2018 Faith-Based Organizations Symposium

In an effort to establish a partnership and develop a community-based pre-disaster mitigation strategy, the City of Alexandria's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), in collaboration with Volunteer Alexandria, hosted its first Faith-Based Organizations (FBO) Symposium in October at The Alexandrian, Autograph Collection Hotel.

For many years, emergency managers and FBOs operated within certain traditional roles in response to disaster. FBOs are accustomed to deploying volunteers and services in disaster relief and recovery, and emergency managers are typically focused on emergency operations and technical solutions. The City of Alexandria's OEM felt it was important to meet and collaborate with FBO leaders to understand their positions and usual procedures during emergencies. The goal was to capitalize on the distinct and separate strengths that FBOs represent, determine what resources FBOs in the City already have, and collaborate with FBO leaders to better serve them and the community during emergency incidents. During the symposium, speakers from the local, federal, and state level spoke on various topics including worship security, family assistance centers (FACs), whole community preparedness, volunteer coordination, and local threats and hazards.

The symposium became one of many steps the City's emergency managers will take to connect, educate, and collaborate with local faith-based leaders in an effort to make the City of Alexandria a safer and more resilient community.

FBO Symposium Objective: To connect with local faith-based organizations; educate FBO leaders about resources available to them; and collaborate with local FBOs to better prepare, respond, and recover from disasters and emergencies in the City of Alexandria.

For photos and presentations from the 2018 Faith-Based Organizations Symposium, see below. For questions or additional information about the symposium or how to get your faith-based community involved in emergency preparedness, contact Raytevia Evans, Senior Public Information Officer at 703-746-5190 or raytevia.evans@alexandriava.gov.