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Michelle Bufkin, AU Agriculture Communications Student/EDEN Community of Practice Social Media Assistant, recently interviewed EDEN delegate Conne Burnham.

1. How did you first get involved with EDEN?

I came to work for the University of Missouri Extension in January 2004 and because I’m in an emergency management program in extension I was asked to join EDEN as a delegate. But I really did not get involved with EDEN for several years, about five years ago I became much more engaged. Currently I am a member of the Exercise Group and Agrosecurity Committee. I have also been working on a COAD Guidance Manual update that involves University of Illinois and Purdue University, and has been shared with the EDEN membership.

2. What is your role of disaster preparedness in your state?

I work for two different programs in extension, one of them is a continuing education program. With that I manage training exercises that are specifically emergency management focused. On the other side I manage the community emergency management program, where regional teams throughout the state focus on assisting their communities in phases of the emergency management system. I coordinate that program and provide them with training and resources. On the state level I am a representative for the University of Missouri extension to the state emergency management agency. I am on three of their state committees. I am also on call in case they need additional assistance at the state emergency management agency.

3. Can you tell us a little about the work you are doing with the COAD manual?

I received a grant to work on the COAD Guidance Manual several years ago. Currently I am working to add an agriculture annex to the manual. I hope this will be helpful to people across the nation because when we have disasters in rural areas it seems that they seem to have the least amount of ability to recover. This is because they are living in a sparse area, and sometimes it is difficult to get them assistance. So this manual will cover how a community can help our rural areas more easily recover from some kind of disaster. I’m hoping the agriculture annex we are putting into the COAD manual will benefit a lot of people.

4. What has been your favorite disaster preparedness exercise and why?

My favorite exercises are the 12 exercises associated with Part 2 of the COAD Guidance Manual Project. Twelve local COADs signed up for the exercise and devoted several hours discussing their capabilities to assist their communities during a disaster. It was very fascinating to see the difference in organizational structures, what they had to offer, and how they would use the COADs. I think it gave me a much better idea about how COADs can really fit into a community. Before this I did not see how communities had engaged COADs as much as possible. I think this project really started getting more of them engaged.

5. What is your biggest piece of advice to other EDEN delegates?

Become engaged with the organization! If you just sit on the sidelines you get emails with all kinds of opportunities. Once you get more known in the organization you gain some credibility and validity. They are always looking for someone that has expertise in certain areas. I believe that if we are going to be a part of an organization we need to be able to offer the expertise and experiences we have, so we can help the organization as a whole. It helps educate all of our members, get engaged!

The National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF)  and Drought Response Across Agencies and Organizations Webinar

Friday, February 1, 2013 at 1 PM Eastern

The  National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) and the Extension Disaster Education Network (EDEN) offer a chance to take a closer look at how the National Disaster Recovery Framework was used to respond to the drought of 2012 and how it continues to be applied in 2013. This Webinar was requested by members of the  National VOAD  Drought Task Force and the EDEN Drought National Extension Issues Leadership Team. The Webinar is open to anyone, but may be of special interest to VOAD and EDEN members, and federal, state and local agencies involved in drought response.

• Introductions:  Steve Cain
• Colleen Callahan: USDA’s perspective on NDRF and drought
• Ryan Velasco, FEMA’s perspective on NDRF and drought **
• Arlan Juhl,  State of Illinois’s Drought Task Force and cross agency cooperation,

About the speakers:

• Colleen Callahan is the Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator at USDA
• Ryan Velasco is Emergency Management Specialist, FEMA
• Arlan Juhl is Director of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources
• Steve Cain is the EDEN Homeland Security Project Director and National VOAD drought Task Force Chair.

** Because Ryan is subject to Hurricane Sandy deployment, there may be a substitution.

The link for the webinar is —  https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/EDENDrought

Kim, Chair Drought NEIL

Join us for a Webinar on How to Set Up a Drought Long-term Recovery Group

The intended audience is anyone interested in the process of setting up a long-term, drought recovery group whether they are from a community affected by drought or from an organization wanting to assist a community in setting up an organized, long-term drought recovery group. The audience is for those providing assistance rather than those requesting assistance. This Webinar will be promoted to National VOAD members and EDEN delegates as the primary audiences, others who want to assist in drought recovery are welcome. The audience will learn about resources from National VOAD and EDEN and hear points from Lutheran Disaster Response on how they have used long-term recovery groups to help in past droughts. This webinar is jointly hosted by National VOAD and EDEN (National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster and the Extension Disaster Education Network).

When:  November 28, 2012 from 3 to 4 Eastern (2 Central/1 Mountain/noon Pacific)

Where:  Please go to this URL https://gomeet.itap.purdue.edu/EDENDrought . At the above date and a few minutes before the beginning time to log on as a guest, you will be able to ask questions by using the Chat feature.

What: 

• Opening and introduction – Bill Hoffman, USDA National Program Leader
• Updates on VOAD Drought Task Force and EDEN Drought NEIL – Steve Cain, Indiana VOAD President and EDEN delegate
• Resources update – Elizabeth Disco-Shearer, Texas VOAD President and member of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul- South Central Region
• Experiences in drought long-term recovery — Joan Buchhop, Lutheran Disaster Response, North Dakota
• Wrap up and questions – All on the above panel

Questions: Please contact Steve Cain cain@nullpurdue.edu or Abby Hostetler alillpop@nullpurdue.edu

Steve Cain

As Seasonal Drought Outlook (below) shows peristence and intensification of the drought over much of the country through the end of the year, I share with you the leadership of  the newly formed Drought NEIL (National EDEN Issue Leader) Team.  The team is charged with the development of  sustainable EDEN and EDEN eXtension drought preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation research based resources.  Working from a Logic Model, we will be building on the excellent resources shared by Extension Specialists and County Extension Educators.

Kim Cassel

Guest Post by Steve Cain

Steve Cain adds his signature

The National VOAD and EDEN took an historic step on March 15, 2011 and signed a partnership agreement. The agreement was signed by Bob Leipold, Executive Director of National VOAD and EDEN representatives Virginia Morgan, Rick Atterberry and Steve Cain at the EDEN Executive Committee’s 2011 retreat.

During his brief presentation following the signing, Bob Leipold highlighted the similarities between the two organizations. The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster’s goal is to reduce the impact of disaster through communication, cooperation, coordination, and collaboration. The Extension Disaster Education Network’s mission is to reduce the impact of disaster through education.

EDEN Chair Virginia Morgan pointed out that the partnership recognizes the values and the system that the Extension Service brings to helping in all functions of disasters. For National VOAD, the partnership brings a valuable ally in improving knowledge so that people in the U.S. better understand disasters.

Extension, with outreach in all U.S. states and territories, and involvement in disaster issues, matches up well with the VOAD movement. Recent disasters demonstrate the need for more individual and community disaster resilience. This need influences the VOAD growth and movement at the national, state and community level. The same need drives Extension to answer the call at the same levels to help individuals and communities prepare, respond, recover and mitigate for disasters. The EDEN and National VOAD partnership makes sense. The ideas for growth in the partnership are many, and more opinions are welcomed here.