Disaster Resistant Communities Initiative: Focus Group Analysis
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Date
2000
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Abstract
Description
In Fall 1997, the Disaster Research Center began a two-year study on the development and
implementation of Project Impact in the seven communities that were chosen as pilot sites for the
program: Allegany County, Maryland; Deerfield Beach, Florida; Oakland, California; Pascagoula,
Mississippi; Seattle, Washington; Tucker County and Randolph County, West Virginia; and
Wilmington, North Carolina. These seven communities were each given a million dollars to enhance
their disaster resistance through mitigation projects, public education activities, and the development
of public-private partnerships. Earlier DRC reports on the lessons learned by these communities
during the first year in this new program were intended to provide the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) with feedback on the types of challenges the communities faced, the
processes they had established to manage Project Impact, the types of activities they had undertaken,
and the benefits or opportunities they derived from participating in the program. In late 1997, FEMA
brought another fifty communities into Project Impact.
Keywords
Project Impact, Focus Group, Partnerships, Education, FEMA