2-1-1 Ventura County - Links to Other Useful Resources

The Center for International Disaster Information provides critical information services to other informaiton and the general public about international disasters and about those organizations responding.

FEMA Law Associates, PLLC, is a law office that provides legal and regulatory services to the emergency management community. The FEMA Law Associates' web site provides links to a wide variety of legal and regulatory research materials found on public websites, as well as answers, drafted by FEMA Law Associates staff, on common questions asked about programs of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and related emergency preparedness, response, and recovery laws, programs, and regulations. FEMA Law Associates provides independent advice to its clients - including local governments, public authorities, non-profit institutions, and their contractors affected by FEMA decisions-and is not affiliated with any government agency.

The North American Mission Board provides contextualized resources and opportunities to assist Southern Baptist churches with involving their members in North American missions.

Citizen Corps, a vital component of USA Freedom Corps, was created to help coordinate volunteer activities that will make our communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to any emergency situation. It provides opportunities for people to participate in a range of measures to make their families, their homes, and their communities safer from the threats of crime, terrorism, and disasters of all kinds. Citizen Corps is coordinated nationally by the Department of Homeland Security. In this capacity, DHS works closely with other federal entities, state and local governments, first responders and emergency managers, the volunteer community, and the White House Office of the USA Freedom Corps.

Disaster Finder is a service developed and maintained by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, located in Greenbelt, Maryland. You can search for information based on keyword or concept.

The International Association of Emergency Managers (IAEM) is a non-profit educational organization dedicated to promoting the goals of saving lives and protecting property during emergencies and disasters.

EPP is responsible for DoD polices and requirements associated with emergency preparedness, national emergencies, and civil defense.

NEMA is the professional association of state, pacific and caribbean insular state emergency management directors.

VITA works with the Agency for International Development (AID) Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) to provide an information and response service to the public at the time of an international disaster. VITA also works with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the voluntary agency community, including NVOAD, in a similar capacity for domestic situations.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is an independent agency reporting to the President and tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disaster.

Disaster News Network (DNN) is a news service that tells the story of disaster response and suggests appropriate ways the public can help survivors. It also facilitates information sharing among disaster responders.

Mitigation is the cornerstone of emergency management. It's the ongoing effort to lessen the impact disasters have on people and property. Mitigation involves keeping homes away from floodplains, engineering bridges to withstand earthquakes, creating and enforcing effective building codes to protect property from hurricanes -- and more. This is what FEMA has to say about it.

FEMA helps people who have been in a disaster. They also teach people what to do during a disaster and what to do before a disaster. Here's a page that let's kids have some fun while learning how they to help their family prepare for a disaster.

EMI provides a nationwide training program of resident and non-resident courses to enhance U.S. emergency management practices.

Small Business Administration assistance for businesses struck by disaster.

The Reuter Foundation is acting as a specialist news supplier and neutral information broker to the international disaster relief community, via the Internet. The AlertNet website is a non-commercial service offering both Reuters news and a forum for voluntary organizations to exchange information in order to help improve the speed and effectiveness of emergency relief operations. The home pages, including Reuters latest disaster-related news, are open to the public. The rest of the website is restricted to members of the relief community for the exchange of information which may be confidential.

The goal of Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS) is to improve access to services for all people through the mechanism of information and referral. AIRS meets this goal through its publications, international training conferences, and I&R clearinghouse. This organization offers a professional umbrella for all I&R providers in both public and private organizations.

Avert's site is dedicated to the support of Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) and their mission to do the most good for the most people in times of disaster.

Each year, the American Red Cross of Ventura County responds to between fifty and seventy tragic local disasters. From Westlake Village, to Piru, to the Ojai Valley, and everywhere in between, dedicated members of the Red Cross team provide vital relief twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. We meet the needs of those impacted by major incidents such as the floods and mudslide of January 2005, but we’re also there for the family in Oxnard who loses their home to a residential fire. We provide safe housing, food, clothing, prescription medications, and more. All of our disaster relief services are free of charge, and are made possible through generous contributions of time and money from those who live and work right here in Ventura County.

The Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) is a non-profit, tax exempt organization which provides immediate support to professional craftspeople facing career threatening emergencies such as fire, theft, illness and natural disaster.

The Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Response Association Intl. (DERA) was founded in 1962 to assist communities worldwide in disaster preparedness, response and recovery, and to serve as a professional association linking professionals, volunteers and organizations active in all phases of emergency preparedness and management.

Interesting articles and other resources, including one on Building Public/Private Partnerships in Emergency Management by FEMA Director James Lee Witt.

Empire State College is one of seven colleges authorized by the National Fire Academy to provide their Fire Service Courses at a Distance, offering a Bachlor of Science degree program in Fire Administration or Fire Protection. Courses are WEB based, interactive multi media or written communications format.

From the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Disaster Resources Web Site provides access to information on disaster preparedness and recovery for the State of Illinois and the Internet community. Information for educators, professionals, and the general public is available from the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service for viewing and downloading, along with links to information from a variety of state and federal agencies, educational institutions, relief organizations, and information networks. Site also includes a set of resources for teachers and other child-care or youth workers that helps prepare them for working with children who have been through a disaster.

IBHS's goal is to reduce deaths, injuries, property damage, economic losses and human suffering caused by natural disasters.

InterAction: The American Council for Voluntary International Action is the nation’s largest coalition of international development, international disaster relief and refugee assistance agencies. InterAction’s members include more than 150 US-based non-profit organizations, large and small, including secular and religious groups. Member organizations all share the same basic goals of easing human suffering and strengthening people’s ability to help themselves. InterAction coordinates and promotes these activities and helps to ensure that goals are met in an ethical and cost-efficient manner.

This site by the Arizona Daily Star provides information on current disasters as well as an archive section.

This organization's mission is provide technical assistance, equipment and manpower to those organizations and agencies which will be active in performing missions of humanitarian aid during time of disaster. Further, to foster a spirit of cooperation between those organizations and agencies who may be called upon to provide assistance in disaster planning, preparedness, mitigation, response, relief and/or recovery. These efforts are accomplished through the gathering of manpower - individuals who are technically proficient in a form of electronic communications; the caching of communications equipment useful in disaster and emergency operations; the creation of pre-planned communication structures; and encouraging networking between those organizations and individuals who feel a need to help their 'fellow-man' during an emergency.

The center's prime goal is to increase communication among hazard/disaster researchers and those individuals, agencies, and organizations that are actively working to reduce disaster damage and suffering.

Although disasters through the ages have attracted attention and discussion, the systematic study of disasters began afterWorld War II, Disaster Research Center, the first of its kind in the world, was founded in 1963 at Ohio State University and moved to the University of Delaware in 1985. It has carried out more than 530 field studies, focusing on how people, organizations and society react and respond to catastrophes.

VOICE is an acronym for Voluntary Organisations in Cooperation in Emergencies. VOICE is a network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) throughout Europe who are active in the field of humanitarian aid. Humanitarian aid includes emergency aid, rehabilitation, disaster preparedness and conflict prevention. VOICE was created in 1992, with a Secretariat established in 1993. VOICE currently has about 65 members. The overall purpose of VOICE is to foster links between these NGOs and to facilitate their contact with the European Union.

This is a nonprofit organization composed of volunteers who have been trained to search for and rescue people of the nations hit with a disaster, aid in recovery from the destruction, and assist them getting back on their feet.