This week’s recap: snow days. Bowling. Karaoke. Movies. Swing dance lessons.

Of course that’s not all we’ve done this week. We’ve still been busy with training and planning everyday, but we’ve had some much-needed downtime. After being inducted next week, we will head to Vicksburg, Mississippi for FEMA Corps Academy. After that we finally begin our first round projects (location still TBD).

In Vicksburg, we’ll be receiving training in our specific tasks. As I mentioned in my last post, my team’s task is Disaster Survivor Assistance (DSA). This week we learned a bit about the position within the big picture of FEMA. Duties include:

• Build field working relationships between FEMA and community-based organizations

• Receive requests for support from the community & provide referrals to resources

• Disseminate disaster-specific information & products to the community

• Go door-to-door to register survivors

• Provide On-the-Spot Needs Assessments: when we encounter a disaster survivor who has a life-threatening issue

• AIR is the acronym for our core functions: Assess, Inform, Report

Our group will be working directly with survivors and providing frontline support, which is exciting, scary, and important. More information will come from Vicksburg.