A New Model for Disaster Readiness

Harnessing the Skills of Mass Gatherings Experts to Build Community Preparedness

Disasters are testing the strength of America. But we can be #ReadyWhen it matters most.

Weather disasters now strike every four days on average, causing $182 billion in damages and displacing 11 million Americans every year. Over 95% of Americans live in counties that have experienced major disasters in the last 15 years. Traditional emergency systems are overwhelmed and understaffed.

But there’s a solution hiding in plain sight.

Millions of people with the exact skills needed to plan for & recover from disasters already live & work in communities across the country.

They’re your festival producers, coordinating complex logistics under pressure. The venue operators who manage crowds, power, communications, and safety systems daily. Your local community centers and houses of worship that maintain trusted networks and serve as natural gathering places.

We've been here before.

In the 1970s, a radical idea transformed emergency response: what if medics returning from Vietnam received advanced training to deliver life-saving care before patients reached the hospital? Within a decade, accident-related deaths dropped 40% and survival rates tripled for people in cardiac arrest. It was the birth of the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) system as we know it today.

America is ready for a similar transformation today.

Disaster readiness isn’t a political issue. It’s about honoring the most basic rights of all Americans: protecting our lives, our livelihoods, and the communities we call home.

The infrastructure exists. The workforce exists. The knowledge exists. These aren’t theoretical assets—they’re active community anchors equipped with sound systems, kitchens, staging areas, and most importantly, public trust. They’re professionals who routinely “build a city in a day” at events—exactly the skills communities need during disasters.

And they're ready.

Ready for that last mile of integrated training to become critical partners in disaster preparedness. #ReadyWhen we design the systems to coordinate local response. #ReadyWhen we bridge the gap between everyday resilience and emergency readiness.

We can continue the current approach and watch our cultural infrastructure wash away in the next major storm, along with so many lives and livelihoods. Or we can fund emergency preparedness in a way that makes sense for Americans, at a scale commensurate with the risks we face.

Are you ready?

Disaster response starts with neighbors, not strangers. When professional help can take 72 hours or longer to arrive, communities with robust social networks make better evacuation decisions, conduct faster search and rescue, and provide more effective immediate relief. The people who know your neighborhood, run your local venues, and organize community events already have the trust, communication channels, and many of the skills to support coordinated action when disaster strikes, especially when those networks are already prepared and connected with local emergency management.

Time is running out to build these connections before the next crisis

In 2024, the U.S. experienced one Major Disaster declaration every four days, with 267 out of 366 days having at least one active disaster somewhere in the country. Over one-third of Americans lived under a disaster declaration at some point last year.

The question isn’t whether your community will face an emergency—it’s whether you’ll be #ReadyWhen it happens.

&nbsp

This isn’t just about better disaster response—it’s about workforce development. Emergency management faces critical staffing shortages nationwide. Meanwhile, thousands of arts, culture, and events (ACE) professionals already do emergency management work—they just do it at festivals and venues.

ReadyWhen formalizes what already exists:

Supply side: Young people entering events production are already learning emergency management—they just need the pathway recognized

Career transitions: ACE professionals running festival operations centers, coordinating multi-agency response, and managing real-time crises bring directly applicable skills to emergency management careers while completing formal certification requirements

Preventing burnout: Emergency managers gain opportunities to deploy skills in lower-stakes environments—building muscle memory for temporary infrastructure, practicing community engagement without the trauma of disaster, and maintaining situational leadership skills through regular use

AI-proof workforce development

Emergency management requires situational leadership—split-second decisions with incomplete information, reading group dynamics, building trust under pressure, and adapting to rapidly changing conditions. These skills cannot be replaced by artificial intelligence, and they atrophy without regular use. Working festivals and events keeps emergency managers operationally sharp while building community relationships before disasters strike.