Ready Communities Pilot and Program Evaluation

ReadyCommunity provides a process to help guide the work of local communities in planning for a disaster. Facilitated by a neutral coach, the initiative fosters broad civic participation, creates links to needed assets and resources within the community, and supplies current data to help guide the planning process. CEDIK, the Community and Economic Development Initiative of Kentucky will pilot 2 ReadyCommunity sites. One site will be in Olive Hill, Kentucky. This is an area where we have been working for some time and an area that was devastated by a flood several years ago. In addition, we will be working in a region in Western Kentucky, on the Mississippi river. These counties have been affected by tornados, floods, and ice. Alison Davis, Lori Garkovich, and Rick Maurer will be the CEDIK faculty responsible for this project. CEDIK will also conduct an evaluation of the ReadyCommunity program in the four pilot states including Oklahoma, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Missouri. In addition, CEDIK will be hosting a national ReadyCommunity training in coordination with the Southern Rural Development Center. We will invite 10 state teams, each team includes 3 extension professionals (both state and county staff), the emergency services director, and one other person from the community.