Evaluation of satisfaction with community engagement activities for disaster resilience at a national sample of local public health departments

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to evaluate local public health department disaster preparedness coordinators' satisfaction with community engagement activities for disaster resilience.

Methods: We conducted a national survey of disaster preparedness coordinators at local public health departments to study their community engagement with community- and faith-based organizations for community resilience. To survey the coordinators, we used the National Association of County & City Health Officials (NACCHO) database of 2,864 local health departments (LHDs). We applied a probability-proportional-to-size sampling design to generate a stratified random sample of 750 local health departments. We designed and pretested a survey instrument that was administered to the preparedness coordinators at the national sample of local public health departments. The disaster coordinators completed the survey questions on-line.

Results: Of all community engagement activities, local disaster preparedness coordinators rated resource sharing as the most successful activity for community disaster resilience. Resource sharing was rated ahead of communication outreach activities, organizational capacity building, and partnership development. Differences in the coordinators' satisfaction with communication outreach, organizational capacity building, and partnership development were not found statistically significant.

Conclusion: Resource sharing engagement activities have the potential to facilitate a pathway toward successful collaboration between local public health departments and community- and faith-based organizations for community disaster resilience.