Justine Kozo
County of San Diego, Public Health Services, California
January 6, 2016

Partnering with trusted community-serving organizations to relay critical information to non-English speaking communities during emergencies is a national promising practice. The County of San Diego is building a partner relay to share information during emergencies with vulnerable communities. This article highlights the efforts around engaging the Spanish-speaking Latino community.

In the event of a natural disaster or public health emergency, such as a wildfire, blackout, or an infectious disease outbreak, reaching non-English speaking communities is critical and can save lives. Unfortunately, there are isolated communities that do not have access to media in their native languages and often do not receive timely, critical information. This reality is particularly true in San Diego County where over 400,000 individuals speak a language other than English at home and report speaking English less than very well. A recent report demonstrated that across San Diego County regions, of all individuals who reported speaking English “not well” or “not at all,” almost one-third reported that they were not prepared for a disaster. According to the most recent estimate (2013), Latinos represent approximately 33% of San Diego County’s entire population and this number is steadily growing. In the recent past, Latinos have encountered significant barriers to receiving lifesaving information during emergencies. By partnering with trusted Latino-serving organizations to improve communication and emergency preparedness, the goal is to empower communities so that the entire County will benefit.

One of the three components of the San Diego County’s ten year strategic vision, Live Well San Diego, is Living Safely. The Office of Emergency Services (OES) and Health and Human Services Agency, Public Health Services (HHSA-PHS) have partnered since 2013 on a specific project to address the needs of non-English speaking communities and access to information during emergencies. The target languages include Spanish, Tagalog, Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Vietnamese, Somali, and Karen. Activities have included community forums and one-on-one meetings with agencies to share important County resources and request their help with sharing critical, life-saving information in various languages, through a partner relay system. Additional efforts have recently focused on the Latino community. Recently, the HHSA-PHS Office of Border Health, California Department of Public Health-Office of Binational Border Health, Health Initiative of the Americas, and Project Concern International formed a team to specifically address emergency communication with the San Diego Latino community. In partnership with OES, the team has organized four quarterly emergency preparedness trainings throughout the County for Latino-serving agencies in San Diego. The team is participating in the Public Health Institute National Leadership Academy for the Public’s Health and the trainings are part of their year-long leadership project.

The first training was held on July 15, 2015, with over 30 community leaders from local Latino-community serving organizations, such as the Mexican Consulate, the Chula Vista Community Collaborative, and the San Ysidro Health Center. Topics included an overview of natural disaster threats, specific to San Diego; a review of OES communication tools (such as their website, app [the Spanish versions recently launched!] and the Partner Connection site); and recommendations on how to create a Family Disaster plan. The training received positive evaluations from participants. One participant shared the following comment: “For the Mexican Consulate, it is of the utmost importance to disseminate this type of information to our community to get prepared for any contingency that may arise in the future. For this reason, we celebrate San Diego County’s efforts to create resilient communities,” Victor E. Corzo, Head of the Consular Protection and Legal Assistance Department, Consulate General of Mexico in San Diego. The next training was on September 25th in the North region of San Diego, an area particularly vulnerable to wildfires, and there were 63 registered participants. From 2013 to present, over 300 community leaders have agreed to be part of the partner relay network.

Since beginning outreach efforts in 2013, and throughout all of the community feedback sessions and trainings to date, emergency preparedness has been identified as a priority for every community. There is a great interest in partnering to serve the most vulnerable, isolated populations. Among many lessons learned, the community has expressed the following: 1) during emergencies, individuals turn to one another for information; 2) social networks are critical in relaying information; 3) and community-based organizations are viewed as trusted sources of information and are relied on during emergencies. Building the partner relay will take time, due to the importance of building trusting relationships with partner agencies, and the communities they serve. Plans are underway for additional trainings beginning in January 2016, for the other seven target languages. “La base del éxito comunitario, empieza por la unidad (The foundation of community success begins with unity),” Eva Navarrete, Health Educator, The Dreamcatcher Circle.