McDonald County Emergency Management

A COAD or Community Organization Active in Disaster and a LTRC or Long Term Recovery Committee is formed under the local emergency management office. These organizations are here to help the affected areas recover after a disaster.

Community engagement can lead to a deeper understanding of the unique and diverse needs of a population, including its demographics, values, norms, community structures, networks, and relationships. The more partnering organizations know about their communities, the better they can understand the real-life safety and sustaining needs of the populations they serve. By establishing mutual partnerships prior to an event and developing relationships within a community, a COAD is more prepared to respond to and recover from disasters of all sizes.
FEMA’s Whole Community concept reiterates the importance of creating and enhancing partnerships between local and state organizations. In Missouri, The Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Service Partnership for Disaster Recovery (The Partnership), Missouri Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (MO VOAD), and the Missouri Interfaith Disaster Response Organization (MIDRO) play a collaborative role in state emergency management. These collaborative forums provide more effective and less duplicative services by organizing efforts and building relationships before disaster strikes.

PURPOSE
Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) is a collective group of organizations, based within a community or geographic area, which is composed of representatives from public, private and not-for-profit agencies. This is similar to a local Citizen Corps Council that oversees the Citizen Corps partner programs. Within some Missouri communities, a Citizen Corps Council may already exist and play an instrumental role in promoting collaborative efforts. A COAD should consider aligning or perhaps even merging with the existing organization as the goals and objectives of both groups overlap in many areas. A COAD will enhance the community’s ability to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters using FEMA’s Whole Community concept to engage the full capacity of the public, private and nonprofit sectors. These partners include businesses, faith-based organizations, community organizations, disability organizations, and community stakeholders, in conjunction with the participation of local, tribal, state, territorial, and federal government partners. A COAD’s mission is to coordinate emergency human services, thus ensuring that human needs, inherent in a disaster situation, are evaluated and addressed.
SCOPE
A COAD has a broad mission that will provide a platform for launching traditional programs such as a Long-Term Recovery Committee (LTRC), while promoting an inclusive concept to add more non-traditional programming into their organizations through the incorporation of the “Whole Community” concept. A COAD can be organized in several ways based on the needs of the community.
Most disasters and emergencies are local events, so it is important that the COAD and local emergency management collaboratively continue to build more resilient communities. Effective communication and cooperation prior to an incident will influence community recovery following an event.
Each COAD will include any agency that has a role in emergency management and emergency human services. These agencies include disaster services agencies; emergency management agencies; public, private, not-for-profit, or faith-based organizations, community-based organizations; disability organizations; and organizations with an interest in addressing a community’s emergency needs. The COAD will be a collaborative working group in which all the participants are equal partners united by common goals. It is important to note, all organizations maintain their individual autonomy as members of the COAD.