Current Activities and Priorities	Challenges to Accomplishing Priorities	Strategies to Address Challenges
NHSS/IP Priority to Build and Sustain Healthy, Resilient Communities 1.1
Encourage social connectedness through multiple mechanisms to promote community health resilience, emergency response, and recovery.
Theme 1: Maintaining continuous, effective communication and year-round network building
Reliable connections in place year-round to enable communication for disaster response between agencies	Agencies not having the financial resources, personnel, or time during a disaster to respond to clients’ specific needs	Create coalitions between agencies on disaster management before disaster strikes
		Communicate with and make action plans with city officials, and state and local government
Reliable connections in place year-round to enable communication between agencies and the community members they serve	Difficulty ensuring that all members of communities have received important disaster-related messages	Share information through multiple channels, and tailor those communication channels to each person’s needs
	Difficulty retaining mental health professionals	Help clients formulate a disaster preparation plan that accounts for many types of disasters
		Have trained social workers and physicians available to actively listen to people’s stories and needs
NHSS/IP Priority to Build and Sustain Healthy, Resilient Communities 1.2
Enhance coordination of health and human services through partnerships and other sustained relationships.
Theme 2: Forging strategic partnerships before a disaster strikes with individuals and organizations that recognize and value the need for planning for a community’s unique needs
Agencies establishing relationships with organizational partners can help in long-term recovery and resilience planning	Lack of knowledge of who can provide specific resources	Partner with FBOs, nonprofits, academic institutions, hospitals, police, public health services, other community-based services, neighborhood associations, and government agencies before a disaster strikes
	Lack of volunteer management	Maintain updated referral lists
	Lack of sufficient cultural humility training among volunteers
Bringing historical partners together who have reliably played specific roles in the past can fill gaps in resource generation and distribution during a disaster	Lack of knowledge of how to prioritize needs	Prioritize monetary aid distribution (contrary to material aid)
		Store electronic medical records on multiple servers and in other states
NHSS/IP Priority to Build and Sustain Healthy, Resilient Communities 1.3
Build a culture of resilience by promoting physical, behavioral, and social health; leveraging health and community systems to support health resilience; and increasing access to information and training to empower individuals to assist their communities following incidents.
Theme 3: Providing appropriate education and training
It is necessary to educate the community on general preparing for and recovering from disasters, the functionality and importance of levees and drain cleaning, and policy-level change and advocacy.	Lack of disaster preparation messaging to community members, organizations, and FBOs	Detect deficits apparent in past disaster scenarios, then offer trainings on those deficits
	Ability to train local, trusted community members and leaders (as opposed to outsiders)	Utilize community engagement in education efforts
	Cost of hurricane-proofing homes
	The effects of civil maintenance systems (e.g., zoning, permitting, building codes) on disaster-prone individuals and communities
Theme 4: Building an integrated system that enables rapid disaster response
A resilient culture is determined in part by how quickly government agencies and volunteers in construction, mental health, and legal sectors are able to respond to disasters	Lack of knowledge of services available in disaster scenarios (e.g., mental health, social services, partnerships, resources for people who are incarcerated or disabled)	Compile city or statewide disaster plans and make them readily available to the public
	The effects of disaster on agencies (e.g., loss of office space, staff displacement)	Bolster disaster preparedness among staff at agencies
	Disappearing infrastructure and economic opportunity in low-lying areas	Collaborate with Indigenous communities in low-lying areas facing seawater encroachment to fund relocation efforts, divert water, and elevate homes
	Displacement because of climate change mitigation efforts in Coastal Louisiana	Fund home elevation in areas facing recurrent flood risks

Note. FBO = faith-based organization; NHSS/IP = National Health Security Strategy and Implementation Plan.