Communication and the Whole Community Approach

CERC Communications Plan

The model of Crisis and Emergency Risk Communication (CERC) motto is “The right message at the right time from the right person can save lives.” The CERC framework and its principles can help communicators provide the public with information to make the best decisions under incredibly challenging time constraints (CDC, 2019). A fundamental rule of disaster communication is providing information that fosters action to prevent, mitigate, prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and crises. This begins by developing a communication plan that is based on five critical functions: 1) customer-focused, 2) leadership commitment, 3) inclusion of communication in all planning and operations, 4) situational awareness, and 5) media partnerships (Bullock et al., 2020).

An organization should have a crisis communication plan based on its goals and objectives. Internal communications should be based on the organization’s structure and culture. That begins by defining the internal and external target audience. The plan should clearly define and describe the target audience based on the types of crises, such as natural (hurricane, tornado), technical (airplane crash, power failure), or man-made (industrial accident, acts of terrorism). Audiences include 1) the public – segmented by subgroups; 2) victims; 3) business leaders; 4) community and/or religious leaders; 5) media; 6) elected officials, 7) first responders, and 8) volunteer organizations (Haddow & Haddow, 2022).

Crisis Communication Social Gains

To build societal security and resilience, emergency management has embraced the Whole Community approach and philosophy to engage the target audiences described above. The engagement intends to identify and assess community needs and determine methods to organize and strengthen assets, capacities, and interests. The approach promotes a more informed, empowered, and resilient community. Communications that are developed and delivered based on a given community’s diversity, cultural norms/traditions, and its members are more likely to be adopted and affect the behavior change needed to survive and thrive in a crisis. Whole Community communication 1) builds social trust and collaboration, 2) opens communication channels on social media through groups, 3) promotes two-way information exchanges, 4) taps into current community communications, and 4) maintains ongoing, clear, and consistent messages (FEMA, 2011).

References

Bullock, J., Haddow, G., & Coppola, D. (2020). Introduction to emergency management (7th ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.

CDC. (2019). Crisis and Emergency Risk Communications Manual. https://emergency.cdc.gov/cerc/manual/index.asp

FEMA. (2011). A Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management: Principles, Themes, and Pathways for Action (FDOC 104-008-1).

Haddow, G., & Haddow, K. S. (2022). Disaster communications in a changing media world (3rd ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann.