The creation of regional partnerships for regional emergency planning

Abstract

Regional partnerships for regional emergency planning are relationships developed between disparate emergency planning stakeholders from multiple jurisdictions and with different missions. Regional partnerships are essential for the management of limited resources and for responding to large-scale disasters that can overwhelm local resources. Emergency response planners develop these partnerships as needs develop within their own jurisdictions or in response to lessons learned from previous disaster responses. This paper discusses a model process for developing or enhancing an all-hazards regional emergency planning network to create regional collaboration and resource allocation. This model process can be adapted and customised in any community to develop partnerships between communities, public agencies, non-governmental organisations, faith-based organisations and the private sector within a region. The model process and how to use it in communities will be discussed, including a qualitative analysis of its application.