Axford Fellowships seminar: Victoria Johnson

Victoria Johnson

2011 Ian Axford (New Zealand) Fellow in Public Policy Victoria Johnson launches her policy report Disaster Preparedness Education in Schools: Recommendations for New Zealand and the United States, and discusses the findings of her research into the implementation of “What’s the Plan, Stan?” a national resource for disaster preparedness education in New Zealand schools.

Victoria is the former Policy Director of the National Commission on Children and Disasters in Washington, DC. During Victoria’s Ian Axford Fellowship exchange to New Zealand she was based at the Ministry of Civil Defence and Emergency Management in Wellington.

12:30-1:30pm, Monday 22 August
Te Waahi Kōrero Room, State Services Commission, Level 5, 100 Molesworth Street, Wellington
IPANZ members register online at www.ipanz.org.nz; non-members RSVP to [email protected]

Report abstract:

Through efforts to ensure disaster preparedness better meets the needs of children, the United States government is currently considering strategies to provide disaster preparedness education to children and youth in schools and extracurricular activities. In 2006, the New Zealand Ministry of Civil Defence & Emergency Management developed “What’s the Plan, Stan?”, a single national teaching resource for school-based disaster preparedness education and emergency planning. This study aimed to assess the implementation of “What’s the Plan, Stan?” and identify some of the impacts of developing and promoting a single, national resource for disaster preparedness education in schools. The devastating earthquake in Christchurch on February 22, 2011 uniquely impacted the results of this study.

Seven focus groups in different regions of New Zealand were conducted with primary and intermediate school educators. An online survey of participating teachers and interviews with local and regional civil defence staff added additional layers of information. This report provides recommendations for a national outcomes-based strategy for disaster preparedness education, the establishment of a National School Earthquake Exercise Day and the incorporation of disaster preparedness lessons into established safety and life skills education programmes for children.