2015’s theme is Don’t Wait. Communicate. Make Your Emergency Plan Today.

September is National Preparedness Month. This year we are asking you to take action now – make a plan with your community, your family, and for your pets. Plan how to stay safe and communicate during the disasters that can affect your community. We ask everyone to participate in America’s PrepareAthon! and the national day of action, National PrepareAthon! Day, which culminates National Preparedness Month on September 30.

Here are some things you can do to get started:

Download the National Preparedness Month toolkit

In this toolkit, you will find useful tips on how to promote preparedness by using graphics, videos and text to promote through social media.

Check out Weekly Themes

Each week in September will focus on a specific hazard. We will post resources and tips to raise awareness to help you learn more about the hazard.

Continue the momentum by participating in National PrepareAthon! Day on September 30. Join America’s PrepareAthon! and register your own event or join other activities and events. Go to America’s PrepareAthon! to select your activity.

Get started now!

New Jersey Libraries and Emergency Preparedness

The New Jersey State Library and the New Jersey Library Association are asking libraries, “What can we do to make our communities better prepared for emergencies?” With over 450 locations across New Jersey, our libraries can play a major role in community preparedness and resiliency.

The New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and the Regional FEMA Office are requesting the help of libraries to spread the following information to their communities:

For the first 10 days of September we would like to emphasize the concept of Get Connected and Make a Disaster Supply Kit
For September 11 -20 we would like to emphasize Have a Communication Plan
For September 21-30 we would like to emphasize Include Your Pet(s) in Your Emergency Planning

Let’s spread the word! Print flyers, advertise on social media, create displays, have events, talk to patrons, and whatever else you can do.

Find the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management (NJOEM) on social media.

Planning Activities

NJLA and the NJ State Library are asking all libraries to plan activities during September for National Emergency Preparedness Month. There are many simple activities you can do in your own communities. Please check out all the links including the three attachments at the bottom of the page for more information. These three attachments can easily be photocopied for an instant display. We have also developed a template for bookmarks you can reproduce for your patrons here:
http://njla.org/sites/default/files/njlaemergbookmarks.pdf

In cooperation with the office of Assemblywoman Quijano and the New Jersey State Library, the New Jersey Library Association is asking libraries, “What can we do to make our communities better prepared for emergencies?” With over 450 locations across New Jersey, our libraries can play a major role in community preparedness and resilency. Let’s check each of these off and make our communities safer. Be sure to register your event with http://community.fema.gov/

Plan a blood drive – Close to 2,000 donations are needed each day in the New York/New Jersey community for patients who require a lifesaving blood and/or platelet transfusion. Donating blood today will save many lives tomorrow.
Contact: Shauna Lynch, 732.616.8736, slynch@nybloodcenter.org
Contact Local OEM – Click here to find your local OEM. Distribute handouts about being prepared for emergencies, including emergency kit checklists. Promote CERT Teams/Teen CERT & Medical Reserve Corps. CERT teams are designed to make individuals, their families and their communities safer, stronger and better prepared to deal with a terrorist attack or a natural disaster. Print out your own bookmarks here.

Create/update your library’s Emergency Response Plan – Is your library prepared to operate through and after an emergency? Take the Red Cross Assessment: http://www.redcross.org/prepare/location/workplace

Have a program in your library – Invite a fireman, policeman, OEM coordinator or CERT team members for a program about preparedness.Click here for some children’s programing ideas.Check out our Pinterest board for ideas, including having library users create their own emergency preparedness items.