addresses and by whom. Would have been helpful to have pre-printed volunteer intake

forms on hand. Lists skills, availability and transportation needs. Have readily available the Disaster Procedures and Disaster

Resource Directory in the VOAD Member Binder.

Back toContents

Better explanation of partner services offered. Learn more about local organizations that we could collaborate

with, determine the services they offer and how we may be able to help them.

Determine internally, in the event of a disaster, what types of products we would be able to accept outside of our typical inventory.

Use an emergency backup generator for our radios, office computers and internet connection.

Back toContents

Better understanding the hierarchy of management within VOAD in the event of a local disaster.

Establish a site layout plan and directives that are easily found and implemented for rapid response. The first check would be to survey on-site station to ensure safe operation after an emergency.

Compile emergency contact information to distribute to our affiliates and partner agencies.

Have cell numbers and e-mail contact for all employees.

Back toContents

Need to reach out and discuss our emergency capacities with our existing contract customers so we are better positioned to assist them when an emergency hits our community.

Enhance communication structure within our own operations and with our partner agencies.

Designate or identify potential staff and equipment resources for issues not associated with normal operations but which could be used for emergency response in addition to those.

Have a disaster plan in place.

Back toContents

Make our emergency plan available to VOAD and other agencies as necessary.

Making the public and VOAD members more aware of our capabilities and the current systems in place to respond efficiently to a disaster.

More on-going training among staff to better facilitate our disaster response capabilities.

Make sure we have our generator in place in addition to a radio.

Back toContents

Convene subcommittee meetings (Feeding, IKD, Casework, Financial Donations, etc), either in person or via conference call, to agree on shared plans for coordinating their activities.

We need to designate a leader earlier in the process. We need further training in Disaster Relief. Providing more basic information about disaster preparedness and

safety. Smooth out our team.

Back toContents

Evaluation of Target Capability

Back toContents

Overall Performance Ratings by Evaluators (CBO/FBO Operations Management (Unified – OPS)

Tasks Strong Adequate Weak

1. Establish incident objectives, priorities and operational periods. 1 3

2. Each CBO/FBO shares its general disaster response information with Unified OPS. 2 1 1

3. Each CBO/FBO shares detailed disaster response information with the Unified OPS. 3 1

4. Each CBO/FBO establishes and maintains contact with the Unified OPS. 3 1

Back toContents

Evaluation of Task Performance

Back toContents

Task #1: Establish incident objectives, priorities and operational periods. Observations

Foodbank has a good understanding of what needs to be done, they immediately started checking on their client agencies, assessed stock available, alerted Feeding American to put them on standby, made a plan to talk to VOAD feeding agencies that would be requesting food and coordinated a conference call to help develop a plan to provide food by priority.

They contacted Pacific Realty and Wal-Mart to see if they could get additional warehouse space for supplies coming in.

Did not utilize existing Disaster Plan in exercise. There was not a clear understanding of the action plan or what objectives

would be used. There needed to be plan to work off of, which wasn't available. The group did a great job in focusing on its plan. CSB demonstrated a strong understanding of their role and partnership with

other CBOs and FBOs. They set clear objectives and priorities. They didn't necessarily frame them in an operational period.

Back toContents

Task #1: Establish incident objectives, priorities and operational periods. Recommendations

Take Incident Command System (ICS) training. Go through their disaster plan to determine if they missed any steps. Pull feeding group together to discuss outcomes of exercise to develop a

better coordinated plan for future disasters. If not in the current plan add the need to immediately request a conference

call with all the feeding agencies to develop a plan and coordinate food preparation, food distribution, food donations, develop a schedule of food pickup and deliveries.

Back toContents

Task #2: Each CBO/FBO shares its general disaster response information with Unified OPS.

Observations They did share information effectively in briefing. Plan not distributed to response team or provided in writing to the VOAD

liaison. Too many variables that were not clear; there was a tendency for

redundancies to occur. It was unclear as to who some of the players were. Team communicated well with all participants and stayed involved.

Back toContents

Task #2: Each CBO/FBO shares its general disaster response information with Unified OPS.

Recommendations If the plan does not have one now, develop an Action Plan outline to assist

with start-up in the future. Develop before the group’s initial meeting a list of questions they needed

answers to so they could ask while on a conference call. Understand how disaster management systems work:

ICS: Incident Command System SEMS: Standardized Emergency Management System NIMS: National Incident Management System

Should be a list of common objectives for the conference call. Common safety issues do not need to be discussed.

To insure we have strong local leadership, start operations while the regional leadership is responding.

Back toContents

Task #3: Each CBO/FBO shares detailed disaster response information with the Unified OPS.

Observations They are still learning who and what they need to share. Most activity was occurring onsite of the Solvang CSBC. Not sure if there plan has this information in it or not on how to prioritize

needs, every call they received they said yes they would meet and deliver, I did not see how they were going to capture this information and prioritize how it would be delivered.

There was no incident brief for them to capture detailed information like information on demographic and disaster assessment.

Although there was an assigned VOAD Liaison, there was no collaboration and information was not disseminated properly.

Back toContents

Task #3: Each CBO/FBO shares detailed disaster response information with the Unified OPS.

Recommendations I would recommend that they have a status board to log requests with date,

time and quantity needed as well as have a resource allocation log. Establish a layout plan for the Solvang location and insure a punch list exist for

set-up, operations and partners.

Back toContents

Task #4: Each CBO/FBO establishes and maintains contact with the Unified OPS. Observations

Several attempts were made to contact the VOAD Liaison and they were never able to make contact.

They tried their best to keep in contact, but again without the objectives being clear and not having the other agencies together, the discussion was mainly one-sided. They felt they did a good job without even wondering what other agencies were doing or what the redundancies were.

The team understood roles, worked through unified operations to clarify questions with coordinator and provided plan during conference call.

Back toContents

Task #4: Each CBO/FBO establishes and maintains contact with the Unified OPS. Recommendations

Future exercises need to be done in person. I was trained to always leave a message in an emergency. The group was told

not to. This will be a busy command. The term has a form of ICS in place, but further

training and understanding of ICS may assist with effective operations.

Back toContents

Improvement Recommendations

Back toContents

Observation Recommendation

Not all VOAD members fully understand the Incident Command System (ICS).

Schedule and facilitate ICS training for VOAD members.

While some had plans/procedures, there is a need for others to develop such plans as well as for those who have plans to review and revise their current plans and procedures.

Schedule and facilitate a workshop designed to assist s in developing, evaluating and revising their individual agency plans.

There are many organizations and agencies that have the ability to assist during a disaster but are not currently engaged as a member of VOAD.

Reach out to the non-VOAD members that were identified during the exercise and encourage their participation in VOAD.

Many participants in the exercise did not have a working knowledge of the VOAD plans, procedures, and information resources.

Schedule and facilitate a workshop on VOAD plans, procedures, and information resources

From the Exercise Director and VOAD Coordinator

Back toContents

Observation Recommendation

VOAD EOC Liaison will need help coordinating VOAD members’ activities.

Set up VOAD DOC with ICS structure to coordinate planning and logistics.

VOAD lacks trained personnel to work as EOC Liaison and in VOAD DOC.

Approach CERT graduates to serve as EOC Liaison / DOC volunteers.

Transportation needs will vary in different parts of the county.

Conduct a transportation service assessment.

Transportation service providers are under-represented in VOAD.

Establish MOUs with transportation service providers (e.g., churches with buses).

VOAD members do no have a system for sharing data about clients, resources, and in-kind donations.

Establish shared database(s) for tracking short-term and long-term needs and resources: case management & IKD (e.g., CAN and AidMatrix).

From Participants in the After-Action Conference

Back toContents

Observation Recommendation

Government agencies did not participate in the exercise.

Invite city fire, police, and emergency managers to participate in the next exercise.

Health service providers were under-represented in the exercise.

Invite county health department and Medical Service Corps to join VOAD.

Participants from some organizations lacked expertise and guidance.

Require key decision-makers/managers to participate in future exercises.

Building VOAD capabilities will require funding.

Establish a local National Citizen Corps Council,* which could fund some activities.

* Yolanda McGlinchey reports that discussions are already underway to establish a National Citizen Corps Council in Santa Barbara County.

From Participants in the After-Action Conference

Back toContents

End of Slide Show