Academy Receives $2.56 Million Grant from Kellogg Foundation to Engage Communities in Developing Bioterrorism Preparedness Plans

NEW YORK CITY, May 15 ??? The Center for the Advancement of Collaborative Strategies in Health at The New York Academy of Medicine has been awarded a $2.56 million grant to engage more community residents in developing local terrorism preparedness plans that better address their concerns and needs.

The four-year grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation will kick off with a national survey that will explore what ???preparedness??? means to people around the country and gather information that can inform and strengthen planning at national, state, and local levels. The Center will then fund demonstration projects in a handful of communities nationwide to meaningfully engage community residents and the public and private sectors in local preparedness planning.

The partnerships that are created and the plans they produce will demonstrate the significant difference that public involvement makes in forging meaningful response strategies. Communities nationwide will then have a model to follow to ensure that the public???s views are adequately reflected in preparedness strategies. As a result, communities will be better equipped to respond effectively to terrorist attacks and other emergencies, said Dr. Roz D. Lasker, Director of the Academy???s Center.

???It???s not enough for people to be aware of plans. They need to be involved in developing them,??? Lasker said. ???If the planning process does not build a stronger sense of trust and community how can we expect people confronted with a terrorist attack to do anything other than fend for themselves????

Although the federal government has urged citizens to make personal preparedness plans??? to pack an emergency food supply kit, for example, and keep duct tape and plastic on hand to seal windows from contaminated air???many questions remain about how to achieve terrorism preparedness on the community-wide level. Considering that the threat of terrorism is a real and growing concern to people around the country, now is an opportune time to take the nation???s pulse on this issue, Lasker said. ???Obviously, the issue of terrorism preparedness is real and is not going to go away,??? she said. ???If there???s one area where people have been left out, it???s this.???

To ensure that the local demonstration projects are as successful as possible, The Center will build upon what it and the Kellogg Foundation have learned about meaningful community engagement and successful collaboration. Both played key roles in the Turning Point initiative, in which 41 urban and rural communities identified ways to use collaboration to address regional health problems. Drawing upon this knowledge base will be critical, considering that many previous attempts to engage diverse people and organizations in public planning efforts have not succeeded.

???The Center's experience with the Turning Point partnerships and its work in fostering community engagement put them in the forefront of providing the tools and information that can demonstrate the value of community participation in responding to public health threats," said Barbara Sabol, Program Director for the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. "It is our hope that this work will stimulate communities across the country to engage and mobilize community members in community preparedness efforts."

The random-digit dial telephone survey will involve about 3,000 people from a broad range of racial, ethic and socioeconomic backgrounds. It will be crafted with input from policy makers and people from different backgrounds and regions of the country to assure that it is relevant to peoples' lives and to the work of government planners. The survey will explore issues including how well informed people are about their community???s terrorism preparedness plan, and how confident they are that they will get information, drugs and assistance if an attack occurs. For example, if the survey shows that people feel they will not be able to get ready access to antibiotics, the preparedness plans must address that issue. Significantly, the survey will also question people about who they trust. If that person happens to be a local pharmacist, then the pharmacist should be included in the planning loop, Lasker said. The survey will also ask people whether helping to develop their community???s preparedness plan would ease their personal fears and anxieties.

???We???re going to start finding out what the real practical issues are that people are concerned about, like, how am I going to get my kids from school in the event of a terrorist attack???? Lasker said. ???We want to find out where people are coming from, what they are concerned about, what would make them feel more secure in general, so we can get some idea of who should be involved in the planning process.???

Lasker noted that this is unexplored terrain and will provide invaluable information to policy-makers. The survey will be especially useful in documenting the different opinions held by different groups of people. It will compare the perspectives of people in New York and Washington, D.C., the two cities most recently affected by terrorist attacks, with each other and with areas of the nation that were not attacked. It will also compare the perspectives of people from urban and rural regions, those from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, those in different socioeconomic groups, and those with and without health insurance. Interviews will be conducted in English and Spanish by a reputable national survey firm. Survey results will be shared in early 2004 at meetings with the nation???s governors, mayors and health officials, who can then take local action.

THE W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 ???to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.??? The New York Academy of Medicine is a non-profit institution founded in 1847 that is dedicated to enhancing the health of the public through research, education and advocacy, with a particular focus on urban populations, especially the disadvantaged.

Posted on May 15, 2003

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