by George Haddow and Tonja Rucker

In the midst of a disaster, city officials, emergency management agencies and relief organizations have enormous and urgent responsibilities. In addition, without deliberate, systematic planning, the unique needs of infants, young children and their parents can be overlooked.

Through its Institute for Youth, Education, and Families (YEF), NLC is working to highlight the importance of including young children in local plans to respond to disasters. This topic will be featured during a workshop at this year?s Congress of Cities, entitled ?Caring for Children During a Disaster: What Local Leaders Need to Include In Their Emergency Preparedness Plan that Addresses the Needs of Young Children.?

Young Children in Pass Christian, Miss.
The impact of Hurricane Katrina on the early care and education sector in Mississippi and Louisiana revealed wide gaps in early childhood emergency preparedness. These gaps include a lack of usable location data for first responders who assess the well-being of children in the critical hours following an emergency.

In the Town of Pass Christian, as in so many towns built along the 80-mile Mississippi Gulf Coast, municipal leaders also faced the seemingly insurmountable challenges of rebuilding in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

With seemingly everything in need of repair, Pass Christian leaders feared that the town?s 6,500 residents would not return. Today, however, Pass Christian is rebuilding and residents are returning to their homes. One service essential to helping residents return is the ability for them to find reliable child care.

?It gives parents an option so they can go work,? says Pass Christian Alderman Lou Rizzardi.

In rebuilding the local early care and education infrastructure, Rizzardi found strong partners in Save the Children ? a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, which works in more than 100 countries to ensure the well-being of children ? and Mississippi State University?s Early Childhood Institute (ECI).

With help from Save the Children, the town set up an emergency child care facility that continues to serve the needs of the community today. ECI has provided technical and material support to the town government and local child and youth service organizations to help them resume programs. Over the coming months, construction will begin on a permanent child care facility to be operated by the local school system.

Rebuilding and Preparedness Efforts
Save the Children, ECI and funders such as Chevron and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation are helping numerous cities and towns on the Mississippi coast rebuild and refurnish child care centers.

Cities can also connect with ECI to improve emergency preparedness for programs that serve children ages 0-4 and receive custom location maps and technical assistance for child care and emergency management agencies. ECI has collected and integrated data about licensed child care facilities in 12 states at moderate to high risk for hurricanes and/or earthquakes (Ala., Ariz., Calif., Ga., Fla., La., Mo., N.C., Miss., Tenn., Texas, and S.C.).

In addition, Save the Children is leading a project to restore and enhance the quality of 33 licensed child care centers on the Gulf Coast. When completed, this effort will create or re-open 2,500 child care slots.

Rizzardi says the lessons learned in his town are useful for responding to other emergency situations. ?A focus on child care was valuable in attracting attention and resources to the area. There is a need for national attention on the importance of early care and education and the role that it can play in rebuilding and economic development following a disaster."

Details: Municipal leaders can request location maps and related resources during disasters, update an Early Childhood Atlas developed by ECI that contains datasets about evacuation routes and early childhood services, or learn about advanced emergency preparedness training for local child care providers by contacting Elizabeth F. Shores at ECI at (501) 749-9076 or efshores@aristotle.net.

For additional information on Save the Children, visit www.savethechildren.org.

For more information on municipal early childhood initiatives, contact Tonja Rucker at rucker@nlc.org or (202) 626-3004.

George Haddow, a founding partner of Bullock & Haddow, LLC, is adjunct professor at the George Washington University Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management in Washington, D.C., and served as deputy chief of staff at the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Clinton Administration.