In our post about keeping shared equipment germ free, Colorado Public Radio was thinking through an H1N1 “pandemic plan” in case everyone at the station “manage[s] to go down at once.” Advice for this kind of planning will soon be on the way from SAFER — a new NPR-NFCB collaboration designed to help stations stay on the air during emergencies. We invited SAFER’s co-directors to explain their project:
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SAFER (Station Action For Emergency Readiness) is a collaboration between the National Federation of Community Broadcasters (NFCB), National Public Radio (NPR) and other public media partners, funded by CPB. Our goal is to put tools in the hands of public broadcasters to empower them to serve their communities with critical life-saving information when disaster strikes.
SAFER will develop customizable plans to help stations stay on the air, online and in touch with their audiences during emergencies. An online manual will guide stations in developing (or improving) their business continuity plans. A companion crisis communications plan will show stations how to deliver critical information to listeners in crises. We will be at every public media industry conference in 2010, we will provide webinars and conference calls, and we will do everything we can to help you create a plan that will work for your station and your community, in your emergency.
We’ll be rolling out the manual and online tools by the end of March 2010. In the meantime, if you have a plan, will you consider sharing it with us and other stations? And if you don’t have a plan, will you make a decision to create one? To amplify your public service and make your station an even more valuable community partner? We’ll provide many resources and much help.
Also: if your station has a story to tell about how you responded to a local or regional disaster, please consider sharing it with us. We’re gathering case studies and best practices as we go.
Thanks, and here’s how to reach us:
Ginny Berson, SAFER Project Co-Director and VP & Director of Federation Services, NFCB
ginnyz@nfcb.org | 510.451.8200 x305
Gemma Hooley, SAFER Project Co-Director and Station Relations Manager, NPR
ghooley@npr.org | 202.513.2834