Cultural Competency Program for Disaster and Emergency Management

Research shows that populations from groups that are most vulnerable suffer disproportionately during every phase of a disaster or emergency. Cultural and linguistic competency is an important way to provide high-quality services to people from diverse backgrounds. The goal of this e-learning program is to equip disaster and emergency management personnel with the knowledge, skills, and awareness to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) in disaster or emergency mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery to all individuals and communities.

• In Course 1, An introduction to culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS), you'll learn what culture has to do with disaster and emergency management.
• In Course 2, Providing CLAS in the preparedness phase of a disaster or emergency, you'll learn how to use knowledge gained about the community to provide preparedness and capacity-building messages in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.
• In Course 3, Providing CLAS in the response phase of a disaster or emergency, you'll learn how cultural knowledge gained about the community can help you better serve them during disaster or emergency response.
• In Course 4, Providing CLAS in the recovery phase of a disaster or emergency, you'll learn how to engage the whole community in disaster and emergency recovery and rebuild communities equitably.