Strategic framework for policy/government

Government can achieve exponential returns by investing in coordinated cross-sector integration between arts and emergency management systems. Every dollar invested in preparedness saves an average of $13 in recovery costs, and the following strategies leverage existing assets rather than creating new infrastructure, maximizing return on public investment while strengthening community resilience. The convergence of increasing disaster frequency, stretched emergency management capacity, and evolving federal responsibilities creates an unprecedented opportunity for government to build resilient communities through strategic collaboration across the arts/events and emergency sectors.

The foundation already exists: Over 100,000 arts and events professionals distributed across towns and cities nationwide already possess core emergency response competencies—crowd management, logistics coordination, crisis communication, and rapid resource deployment. This workforce expands to millions when including staff and volunteers from community organizations and faith-based institutions who routinely manage large gatherings and maintain deep community trust. Hundreds of thousands of venues across the country are already equipped for mass assembly, with existing infrastructure for power, communications, food service, and crowd flow.

The need is urgent: FEMA’s evolving role emphasizes localized resilience, requiring states and communities to shoulder greater response capacity while facing critical workforce shortages. FEMA alone operates with a 35% staffing gap (6,200 unfilled positions), while local emergency services report turnover rates as high as 36% and widespread burnout affecting nearly half of workers. With 28 billion-dollar disasters in 2023 alone and emergency management capacity at breaking points, traditional approaches are insufficient. Currently, emergency management agencies develop separate systems to identify and track community assets, while arts organizations navigate emergency preparedness in isolation if they do so at all—a fragmented approach that creates inefficiency and missed opportunities at scale.

What’s missing is the “last mile”—formal training pathways and integration systems that transform this distributed workforce and infrastructure into recognized emergency management assets. Rather than building parallel emergency systems from scratch or accepting this patchwork of independent efforts, strategic government investment can unlock the massive disaster readiness potential that already exists in every community.

1. Formalize a disaster-ready workforce.

Why it’s necessary: Emergency management systems face critical staffing shortages at every level. FEMA alone operates with a 35% staffing gap (6,200 unfilled positions), while local emergency services report turnover rates as high as 36% and widespread burnout affecting nearly half of all EMS clinicians. Arts and event professionals already possess essential emergency response competencies—crowd management, logistics coordination, crisis communication—but lack certification pathways and formal recognition within emergency management systems. Rather than allowing cultural venues to become economic burdens during crises by shuttering operations, strategic workforce development transforms them into community assets while providing career pathways for arts workers. Even during non-disaster periods, this investment pays dividends through improved festival safety and community preparedness.

Historical precedent: In the 1970s, Vietnam War medics received advanced “last mile” training to provide pre-hospital care, creating the modern paramedic system. Within a decade, this approach tripled cardiac arrest survival rates and reduced accident-related deaths by 40%. The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) transformation demonstrates how targeting existing skilled personnel with focused training creates exponential capability improvements. The program grew from just six paramedic units in 1972 to nationwide coverage by 1977, fundamentally changing civilian emergency response infrastructure.

Potential tactics:

  • Authorize states to use WIOA state set-aside funds (15% of formula grants) for arts-emergency workforce development partnerships
  • Create state-specific workforce development grants using general fund or disaster preparedness appropriations
  • Implement state tax credit programs for arts-emergency training completion and employer hiring incentives
  • Establish county/municipal workforce development partnerships between arts councils and emergency management agencies
  • Use Community Development Block Grant funds for local arts-emergency workforce training programs
  • Establish state workforce development board requirements to include arts and emergency management representatives as mandatory partners in local planning

In addition, at the federal level:

  • Establish dedicated funding streams through WIOA Title I modifications specifically targeting arts-emergency workforce development
  • Create new Department of Labor discretionary grant programs (up to $8 million per award) for cross-sector emergency preparedness training
  • Implement federal tax credit programs (similar to Work Opportunity Tax Credits) for individuals completing certified arts-emergency response training
  • Expand employer tax incentives through IRC Section 45S credits for hiring personnel with disaster readiness certifications
  • Direct federal agencies to prioritize arts-emergency workforce development projects in competitive discretionary grant programs
2. Incentivize disaster-ready venues & infrastructure

Why it’s necessary: Cultural venues serve as natural community gathering points with existing infrastructure (power, communication systems, large spaces) but remain underutilized as emergency assets. Most lack formal preparedness plans despite their potential as evacuation centers, communication hubs, or resource distribution points during disasters.

Historical precedent: During COVID-19, venues across the spectrum proved their emergency conversion capabilities. Seattle’s CenturyLink Event Center became a 250-bed field hospital, Dodger Stadium processed 12,000 daily vaccinations, and across the Atlantic the Cannes Film Festival venue became an emergency homeless shelter. With their adequate kitchen facilities, sufficient utilities, and proper logistics systems, these venues proved much more adept at emergency response than other civic buildings—for example, Denver’s McNichols Civic Center Building repeatedly struggled as an emergency shelter for homeless populations and migrants, lacking suitable facilities and more importantly the staff expertise and protocols for managing diverse populations with complex needs. These rapid conversions demonstrated that entertainment venues already possess critical emergency response capabilities when properly integrated into disaster planning, but only when adequately prepared with both infrastructure and operational systems.

Potential tactics:

  • Establish grant programs specifically for venue emergency preparedness upgrades
  • Create resilience certification systems for venues with associated insurance premium reductions
  • Develop municipal permitting advantages for certified disaster-ready venues
  • Implement state-level resilience hub designations with associated funding streams
  • Create public-private partnership models linking venue improvements to emergency management budgets
3. Establish and fund an Emergency Reserve Corps

Why it’s necessary: States and municipalities need guaranteed local response capacity, making investment in a trained, compensated reserve corps a critical security infrastructure for community resilience. Without formal recognition, compensation, and career pathway integration, communities cannot count on this workforce when disasters strike—and critically, information about their skills, venue capabilities, and availability remains invisible to emergency managers for strategic decision-making and resource allocation. Government coordination reduces redundancies and streamlines effective deployment by standardizing credentialing, allocation processes, and decision-making under unified command structures.
Incorporating arts and event skillsets adds new dimensions to response and recovery—from trauma-informed human services approaches to community engagement strategies—that can significantly improve long-term recovery outcomes, as already recognized by FEMA. Reservist corps structures create the complete pathway for cross-training and collaboration through joint mapping, drilling, and skill-building in pre-disaster phases, ensuring seamless integration when deployed together during actual emergencies.

Historical precedent: The Medical Reserve Corps model provides the framework for skills-based volunteer corps that can be adapted for arts professionals. MRC volunteers receive formal credentialing, liability protection through state coverage, and structured training pathways. The program attracts and retains volunteers by offering professional development, networking opportunities, and formal recognition within emergency management systems, leading to paying jobs upon deployment. Some corps, for example the Maryland MRC, specifically include “non-medical community members” like interpreters and office workers, demonstrating the model’s adaptability to skill sets from other sectors. Established after 9/11 when thousands of skilled professionals were turned away, MRC now includes 839 local units with 175,283 volunteers, demonstrating that formalized reserve systems can successfully bridge professional expertise with community emergency needs.

Potential tactics:

  • Allocate state emergency preparedness budget line items specifically for Reserve Corps compensation, training, and deployment
  • Create state disaster relief trust funds that include dedicated funding for community-based emergency response capacity
  • Integrate Reserve Corps funding into municipal emergency management budgets as essential infrastructure investment
  • Provide federal tax incentives for employers who allow Reserve Corps participation during deployments (similar to military reserve protections)
  • Create workers’ compensation coverage and liability protection for Reserve Corps members during official deployments
  • Use Community Development Block Grant and other federal pass-through funds to support local reserve corps operations

In addition, at the federal level:

  • Create dedicated FEMA Reserve Corps funding streams similar to existing disaster workforce programs, with arts-emergency specialists as recognized deployment category
  • Establish Department of Homeland Security grants for state/local Reserve Corps development and ongoing operations