Planning
NYDIS provides mitigation education and preparedness training to clergy, religious leaders, and houses of worship, as well as member faith communities and faith-based disaster human services agencies to build their capacity to respond to all hazards with skilled spiritual care, emergency relief, and long-term recovery services. Through faith-based partnerships as well as operational relationships with community-based organizations and government agencies, NYDIS and its members provide preparedness planning, facilitate service coordination, and equip faith communities and their leaders for readiness, response, and recovery. Our goal is to promote personal, congregational, and community resiliency.
Preparedness Planning
To mitigate disaster effects it is crucial to plan ahead of time by developing practical skills and partnering with others to maximize resiliency and provide effective recovery. NYDIS programs enable our member faith communities, their leaders, and faith-based service agencies to provide for continuity of their human service programs as well as their religious services in the event of a disaster. NYDIS programs also help faith communities build relationships with their neighbors which promote the new levels of understanding and cooperation needed for effective and skilled responses to all hazards.
House of Worship Planning Tools
HOWalert
NYDIS House of Worship Alert (HOWalert) is a free emergency notification system for all NYC religious leaders. Only used during emergencies and two optional annual exercises, HOWalert sends emergency information to registrants by text, email or voice messages.
HOWCALM
HOWCALM is a secure, user-friendly, web-based management tool that identifies and inventories the physical assets, programmatic resources, and volunteers that houses of worship, religious schools, and faith-based service providers can activate and deploy in the event of a disaster.
House of Worship Preparedness Planning Resources
Emergency Operations Center (EOC)
NYDIS maintains a Memorandum of Understanding with the NYS Emergency Management that defines NYDIS ’s role in disaster planning as well as relief and recovery efforts. Key NYDIS personnel are trained to staff NYDIS’s EOC desk, which centralizes communication between
NDIN Training Course: Emergency Rest Center
The NDIN Emergency Rest Center Course trains volunteers from houses of worship seeking to self-activate as Emergency Rest Centers (ERC).
NYDIS' Faith Sector Community Preparedness Program
Faith Sector Community Preparedness Program (FSCPP)
The Faith Sector Community Preparedness Program (FSCPP) builds resilience in New York City congregations and faith-based non-profits through all phases of the disaster lifecycle.