State Public Health and Emergency Management Officials Launch Coordinated Campaigns to Make Massachusetts More Prepared and Resilient

Timed to coincide with September as Emergency Preparedness Month

BOSTON – September 9, 2013 – The Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) and Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) today announced a pair of public information campaigns designed to help residents take simple, common-sense steps to better prepare themselves, their families and communities for all types of emergencies. The new campaigns are timed to run throughout September, which has been proclaimed by Governor Deval Patrick as Emergency Preparedness Month in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“This campaign focuses on providing real-world tips and resources to empower all residents of the Commonwealth to be better prepared for emergencies in the home, school, workplace and community,” said Executive Office of Health and Human Services Secretary John Polanowicz.

Together We’re Ready – Massachusetts Prepared

Together We’re Ready – Massachusetts Prepared is a DPH statewide campaign which encourages Bay State residents, families and communities to make plans and prepare for public health emergencies and severe weather, natural disasters or other emergent events.

The $120,000 campaign is federally funded through the Office of the Assistant Director for Preparedness and Recovery (ASPR) within the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The DPH Emergency Preparedness Bureau developed the campaign in partnership with local health and healthcare organizations to include online video, print materials, local access television programming and components of social media.

Together We’re Ready – Massachusetts Prepared focuses on four weekly themes:

Week 1: Get Ready: Individual and Family Preparedness

Week 2: Get Involved: Join the Response

Week 3: We’re All in this Together: Considerations for Individuals with Access and Functional Needs

Week 4: Get Vaccinated: Fight the Flu

“We want Massachusetts residents and families to be informed, plan ahead and be prepared for all types of emergencies, from weather events and power outages to flash floods and flu season,” said DPH Commissioner Cheryl Bartlett. “Now is the time to come together in our communities to make Massachusetts ready.”

More details on Together We’re Ready – Massachusetts Prepared can be found at www.mass.gov/dph/ready.  

Ready Massachusetts

Ready Massachusetts is a preparedness campaign of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency designed to educate and empower residents of Massachusetts to prepare for and respond to emergencies including natural, technological and man-made disasters. Ready Massachusetts is the state’s counterpart to FEMA’s national Ready campaign.  

“The emergencies and disasters that we have seen over the last few years in the Commonwealth have shown the importance of and need for individual and family emergency preparedness,” said Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency Director Kurt Schwartz. “The Ready Massachusetts campaign is designed to help individuals, families, and businesses be prepared by Being Informed, Making an Emergency Plan, Building and Emergency Kit and Getting Involved.”

Ready Massachusetts asks individuals to do four key things to prepare for emergencies:

·                     Be Informed – Know what emergencies may occur and stay informed

·                     Make a Plan – Plan for your family before an emergency

·                     Build a Kit – Assemble an emergency kit

·                     Get Involved – Volunteer in community emergency preparedness and response activities

More details on Ready Massachusetts can be found at www.mass.gov/mema/ready.  

To further raise awareness of these public preparedness campaigns, DPH and MEMA have partnered with the Massachusetts Department of Public Transportation (MassDOT) to display messages and the website on MassDOT highway message boards during the month of September.

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