The future of risk communications is community engagement

Risk communication is about empowering people and communities to build resilience and take lifesaving actions. From yellow traffic lights to tornado sirens, we encounter risk messages every day; however, when it comes to urging community preparedness for threats, we must move away from a “one size fits all” messaging approach to affect meaningful changes.

Hazards, such as heavy rain and wind, only become disasters when they meet unprepared and vulnerable communities. We must urgently address the barriers that limit individual and community preparedness and lead to disasters, such as language barriers, the inability to identify and question rumors, and lack of resources needed to build preparedness. Strategic risk communications can bridge the gap between threat awareness and action. When culturally competent messaging is paired with robust and purposeful community engagement, they become powerful tools to inspire resilience building.

Our communities can only take steps to prepare and recovery quicky from disasters if they feel empowered in their decision making. That begins with information presented in the right way, at the right time, and through trusted channels. Engagement with communities begins by asking questions and listening through two-way communication. Through active listening we learn about a communities’ culture and history, we can tailor methods and messaging that helps communities make informed decisions.

True strategic risk communication reaches the whole community, ensuring that everyone, including the most vulnerable populations, are equipped with the knowledge and resources needed to respond effectively. Developing targeted communications for specific populations means creating messages that are delivered in the right languages, reflective of the historical context of the place and the people, and aligned to the unique risks of the community.

For communities with language barriers, access to simple, clear, and accessible information is imperative for building understanding. Word-for-word translations are insufficient because words can have multiple or different meanings across dialects. By engaging a community, communicators can learn which languages are needed and identify partners to support translation and message sharing. This is work that FEMA is doing to meet people where they are and is an approach that UNDRR advocates.

The messenger is just as important as the message in determining whether community members are willing to trust and act upon the information. Effective community engagement involves building partnerships with community organizations to amplify messages. Through these partnerships, communicators can identify community leaders, including business professionals, religious leaders, and teachers. Identifying those critical trusted messengers coupled with finding trusted sources of information can reduce misconceptions and build messaging coalitions.

For the last several years, FEMA’s National Preparedness Month campaigns have enlisted community partners to help amplify preparedness messaging—including Howard University, a historically-black university, to help develop and deliver preparedness messaging to Black and African American communities; the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, to reach older adult communities—specifically those with limited resources, disabilities, living in rural areas; and, most recently, signed an Memorandum of Understanding with the National Council on Asian Pacific Americans to advance preparedness messaging in Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. FEMA even maintains a valuable partnership with the National Football League to get preparedness messaging into the hands of sports fans.

Finding and leveraging community networks to gather and convey information can develop credibility and trust before disasters strike. Communicators can build on these to express empathy, expertise, and honesty to address people’s desire for clarity in uncertain times and meet the moment with trusted information.

For those moments when we move from preparedness into imminent hazard warning—where we must reach a lot of people all at once—the United Nation’s Early Warnings for All (EW4All) initiative uses multiple tools to support early warning systems that are inclusive, effective and accessible to children so that no one is left behind. These systems provide safety alerts and actions directly to people. Messages as simple as “get to high ground” can save lives during a tsunami. Ideally, the combination of technology and existing relationships will get lifesaving information to people in the moments they truly need to know what to do end to end.

In today’s busy news environment, with more and more channels and platforms for information, it can be difficult to help communities tune out the noise and zero in on the right information. As we have seen during the most recent federal responses to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, we are facing a more contentious information environment during disasters.

False and misleading information is being generated at historic levels to sow distrust, making positive and collaborative community relationships essential to overcome the falsehoods. Communicators are increasingly finding allies in local news outlets, community social media, and nonprofit partners. Even in schools, partnerships are critical in promoting a culture of disaster prevention and preparedness from a young age.

Local journalists play a crucial role in risk communication, as they are uniquely positioned to understand and reflect the concerns of their communities. Their deep connections allow them to rapidly disseminate critical information during crises, ensuring that messages are timely, accurate, culturally relevant and help combat information that is wrong and being used to hurt people. All disasters start and end at the local-level, and all communicators need to remember that and shift strategies accordingly. A recent Pew Research report  finds 85% of U.S. adults say local news outlets are important to the well-being of their communities, and 70% of Americans rank local journalists as being in touch with their communities.

At the end of the day, risk communication is about meeting people where they are, as FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell has said since the very first day she ran the agency.

There is a renewed urgency to know our communities, and a need to leverage community partners and build a trusted messenger network. With climate-driven disasters becoming more frequent and severe, there is no time to waste.

The time is now to invest in relationship building, and for communicators, community leaders, and local news outlets to join forces and save lives. By forging stronger bonds today, we lay the foundation for a more resilient tomorrow.