Using a community-based assessment: Effective strategies and lessons learned to engage Latinos in the development, implementation and participation in emergency preparedness

As part of the effort by the Orange County Health Care Agency's Public Health Department to address disaster preparedness within special populations. The Health Promotion Division was charged with the implementation, design and development of an emergency preparation program for special populations within Orange County. Although Orange County has a large diversity of special populations, the program selected the Latino community as a target group due to its long history of successful health education collaborations in previous years. Additionally, next to English, Spanish is the second most common primary language for Orange County residents and designated as a threshold language.

To establish pertinent information concerning the development of the messages and determine how community emergency preparedness was to be implemented, a needs assessment tool was developed. The assessment phase was composed of an instrument that refined demographic characteristics, ranked and prioritized most important needs related to educational outreach methods and emergency preparedness needs. Field interviews were conducted with 32 directors from areas that serve the target population. Findings from the interviews identified critical information related to types of environments that are most conducive for trainings, including educational tools, training content and ideas for interventions.

Based upon the assessment results, a culturally competent training plan was developed allowing these community-based organizations to be conduits for their community. The process of developing and implementing the training plan helped build rapport and strengthen relationships between the Orange County Health Care Agency and community-based organizations capable of reaching the target population in the event of an emergency. A pre and post test allowed a measurement of the success of increasing emergency preparedness among this special population.