Wed. 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. MDT

For decades, social scientists have sought to understand how to best communicate disaster risk and encourage households to prepare and mitigate accordingly. Despite a substantial body of research around these topics, information does not always make it into the hands of practitioners and residents who need it the most. This session will highlight published resources and planning efforts designed to close this gap. The Principles of Risk Communication Guide identifies best practices for communicating hazard risks to socially vulnerable populations throughout the disaster lifecycle. The Homeowner’s Handbook to Prepare for Natural Hazards is one example of guidance developed to assist homeowners in making informed decisions about hazard mitigation and forms a foundation for a Communication Plan to reach the Whole Community for the State of Hawaii. The stakeholder engagement process used to update the Portland, Oregon hazard mitigation plan was designed to ensure participation by all stakeholders to achieve equitable resilience to natural hazards. These communication examples provide guidance, principles and lessons learned to more effectively communicate risk and mitigation actions to reach all potentially impacted audiences including historically underserved populations.