Get your neighborhood ready in case of disaster

Learn the nine effective steps to follow that help protect lives and property in your neighborhood before, during, and after an emergency during free preparedness events hosted on Zoom.

Questions? Contact Skip Jirrels, Sebastopol Public Safety Outreach Coordinator at sjirrels@cityofsebastopol.org.

About Map Your Neighborhood

Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) is a unique program designed to help neighborhoods prepare for disasters. When a crisis occurs, those closest to you may be your greatest help. Emergency personnel will likely not be available to immediately assist your area. Being prepared and taking the right course of action within the first few minutes and hours after a disaster may help protect and save lives.

The Map Your Neighborhood program walks you and your neighbors through a simple step-by-step process to customize an emergency preparedness plan for your area.

How to get started 

A wonderful benefit of the Map Your Neighborhood program is that it’s a great way to get to know or reconnect with your neighbors. You’ll be working together and learning how to protect your families, friends and property.

A peer-led program, we ask interested neighborhood leaders or residents to attend A Leaders Training Session, provided for free by the Sebastopol Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). During this session you will learn how to organize and conduct a neighborhood meeting. A training DVD, detailed brochure and map of your neighborhood will be provided. Leaders are encouraged to limit the size of their neighborhood “group” to 15 to 20 households. Limiting the number of households helps maintain effective communication.

After completing the Leaders Training Session, neighborhood representatives are requested to schedule their Neighborhood Meeting within the following 90 days.

During the neighborhood meeting participants will:

• Learn the “9 Steps to Take Immediately Following a Disaster”.
• Identify the skills and equipment each neighbor has that would be useful in a disaster response.
• Create a Neighborhood Map (provided by Sebastopol CERT) identifying the location of the gas, electric and water shut offs.
• Create a contact list to help identify those with functional needs (ex. seniors, children).
• Learn how to work together as a team to evaluate your neighborhood during the first hour following a disaster.

We never know when a disaster may strike, but we do know that being prepared is the first step toward a better outcome. The first hour following a disaster is critical for survivors. The Map Your Neighborhood Program provides the resources needed to make neighborhoods ready for any disaster.

For further information, or to be added to our Sebastopol MYN Training email list, email Skip Jirrels at  sjirrels@cityofsebastopol.org.