Next Steps

Three people looking at a computer.In a community, this systematic process can be used by all emergency planners to work together to define, locate and reach at-risk populations. It is hoped that everyone exploring the process will work to connect with one another and to coordinate their activities. Now that the process is complete, you will need to continue strengthening the relationships that you have developed.

Exercise your network with drills and preparedness exercises. Include your COIN members in preparedness exercises and drills to test their capability to disseminate information to the at-risk populations they represent. Using the information in your database, plan and carry out a simple drill to test your network using an e-mail message. Before the test, alert COIN members and give instructions for their response.

At the appointed time and day, send an e-mail test to the network members. Consider including information on individual emergency preparedness in the email to COIN members to promote public education events or activities. You might even consider using your network to disseminate non-emergency public health messages periodically. As you get more experience and a better understanding of your network membership, it will become easier to separate groups for different message dissemination purposes.

When exercising the capacity of the network for information dissemination, look for gaps in message delivery. Questions that you and your COIN members should ask include:

These exercises should generate after-action reports that will outline the gaps in your emergency communications and preparedness plans. Be sure to revise and update your preparedness plans based upon the after-action report findings.

Continue to include your network in preparedness planning and exercises for at-risk populations and regularly repeat the cycle to:

Jigsaw puzzle with the word "Community" on it.Expand your scope. Once you have been able to successfully define, locate, and reach members of your initial at-risk population groups, you can expand your initiative to include more groups using the same steps you followed in each phase of this process.

Other ways to expand your scope in this work include:

We encourage you to make the connections to build a robust and functional COIN that will serve your community well during an emergency.

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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Department of Health and Human Services · Centers for Disease Control and Prevention · Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response