The Institute for Global and Regional ReadinessTM
Purpose statement: The Institute for Global and Regional Readiness is a non-profit organization designed to provide rapid access to empirically based, actionable information that empowers and enables individuals and organizations to prepare and effectively manage themselves and their workplace before, during, and after events related to terrorism or natural disasters.
Description of activities: The Institute for Global and Regional Readiness (IGR Ready) is a centralized hub for actionable information related to terrorism and disaster preparedness. IGR Ready establishes a process for managing expectations and empowering and enabling individuals and organizations to optimize outcomes in disaster and terrorism related events. The overall goal is to create a cultural shift in individual and institutional preparedness. To this end, IGR Ready focuses on three major objectives and provides a one stop shop for: Coordinating, de-conflicting, validating, and defining limitations of existing readiness information; Projecting optimal operational solutions within the context of parallel systems, considering second and third order effects of existing “stove-piped” solutions; and Optimizing information delivery using human factors data to speak the way individuals “hear.” Through these objectives IGR Ready will provide a “best bang for the buck” resource for the public and exponentially increase readiness through prioritization of effort while reducing overall cost of existing preparedness programs.
Background: Basic information necessary for global and regional readiness is often incomplete. The Institute establishes a collaborative tool set to build on the myriad of existing disaster and terrorism management programs, de-conflicts and cross-references the data, and provides an interpretation of what that information means not only to emergency management professionals, but also to non-emergency management individuals and organizations. Through the use of specifically categorized subject matter experts, the Institute, using empirical data and consensus driven outcome measurements, provides a “consumer reports” type of activity for the public. By defining terms and cross-walking the information across different functional areas (i.e. medical, law enforcement, intelligence, transportation, etc.), the Institute will provide a public service in sorting fact from fiction in basic data. For example, during a disaster, the world gets information from the media, politicians, scientists, and instant experts who may or may not be presenting a holistic, validated characterization of the event. The Institute will be the “go to” place for understanding and planning as well as just-in-time information as disasters evolve. IGR Ready uses a systems management approach in analyzing and validating information. We classify our extensive pool of experts into their level and type of expertise. We then use the appropriate experts to cross-level the issues in an evolving process that establishes the complexities of realistic scenarios. The validation process includes statistical methods to link decision algorithms or decision trees with measurable outcomes. This unique information validation process establishes the Institute as an integration platform that will be available to other organizations as they build more comprehensive applications for today’s complex environment. Through a visionary process of linking projected events and response activities with outcomes, the Institute will help individuals and organizations see the “unexpected” - leading to accountability for human capital as well as financial investments. The knowledge transfer will drive a cultural shift in how populations address preparedness and become “ready” for complex disasters.
For more information Contact: Donna.Barbisch@IGRReady.org Biography MS Word - PDF