Oneida County Encourages All to “Walk the World Prepared”

As a part of National Preparedness Month, Oneida County Health Department is kicking off the first phase of the “Walk the World Prepared” campaign, announced Oneida County Executive, Anthony J. Picente, Jr. The campaign includes short web-based videos in multiple languages that make preparedness manageable through the use of everyday skills and small, low-cost steps. “Severe weather and other emergencies can strike suddenly and have disastrous consequence for all members of our community”, Picente stated.  He added, “The more prepared we are as individuals and families, the stronger and more resilient we are as community when disaster strikes.”

Oneida County’s diverse demographics call for public health messages that are accessible to its multi-cultural residents.  The “Walk the World Prepared” campaign is opened with the release of the disaster preparedness video in English. In the upcoming months, the video will be made available in Spanish, Bosnian, Russian, Karen and Burmese.  The simple and easy to follow video will be adapted to each culture and language with expertise of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees and the Multicultural Association of Medical Interpreters.  Additional language videos may be released as resources allow.

“Oneida County Health Department has ample experience in working with diverse communities in emergency preparedness activities and has received national recognition for implementing strategies that meet the needs of those with limited English proficiency and language barriers” said Phyllis Ellis, Director of Health. She added, “We are proud to expand upon those efforts with the easy to follow English video and the upcoming release of the multilingual videos to provide all of our residents with potentially life-saving information.”

The first of the “Walk the World Prepared” videos is in English and available now at OCGOV.NET; announcements regarding the additional language videos will be publicized as they are produced.  Additional disaster preparedness resources are available online including the Oneida County Family Preparedness Planner and the Oneida County Disaster Preparedness Guide.  Multilingual resources are also available at Ready.gov.