Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge

amysgarden

Inactive
Can your kids do this?

:ld: I just want to whine again that I wish I could have grown up a boy scout but alas we just get the sucky girl scouts. (stepping off whiny soapbox for now) BUT, I do get one son and I learn alot from his scouting exploits.

We are working on this together (with my 13dd) as we have told them REPEATEDLY do not rely on anyone to help you out- you must be prepared to help yourself.

Anyway the requirements:

1. Earn the First Aid Merit Badge.

2. Do the following:
a. Discuss with your counselor these three aspects of emergency preparedness:
1. Recognition of a potential emergency situation
2. Prevention of an emergency situation
3. Reaction to an emergency situation
Include in your discussion the kinds of questions that are important to ask yourself as you consider each of these.
b. Make a chart that demonstrates your understanding of each of the three aspects of emergency preparedness in requirement 2a (recognition, prevention, and reaction) with regard to 10 of the situations listed below. You must use situations 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5* but may choose any other five for a total of 10 situations. Discuss this chart with your counselor.
1. Home kitchen fire*
2. Home basement/storage room/garage fire*
3. Explosion in the home*
4. Automobile accident*
5. Food-borne disease (food poisoning)*
6. Fire or explosion in a public place
7. Vehicle stalled in the desert
8. Vehicle trapped in a blizzard
9. Flash flooding in town or the country
10. Mountain/backcountry accident
11. Boating accident
12. Gas leak in a building
13. Tornado or hurricane
14. Major flood
15. Nuclear power plant emergency
16. Avalanche (snowslide or rockslide)
17. Violence in a public place
c. Meet with and teach your family how to recognize, prevent, and react to the situations on the chart you created for requirement
2b. Then meet with your counselor and report on your family meeting, discussing their responses.

3. Show how you could safely save a person from the following:
a. Touching a live electric wire.
b. A room with carbon monoxide
c. Clothes on fire.
d. Drowning using nonswimming rescues (including accidents on ice).

4. Show three ways of attracting and communicating with rescue planes/aircraft.

5. With another person, show a good way to move an injured person out of a remote and/or rugged area, conserving the energy of rescuers while ensuring the well-being and protection of the injured person.

6. Do the following:
a. Tell the things a group of Scouts should be prepared to do, the training needed, and the safety precautions they should take for the following emergency services:
1. Crowd and traffic control
2. Messenger service and communication.
3. Collection and distribution services.
4. Group feeding, shelter, and sanitation.
b. Identify the government or community agencies that normally handle and prepare for the emergency services listed under 6a, and explain to your counselor how a group of Scouts could volunteer to help in the event of these types of emergencies.
c. Find out who is your community's disaster/emergency response coordinator and learn what this person does to recognize, prevent and respond to emergency situations in your community. Discuss this information with your counselor and apply what you discover to the chart you created for requirement 2b.

7. Take part in an emergency service project, either a real one or a practice drill, with a Scouting unit or a community agency.

8. Do the following:
a. Prepare a written plan for mobilizing your troop when needed to do emergency service. If there is already a plan, explain it. Tell your part in making it work.
b. Take part in at least one troop mobilization. Before the exercise, describe your part to your counselor. Afterward, conduct an "after-action" lesson, discussing what you learned during the exercise that required changes or adjustments to the plan.
c. Prepare a personal emergency service pack for a mobilization call. Prepare a family kit (suitcase or waterproof box) for use by your family in case an emergency evacuation is needed. Explain the needs and uses of the contents.

9. Do ONE of the following:
a. Using a safety checklist approved by your counselor, inspect your home for potential hazards. Explain the hazards you find and how they can be corrected.
b. Review or develop a plan of escape for your family in case of fire in your home.
c. Develop an accident prevention program for five family activities outside the home (such as taking a picnic or seeing a movie) that includes an analysis of possible hazards, a proposed plan to correct those hazards, and the reasons for the corrections you propose.


This activity is perfect for kids that see disasters all around them- it empowers them to feel like they are going to be equipped to handle the worst situation (not that anyone ever REALLY is fully prepared).

Amy
 

Old Futz

Inactive
That is an excellent outline for a young person, male or female. When I was an Explorer Scout (older, high school aged) we had a similar program and trained in it, including searching for downed aircraft, first aid training, and emergency mobiization. You might individualize it for your son by including some more likely scenarios for your own setting, such as earthquake preparedness, yesterday having been the anniversary of the Nisqually event in 2001. If youngsters have an interest in following up this start, there are Explorer groups, Civil Air Patrol, and Search & Rescue units always looking for new members. As former emergency management director for our town and its frequent floods I always appreciated young backs, old trucks, and enthusiasm when it came time to sandbag! In turn it also helps unify the community and give the young people a feeling of being a responsible, needed part of the whole.
 

barb43

Membership Revoked
Old Futz said:
That is an excellent outline for a young person, male or female.

That's an excellent outline for anyone, of any age!

Just rented a house to a young gal in her 20's whose husband is deployed to Iraq. Get this: she had no idea "how" utilities get into the house. All she knows is 1) you call the utility companies and 2) when you walk in the door, everything should work. I nearly dropped my teeth. Now, that's proving to be just the tip of the iceberg in the category "What G---- doesn' know", bless her heart. :screw: (Every time i turned around today, i was telling her to "stop that!" . . . "turn that off!". . . "Come over here, i'll explain how this works!" as if she were a little kid. It's really sad.)

Serioulsy, thank you Amy for posting that!! I too am printing it out and hope to get some mileage out of it.
 
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