Navigating Civil Legal Issues of Natural Disasters 1 - Disaster Response Network

Course Format: Self-paced Course
Developed by: WebJunction, in collaboration with Legal Services Corporation
Estimated Time to Complete: 4 hours

Overview

The first course covers the basics of the Emergency Management Cycle and the civil legal issues that are likely to arise after natural disasters. It focuses on the importance of building your network of disaster responders well before disaster strikes – the Preparedness phase. It’s likely that your community has some level of emergency response planning in place, but do the key community stakeholders recognize the role the library can play when integrated into their planning cycles? This course  introduces actions that the library and its staff can take to put resources, partners, and strategies in place, so that they can help patrons know what to expect and what to have on hand to support their civil legal issues that arise in an emergency. Learners will begin to compile a disaster response and recovery binder (DRR binder), a hard copy collection of reference resources that are the most critical information to access in case of a power outage.

Learning Objectives

As a result of taking this course, library staff will be able to:

• Explain why it is critical to incorporate civil legal needs into a disaster response plan before crises occur. 
• Recognize the civil legal issues that emerge in natural disasters and the timeline in which patrons are likely to experience them.
• Prepare a disaster resource collection, including referrals to disaster legal assistance. 
• Cultivate relationships and partnerships with local and state disaster response agencies.
• Motivate their patrons to prepare for disasters.
• Create a technology plan to get library services restored in the face of disaster.