Description
1) Advancing the Role of Equity in FEMA’s Risk MAP
Program
Johanna Greenspan-Johnston, Dewberry, jgreenspanjohnston@Dewberry.com
Co-presenters: Thuy Patton, hongthuy.patton@fema.dhs.gov;
Abstract: This presentation will summarize the historically
allocated Regional resources for Risk MAP to establish a baseline for equity
and to begin the dialogue on how to advance equity within the program in the
future. Like many organizations, FEMA
Region 8’s Risk MAP program is working to advance equity in its program design
and delivery. The Region is making programmatic changes, adjusting
prioritization processes, and sponsoring equity-centered pilot projects. To
serve as a foundation for this work, the Region, with support from STARR II, is
establishing methods for defining, evaluating, and progressing equity in a way
that makes sense for the specific geographic and socioeconomic context. At the
onset of this effort, the team hypothesized that the Risk MAP program
disproportionately benefits already well-resourced and politically connected
communities. The team sought to test this hypothesis by establishing a process
for evaluating how equitably the Region has historically allocated Risk MAP
resources. This mechanism could also be used as a baseline to track future
progress. Initial data-based explorations focused on understanding which
communities have received more resources and seen more mitigation benefits from
the Risk MAP program, and then how product coverage, quality, and use correlate
with factors like social vulnerability and planning capacity. Findings from
this effort are leading to a greater understanding of where inequities are
present and how inequities may be perpetuated through existing prioritization
and decision-making processes. Particularly in the context of Justice 40 and
other national initiatives, this work is helping the Region 8 Risk MAP team
drive program policy and decision-making in ways that better serve
disadvantaged communities.
2) Mitigation in Action Strike Team – A New Approach to Equity
Cindy Wirz,
FEMA R6 Mitigation, cynthia.wirz@fema.dhs.gov
Co-presenters: None
Abstract: When FEMA
released the 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, the message was clear: as an agency we
must find ways to reach out to make programs easier to access with a people
first approach. To that end, Region 6
Mitigation developed the Mitigation in Action Strike Team or MAST. Specifically, small communities often lack
the capacity to interpret, access, or possess the knowledge on who to ask for
assistance about mitigation programs.
The MAST was piloted in Louisiana communities impacted by Hurricane Ida
to address the issue of equity in support of the FEMA Strategic Plan. Mitigation used the Social Vulnerability
Index, published by the Centers for Disease Control, and the Natural Risk
Index, to identify underserved and underrepresented communities. Mitigation’s Community Education and
Outreach spearheaded the MAST project and developed a presentation using plain
language, providing an overview of the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
including Response, Recovery, Mitigation and Preparedness. The presentation
drills down to hazard mitigation, outlining the Community Education and
Outreach, Floodplain Management and Insurance, Hazards and Performance Analysis
and Grants and Planning programs and how communities can access these programs
to be more resilient. For MAST to be
successful, the state became our partners to achieve the overall goal of MAST. This partnership strengthened the MAST
position and allowed for the “warm introductions” to the identified
communities. Besides education, MAST
provides a point of contact for the communities to reach back to mitigation to
access Subject Matter Experts who can provide general technical assistance on
program intricacies. Communities
responded favorably to MAST, achieving the objective of the FEMA Strategic Plan
of removing barriers to FEMA programs through a “people first” approach. While the MAST is available in Region 6, the
goal is for MAST to become a nationwide approach to equity to make mitigation
programs easier to access.
3) Shelter From the Storm: Flood Resilience With and for Unsheltered Communities
Jessica Ludy, San Francisco District, US Army Corps of Engineers, jessica.j.ludy@usace.army.mil
Co-presenters: Lindsay Floyd, Lindsay.L.Floyd@usace.army.mil; Alev Bilginsoy, Alev.Bilginsoy@usace.army.mil; Emily Marcil; emarcil@umich.edu
Abstract: More than ½ of a million people across the United States, and over 160,000 people in California experience homelessness today— many of them living in and along river corridors, channels, or adjacent flood risk management infrastructure. During intense storms, unsheltered people face significant risks to their health and safety, their belongings, and to long-term well-being and recovery. At the same time, infrastructure operators haven’t historically had the support, training, or resources needed to both inspect and manage flood control facilities and ensure the well-being of unhoused individuals living near these facilities. Although issues of housing/homelessness and flood control are intertwined, they are often managed by very disparate organizations. With increasing housing insecurity and storm severity, integrated solutions are more important than ever. In 2022, the California US Army Corps of Engineers Silver Jackets team convened a series of interagency and interdisciplinary workshops to advance whole-community flood resilience with a focus on unsheltered households and communities. Flood risk management practitioners, health and human services professionals, personnel from public safety, and advocates for those experiencing homelessness came together for a series of focused panel and brainstorming sessions. They began building a shared understanding of problems and identified tangible actions to give shape to a vision for care-informed flood risk management. This presentation will provide an overview of the challenges and risks associated with flood resilience, infrastructure, and unhoused communities. Participants will learn both about workshop outcomes and tangible actions that flood risk managers can take toward building a more compassionate and human-centered flood resilience practice.
Contributors
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Johanna Greenspan-Johnston
Johanna Greenspan-Johnston is a Senior Resilience Planner with Dewberry, a member of the STARR II team. Her areas of expertise include hazard mitigation and resilience planning, vulnerability and risk modeling, stakeholder engagement, and policy analysis. At Dewberry, she supports local, state, and federal resilience planning and policy efforts, including leading the development of comprehensive coastal resilience plans for both the City of Virginia Beach, VA and the Commonwealth of Virginia. She has also worked extensively with FEMA, including leading the development marketing and outreach campaigns for the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), facilitating stakeholder engagement with advanced technical topics and research initiatives under the Risk Mapping Assessment, and Planning (Risk MAP) Program, and supporting equity action planning and strategy efforts with Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA). She has a background in architecture and urban planning and joined Dewberry’s Resilience Solutions Group after receiving her Master of City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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Cindy Wirz
Cindy Wirz has been the Community Education and Outreach Specialist for the Region 6 Mitigation Division since 2009. She has served as the Community Education and Outreach Group Supervisor for Hurricanes Harvey, Laura, Delta, Zeta, and Ida, bringing new and innovative ways to make Mitigation Recovery information accessible. Responsible for educating residents and communities alike, she has led the efforts to create State specific web pages, email addresses, and the Mitigation Helpline, 833-FEMA-4-US, to provide access to mitigation information on multiple platforms. She works in both disaster and non-disaster postures, acting as a conduit for residents and communities to find Subject Matter Experts to find answers to their questions.
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Jessica Ludy
Jessica Ludy is the Flood Risk Program Manager and Environmental Justice Coordinator for the US Army Corps of Engineers in the San Francisco District. She has over 14 years of experience and works with communities and other agency partners on water resources and other USACE technical assistance programs. Prior to her work for the government, Jessica spent a number of year in the private sector as a consultant (doing similar work), and a ~ 2 years in the Netherlands on a Fulbright fellowship. Jessica co-chairs the Association of State Floodplain Managers Task Force on Social Justice, the Flood Risk Communication and Outreach Committee, and she earned her Master’s Degree in Environmental Planning from U.C. Berkeley.