 With a rugged panorama in the background, the swooping profile of the Golden Gate Bridge. Titles, this is an alternative approach to emergency preparedness, focusing on people with disabilities and the care providers and agencies who support and champion them. This is the Prepare to Prosper approach. A series of video images, a woman guides her motorized wheelchair in a crosswalk. Two wheelchair users wheel themselves beside a pool, one swivels herself in a circle. A cable car, scales a steep hill, a woman using four-arm crutches, exits a red convertible. A man with a goateed drives a van equipped with hand controls, and finally he greets the first woman using a motorized wheelchair. Title, Prepare to Prosper, the positive way to prepare for emergencies. Then the goateed man, James Lebrecht, hosts. My name is Jim Lebrecht, and I live in Oakland, California. And I design sound and mix sound for film. About 20 years ago I was in an office in the same building where I'm still working with the Loma Prieta earthquake kit. 1989, dramatic reconstruction, the studio shakes. It was a huge earthquake, I mean it was 6.97.0, and I'm just kind of holding on to a wall. Don't worry, this is just a dramatic recreation, but kids, don't try this at home. He presses the wall with his hands. Well, obviously here I am, I survived the earthquake, but this was a really big eye opener for me. So the message I got from emergency services was, go to the nearest stairwell and wait for help, or maybe go out to the balcony and wave my arms. He gazes at a stairwell. Are you kidding me? Could you help me carry my wheelchair downstairs? I'm going to crawl. Yeah, sure. All right. It's not always wise for everybody to do this, but I made a decision. I wanted to leave now, and I was able to do it myself. Before the next emergency, I want to be really well prepared. What can I do to prepare for an emergency, especially considering the fact that I have a disability? So I decided to talk to Anna-Marie Jones, Executive Director of CARD, collaborating agencies responding to disasters. I've been through some big disasters. Anna-Marie, not. But, you know, indeed, every day I come across a few things here and there, but I don't think that I'm prepared at all. I think the next time something comes like another earthquake or a flood, I'm going to be running around the building going, oh my God, oh my God, we're all going to die. Waves his hands. Can you help me? I think the first thing is to shift how you're thinking about it. Rather than preparing for disasters, I'd like you to consider preparing to prosper, preparing to be the best you can be in whatever circumstance. So don't focus on the disaster. Focus on building your resilience and your capacity to be who you want to be in that circumstance. So you're saying change my mindset? Absolutely. All right. Well, that makes a lot of sense. I think the best way for you to start on this quest is to really talk with other people, particularly people with disabilities. And I imagine maybe you have a few people I can meet. Absolutely. Awesome. So before I left my quest, Anna-Marie gave me a simple way to frame any situation. We break it down into three simple things. Number one, think. A graphic of a brain. Getting yourself thinking really well, clearly. Getting everybody around you thinking. Making sure that you've got the best wisdom that you can possibly have moving forward. Number two is communicate. A bullhorn. Making sure that you have as many ways to communicate as you can possibly even think of. Whether it's cell phone technology or just a sheet and a sharpie marker, it doesn't matter. Just your capacity to communicate with the people you love, the outside world, building that is a great, great thing. And the third is to mobilize. A flashlight. Mobilizing your assets to accomplish whatever the goal is that you've set for yourself. So think, communicate, mobilize. Jim Donza Fedora. So I set out on my quest to meet other folks, to see how they prepare to prosper. It winks. Jim, your everyday experience makes you perfect for this task. You are the one. How does she do that? In a hallway, Jim glances around. Next, the brain image. Think. So how do we get ourselves in the right form of mind for a challenging situation? Lauren Steinberg, seated in a wheelchair, she grins. So I met with this woman, Lauren, who's got some wonderful roommates. We sat down and talked about how they prepare for almost any situation. So I've heard this term, think, communicate, mobilize. Okay. Could you tell me what exactly that means and how do I use that? Yeah, totally. Okay, so the think part is kind of like the coming up mentally with your plan. So that A, you can kind of start to organize what you need to do, but also like, if you kind of know in your head what you would do in an emergency and you've kind of rehearsed it mentally a little bit, you're not as likely just to kind of freak out and freeze in the moment. But you're going to be like, oh, okay, this emergency is happening, but I can handle it. I can do, you know, steps X, Y, and Z to stay safe. Now outdoors, Joyce Jackson, a large woman, she waves a stick like a baton. Then I met Joyce, who's a poet, musician, and artist. She told me how she mentally prepares for any eventuality. They chat indoors. All right. Why don't you leave the way? All right. Do you have a checklist of things that you do before you leave the house or what do you think about? Well, like I said, I'm always thinking ahead, and I learned to do that a long time ago. You know, you want to think ahead in terms of layers of clothing to protect yourself. You want to think, do you need to have some napkins or all kind of little things can make a big difference, you know. You've got a wonderful attitude. What do you think that comes from and do you mentally prepare yourself? Well, yeah. I face all the same things that they face and go through the same disappointments and I get depressed, but I understand that that is totally changing moment by moment. She paints. And as I've aged and as I've also grown in my practice, which is a form of active meditation and as I've grown with that as my life in my life, I'm more lenient with myself in some ways to understand that this is the human condition. When you really start to understand that, then you're more forgiving toward yourself and toward other people. Kenzie Roby, he smiles and presses together his two braced forearms at the hands, forming an upside down V. Then I met Kenzie and his fiance, Angela. What do you do to kind of give yourself a positive attitude towards things? It's very important in my life. I'm not perfect. I'm not a saint. You know, we're all human and I make mistakes just like anyone else, but I always remember to go back to God and that's my strength. Marianne Tracy Baker, she waves from a convertible and then using four arm crutches greets Jim outside of home. I met Marianne, Anna Marie's assistant at Card. She taught to me about their fear free philosophy. We teach you. We give you the tools to get you to think of what your capabilities are and they could be different than somebody else's, but we want you to be in that thinking mode of what can I do and what am I capable of doing? What are your skill sets? What do you think that you can contribute? Well, I mean, besides screaming like a 12-year-old girl, let's see. Well, I know that I'm a pretty good communicator. I've got a pretty loud voice so I could certainly help people, direct people to go places they need to go. I own and run my own business, so I'm used to managing people. I'm pretty good with computers. I can even direct traffic. So yeah, I guess there are things that I can do once I know that I'm in a safe location. Recap. Think. Let's recap what we've learned about think. One, keep positive and focus. Two, preparedness is for everyday life. Three, brainstorm. Get everybody thinking and generating solutions. A wheelchair graphic zooms past right to left. Immediate action tip. Take an item and think about all its uses, even if it's kind of goofy. Anna Marie is teaching people how to think creatively and resourcefully. And everything as an asset. Great. Now, what I'd like you to do is spend just a few moments thinking. And you can speak out loud. You can talk to each other. But think of as many ways as you can think of right now to use a zip top bag. Medication. Medication. Matches. Matches. Emergency aid and bandage. Absolutely, emergency aid and bandage. Money, cash. Money. Bodily waste. Bodily waste. It's a teeny tiny, tragically see-through little body. Excellent. Hold on. A glow. That's a glow. Yeah, it's a glove. Pass. Pass. Pass, boy. The bullhorn. Communicate. This brings us up to communicate. As a sound designer, I love communication. How does this relate to emergencies? The communicate part is there might be parts of that plan that you need some assistance with to follow through on. Like for me, if it's 2 a.m. and I'm in bed, I'm going to need assistance to get out of the building. Or like, yeah, things like that. So just to let other people know, like, hey, this part of the plan, I might need some help with it. Would you be willing in that event to assist me? Or it could even be like, I was telling you we have the security in our complex. So part of communicating is just talking to them and saying, hey, I live in apartment 101. You know, like I use a wheelchair. I might need some additional assistance. Jim reaches into a bag behind his chair. One other thing I carry, of course, is a cell phone. And how can this be used to be prepared? Oh, this is very important. We use the code word ICE in case of emergency. And all the emergency responders use, they know in case of emergency. So they'll check a cell phone. They'll look for ICE. Oh, wow, that's great. Kenzie has an agreement with his neighbors. I have like a really big neighbor. You know, I let him know if there's ever an earthquake, or any disaster, fire, whatever, you know, can we call on you to come here and actually can you come automatically and check on me and just help get me out of the bed. Always good to have someone in the neighborhood who's willing to come by and check on you, whether you're disabled or able-bodied. If you think about it, it's in our best interest to have everybody around us prepared. You want to have a plan and you want to make sure that you communicate that plan to everybody around you. Let's recap the lessons we've learned about communicate. One, know all the different ways you can communicate. Two, share your plan. It's empowering for everyone. Three, cell phones are great preparedness tools. The wheelchair graphic. Take out your cell phone and put ICE, which stands for in case of emergency in front of the name of your designated contact person. If you don't carry a cell phone, put your ICE information on a card and carry it with you at all times. The flashlight. Mobile eyes. So we talked to people about the first two steps, think and communicate. But what about mobile eyes? I've got mobile eyes, look. Jim Shakespeare's head, eyes wide. Mary Ann has found a unique place to put her skip kit, which is a mini preparedness kit. I was wondering how you carry around your emergency supplies. I carry things in my purse, but I also carry things in my crutch tubes. Really? She pulls out the bottom half of a forearm crutch. Okay, I've seen the skip kit before. Yeah. And you've got a lot of the items right here. The six inch string for social distancing. Zip top bag. And the whistle. The sharpie marker. All on a red ribbon. Do you have supplies in your other crutch? Oh, absolutely. Oh, great. I carry more whistles, more flashlights. And there's the glow stick. And USB drive. USB drive? Yeah. That's amazing. And what do you have USB drive for? It has all my computer information, all my documents. So somebody, you can take this out and say, here's my, this is all the information about like where I live and who I am or my medical situation. Yeah, and my driver's license or my social security card on scan or whatever. So that got me thinking, I could use just about anything to prepare. It's best to start with something that's simple and small. That's one of the things that I'm always on top of. Making sure that cell phone is charged up. And if I'm going out somewhere where I think I'm going to be a long time or I think I'm going to have to use the cell phone a lot, then I might make a decision to take the charger with me. Just to err on the side of safety. I always try to do that. And I make sure like my earthquake preparedness kit, I keep it in my bag. One of the main things I do have is water. I try to keep water, flashlight, first aid kit, kind of like the bare minimum. And a thing I learned from Haiti is that people were saying that they had water, but they were cut off from that section of the room. So I kind of learned from their mistakes by putting at least water, some water in every room in the house. That's a good idea. I've got to keep my medications accessible. Kensi and his fiance are more prepared than they thought. OK, can we take a little stroll? Or in our case, a roll. In a kitchen. I can actually get stuff, even though I can't use my hand. Yeah. If there was no one here, I could just cave man stuff off and just kind of like get it. I can, it's wheelchair accessible. I can get the water on and off. So I can get to the water sources. I have especially long straws where I can get to them and sort of like get them up or whatever. If I were here by myself, I guess I'm not so badly prepared up for all that, I think about it. There are more things that they want to do, and they're taking it one step at a time. A lot of what I've done probably isn't a whole lot different than someone, you know, not in a wheelchair would do. Out in the back, I don't know if you can see, there's a big gray storage unit or base storage unit. And I just keep, you know, earthquake food, water, sleeping bags, stuff like that in there. But I guess the one thing I have done in my home that maybe not everyone would do is I really try to keep, like the floor space clear when I was setting it up with, you know, where the couch is going to go or where, you know, the table is going to go. I kind of had to think about, is there going to be clearance from a wheelchair just to move around day to day, but also if I had to get out really quickly, like I don't want to have space to do that. And then also kind of scattered around the apartment. I don't know if there's any we can see right now, but I've got like flashlights just kind of, they have little tethery things on them and there's hooks to the wall kind of low down. So if I need a light, if the power went out or something, it's within easy reach. Do you carry any emergency supplies on your chair? I do, I mean, I keep my backpack on my chair all the time. And at the focus group actually, they gave me a skip kit. It has like- Skip, safety, kept in place. One of the thermal blanket things and some hand sanitizer and like tissue and stuff like that in it. So I just leave that in my backpack. I have, it's not really like an emergency type thing, but I keep like rain gear in there in case, you know, the weather turns nasty. I generally keep like a water bottle and some like snacks or something with me, things like that. The one thing I definitely, I'm sure to keep all the time is my medical insurance cards, just because, you know, if you ever have to go to the hospital or have an unforeseen medical issue, like at least for me, the last thing I don't want to deal with is, you know, insurance and all that kind of thing. So I realized it's not simply preparing for a big disaster, but it's more practical things like, I can't get home or my car broke down. We always have to be in that mobilized mode, being disabled as we are. We're already, when people, they're going through their daily lives, we're, if it rains or something, we're already thinking about how we're going to go out into the world, you know, without slipping or falling or, you know, we're already ahead of the game. It's all about daily preparedness. If I get myself into this mode, I'm empowered for just about anything that can happen to me. Recap, mobilize. Let's recap what I've learned about mobilize. One, anything can be an asset. Two, start with one small step. Three, make your environment safer. The wheelchair graphic. Immediate action tip. Get a whistle and flashlight for your keychain. Make a shopping list, bottled water, granola bars, flashlight and extra flashlight batteries. Hey! Automary, how are you? I'm great, how are you? I'm doing well. It's really, really good to see you. Have a seat. I have met with a whole bunch of really wonderful people and each one of them taught me something different about how do I can prepare for disasters. Kenzie taught me how to keep supplies around me all the time. Joyce showed me how it's really important to stay in a positive mindset. Joyce Beans. Mary Ann, your assistant, showed me this really clever way that she keeps preparing her supplies with her. And Lauren and her roommates showed me a plan that they have that encompasses looking out for themselves and their community. So Jim, do you feel more prepared for emergencies and prepared to prosper? You bet I do. I feel like I can handle anything. I am ready to face any eventuality. I am prepared to prosper. Kenzie clasps his hands. Mary Ann waves from her red convertible. Joyce whirls her stick in the air. Lauren grins. Then Jim pulls himself from his chair to a chef's lounge. This is Jim Lebrecht signing off. Jim tips his hat over his eyes. Stay tuned for more information on how agencies and providers can prepare to prosper. For Care Providers and Agencies. For Care Providers. Next, a bald man in a suit coat. Hi, I'm William Weedemeyer and I'm a care provider as a profession. And a care provider basically takes care of people who need assistance. Meal prep, cleaning their house, taking them on errands to doctor's appointments are really important. If something were drastic to happen, drastic, an earthquake, a fire, something that everybody was affected by, we've recently entered discussions how best they can be prepared on their own. Do they have extra medication? Do they have a flashlight? Do they have an emergency kit? Do they have simple things, water, food? A network of people they can rely on in close proximity to them. Do they have a backpack just in case they have to evacuate their homes for three days? But how are they prepared and how can I help them be prepared before the disaster, be prepared for the disaster and really empower themselves to be ready at a moment's notice to be out of their home. An intersection. We want for people to be safe, particularly a caregiver, a caregiver by their title, by their character, by their personalities, they care for different people and that care does not stop during an emergency and if anything, it gets even more intense. So to really take preparedness and make it just part of how we interact with each other on a daily basis. What kind of supplies do we have on hand or you personally, you know, in terms of extra supplies? An older man will nance. Okay, got to have that. How many of water did he last me a week? I've got canned food. I see your pills all in front of you. Yeah, they're there. So that would be very necessary. Exactly. To grab those for sure. So maybe what we should do to be better prepared is have a bag set up, maybe with some extra medication or really the medication that you would need for at least 72 hours. Yes. Do you think that's a good idea? That's a good idea. Okay. And the other thing I see in front of you is all this equipment. Can you talk to me a little bit about what that is? Well, this is an amateur radio station and I use it for emergency preparedness. The radius is the world. Really? Yeah. Yeah, okay. Roger, Roger. W-17-Y-Q-A-A-S. It's me. I'm okay here. I've got to get it. Well, it sounds like you do an enormous service for the community operating on that hammering. Well, that's the idea. Yes. Now Lauren and her roommates stroll down an apartment hallway. Outside, Lauren uses a wheelchair lift to access a van. She's an awesome roommate. She makes amazing waffles in the weekends. And I don't know what else we do. She's just cold to hang out with. Go out. Yeah. Keep communication open. Be sure each person knows like what the other person is capable of. Lauren Steinberg. And also, like when we live together, so we kind of will keep each other updated of, hey, I'm going to go, I'm not going to be here this weekend. I'm going to stay at my parent's house or I'm going to be out of town. So that if an emergency happens, the other person knows, okay, that they're not there. I don't have to worry about that, you know. If they were like a backup aide or even like a new aide and they want to learn how to be more prepared, I would say ask questions. Emily Davis, housemate. I would say, Lauren, like if there's an emergency, who do you want me to contact? Parents, family members, do you have a working relationship with, you know, emergency services here? I've even been told, hey, go down to your local fire department, introduce yourself. Say, I'm new in town. I use a wheelchair. If there's an emergency, just, hey, I'm here. You know, I've even seen those little signs you can put on your door. They're only there for like pets that say, hey, save us too, but you can actually put them on your door for people with disabilities and say, hey, there's two people with disabilities in here that will not be able to get out on their own, possibly let us out too. If I was out at a grocery store and I felt an earthquake and I'm like, oh my God, Lauren's home by herself. She's not picking up her phone. What do I do? I'd start thinking, okay, who was in her phone that I was supposed to call? I might even put their numbers in my phone. I know I have both of her parents' phone numbers in there. Do you really? Yeah. I'd start calling around and say, can you reach Lauren? Have you been able to reach Lauren? Where are you? Are you nearby? I have a lot of the other attendance phone numbers in here and say, can you see if she's okay? I'd call the other roommates, call Mary, whoever I could see, is she okay? And then just get there myself as quick as I could. Really, personally. Recap for care providers. Be proactive and caring. Make preparedness a simple everyday conversation. Share your plan with everyone. Next, for agencies. A woman strides down an office aisle and consults with a younger woman at a desk. Sherry Burns, Executive Director, Community Resources for Independent Living. When I came here, I wanted to make sure that we had a disaster plan in place, that people were aware of it, that the staff was trained. We had Annemarie Jones come in and do a card training. My staff, some of them have been to additional trainings, either with card or with other resources in the community. We have, half of our staff is a CPR and AED certified. Some of them have basic first aid skills. We have supplies. Everybody has a three-day survival kit in their office. Launchback size. You know, so there's lots of things that I made sure to put in place. That we, as an agency, are taking care of each other because we're responsible for each other. So the staff is taking care of, our consumers are taking care of, and any public that has happened to come in is taking care of. Then we can bring ourselves back up to operating mode very quickly because if we're down for two, three weeks, or over a month, that's gonna greatly impact our consumers out in the community. Annemarie Jones. When we work with community agencies, we can help them help their consumers to just be more prepared in very simple ways. The top thing is to socialize preparedness, to normalize it, so that it's not the horrible, terrible, scary thing we do because something even worse is going to happen to us. Make it so that it's just the normal way that we communicate with each other. What typically happens is that people rally together and they find strength in places that they didn't know that they had. That's what CIL was about. That's the message of self-advocacy and empowerment. You'll be wrong. Center for Independent Living. That's our guiding philosophy as a community nonprofit that serves people with all types of disabilities. It's not fear-based. It's about what can you do to help yourself and how can we help you get there? Well, we have signage around the office that indicates different ways that people can be prepared every day for disasters and just preparing for minimizing the spread of disease and germs. We have posters in the bathroom that indicate different messages about preparedness and about sanitation. And adequate and good signage for everyone, not only staff who might know where the disaster kits are and the first-day kits are and the extra batteries and all of that, but anybody coming in can easily see those signs. The most important message that I can impart to my employees is to let them know that the agency has thought through our disaster preparedness plan, that it won't happen on the fly, that we are well-prepared, that to the greatest extent possible they will be taken care of, and that our plan is designed to have us up and running and serving the community as quickly as possible because we will be viewed as a resource for the community in the event of a disaster. For agencies, preparedness is one of those things that they can incorporate into their everyday way of doing things such that it is empowering, it helps them to be stronger and better at what they do every day, just their everyday mission, but also it's going to help them be better able to be funded for anything related to preparedness, response, or recovery. It will help them now to be able to link to different partners, different funders, different government entities. So everything that we're helping them to take on right now can help them for their everyday life plus building their financial resilience and building that partnership that we are always striving to have. A woman walks with a service dog. Our strategy is to be involved in all discussions. First of all, we want to be at the table with policymakers. So whether it's the board of supervisors looking at evacuation plans or it's the mayor's office on disability developing protocols for the fire department, we need to be engaged enough and involved enough to be invited to those tables and when we're not invited, we need... Jesse Lorenz, Independent Living Resource Center. There are neighborhood associations and neighborhood groups like NURT trainings, for example. The Neighborhood Emergency Response Team. A lot of people are familiar with the acronym NURT. That's what it stands for. And NURT teams are citizens trained to respond in times of disaster. What we've done over the years is had staff from ILR CSF trained through the NURT program. What that gives us is a staff member who's much better versed on emergency protocols. But it also tells the city and it tells the neighborhood emergency response teams that people with disabilities are not content just to sit on the sidelines and be taken care of. When a disaster strikes, we're going to be involved and we're going to be part of the solution. We believe that anyone who comes in contact with us should leave a little more prepared just from having either been to our office or come to a class. So we have a tendency to give the gift of preparedness and safety. So it's everything from whistles and flashlights and zip-top bags and it could be emergency safety blankets and silver material. That can be used as preparedness tools. We just want to make sure that with each contact people leave a little more prepared than they were before they met up with us. One of our swag giveaways that we provide to in our outreaches to the community and to give to all the consumers is a combination whistle flashlight keychain. So we have those available for everyone to put in their purse or their pocket or whatever, very small. And so you don't have to wait until you have some massive, you know, duffel bag full of supplies. It's just taking that one little step and then the next step will come easier and then you'll think about more things that you can do. Recap for agencies. Have a plan and share it. Empower employees and volunteers. Engage your community. For more information go to www.preparetoprosper.org A range of credits appear including James Lebrecht, host, consumers, Daisy Roby, Lauren Steinberg, Joyce Jackson, Will Nance, Marianne Tracy Baker, assistant to the executive director, William Wiedemeyer, care provider, Emily Davis, roommate care provider, Sherry Burns, executive director of Krill, Yomi Rong, executive director of CIL, Annamarie Jones, executive director of CARD, Jesse Lorenz, associate director of ILRC. Take action now. Program ICE, contact into your phone. Breathe deeply. Pack a go kit. Put in cabinet latches. Store water and food. Have extra medications. Secure your bookcases to the wall. Connect on social media sites. Practice brainstorming. Carry extra zip top bags. Download safety apps to your phone or computer. Keep your phone charged. Back up your computer. Learn to meditate. Program police and fire department numbers into your phone. Keep a paper copy of your key contacts. Take one small step today.