notes: In the first few years of the program, EPI became firmly established within the emergency management industry and disability advocacy organizations. Since then, EPI has remained the nationally recognized leader in emergency preparedness for people with disabilities and special needs. EPI Director Hilary Styron and the rest of the EPI staff are continuing their national outreach, education, and awareness efforts to ensure that people with disabilities take measures to prepare themselves for emergencies; to ensure that preparedness officials across the country are including people with disabilities in the planning, training and exercises, and response activities being undertaken at the community level; and to ensure that people with disabilities are themselves taking an active role in participating alongside preparedness officials before, during, and after an emergency. EPI is proud to have established coalitions and working partnerships amongst the emergency management and first responder community, as well as several disability related organizations and their constituents. For additional EPI program information, please visit the EPI website at www.nod.org/emergency. If you need further assistance please address inquiries to EPI Director Hilary Styron at epi@nod.org. -> In the first few years of the program, EPI became firmly established within the emergency management industry and disability advocacy organizations. Since then, EPI has remained the nationally recognized leader in emergency preparedness for people with disabilities and special needs. EPI Director Hilary Styron and the rest of the EPI staff are continuing their national outreach, education, and awareness efforts to ensure that people with disabilities take measures to prepare themselves for emergencies; to ensure that preparedness officials across the country are including people with disabilities in the planning, training and exercises, and response activities being undertaken at the community level; and to ensure that people with disabilities are themselves taking an active role in participating alongside preparedness officials before, during, and after an emergency. EPI is proud to have established coalitions and working partnerships amongst the emergency management and first responder community, as well as several disability related organizations and their constituents. For additional EPI program information, please visit the EPI website at www.nod.org/emergency. If you need further assistance please address inquiries to EPI Director Hilary Styron at epi@nod.org. *** National Organization on Disabilities Emergency Preparedness Initiative to Conduct Trainings in the Gulf States The National Organization on Disability’s Emergency Preparedness Initiative (EPI) and EAD & Associates will be deployed in late December of this year to Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi to deliver a four-hour training module to select state and local representatives of emergency management agencies, and disability advocacy groups and service providers. In a one-hour class, these selected state trainers will then brief residents with disabilities and members of their personal support network in their respective states on how to personally prepare at home, in the work place, and other venues they may frequent by providing each participant with the Emergency Readiness Wheel for People with Disabilities and using this tool as the focal point of the class. The Bush Clinton Katrina Project aims to reach out to 2,000 individuals in each of the three target states who have or are somehow related to individuals with disabilities, and to equip them with the necessary information they will need to survive both man-made and natural disasters. If you know of anyone in the Gulf area who may be interested in training of this kind, please contact EPI at [mailto:epi@nod.org] epi@nod.org