Vision
All Washington communities have the information and resources they need to build resilience in the face of myriad public health threats and are well positioned to prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies and natural disasters.
Commitment
We will lead our response to health threats and emergencies in a proactive, effective, and equitable way that assures strength of response, supports health systems, leverages community solutions, promotes cross-sector collaboration, and advances health security. Our efforts will learn from previous emergencies and response activities within Washington and beyond to build resilient communities.
Key Strategies
- Respond with strength and decisiveness on behalf of Washingtonians and the communities in which they live to minimize impact on people and lives, sustain necessary response capabilities, and advance protections in advance of, during, and in the aftermath of a broad range of public health threats and emergencies.
- Collaborate with a myriad of community-rooted organizations, disaster response and recovery partners, and interagency partners to develop, share, and act upon key information in culturally and linguistically appropriate ways related to hazards and emergencies.
- Recruit, develop, train, and retain a robust and capable workforce prepared to respond in an emergency and institute planning initiatives to support response personnel in disaster response and recovery efforts integrating models of excellence and infrastructure advancements from a broad range of emergencies including the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Seek flexible and sustainable funding opportunities to invest in activities that support robust response activities, workforce, tools, and the communities we serve and that allow for scarce resources to be equitably allocated.
- Support and prioritize community-led solutions to mitigate barriers to optimal outcomes, survival, and resilience for all communities especially those most at-risk through a broad range of community engagement and response initiatives.
- Ensure resilience and behavioral health promotion planning and implementation efforts are key components of current and future response activities serving community members, partners, and responders alike.