Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response

Whole Community Program

Building a Learning Community and Body of Knowledge by Implementing “Whole Community” Approach to Emergency Management

CDC’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response’s (OPHPR) Learning Office is working in support of the CDC Foundation on a pilot program to identify and promote promising examples of existing community efforts that reflect and embody FEMA’s “Whole Community” approach to emergency management.

In September 2011, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) requested that the CDC Foundation, in partnership with CDC’s OPHPR Learning Office, contribute to the development and implementation of its “Whole Community” approach to emergency management. The “Whole Community” is FEMA’s philosophical approach on how to conduct emergency management in a way that integrates the needs, capabilities, and resources across the community. It attempts to engage the full capacity of the private and nonprofit sectors, including businesses, faith-based and disability organizations, and the general public, in conjunction with the participation of local, tribal, state, territorial, and Federal government partners.

Site Visits

In Person Workshop

On March 12 & 13, 2013, the CDC Foundation, CDC, and FEMA staff convened the thought leaders representing the seven funded promising example communities to share their programs' best practices and discuss strategies to replicate, sustain, and build impactful programs that exemplify a Whole Community Approach to Emergency Management. Click here to view pictures from the event.