Team Spotlight: Map Your Neighborhood
Each month, we will be featuring a different Bainbridge Prepares team so you can get to know them and their mission. Today’s spotlight is on the Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) Team led by Anne LeSage (COBI Emergency Management Coordinator).MissionThe Team's mission is to help every neighborhood on Bainbridge Island get "mapped" through the Map Your Neighborhood program and prepare for, as Anne puts it, "whatever disasters head our way."Map Your Neighborhood (MYN) is the program selected by Bainbridge Prepares and its partners—the City of Bainbridge Island (COBI) and Bainbridge Island Fire Department (BIFD)—for structuring our community’s preparation for a large-scale emergency. MYN operates on the premise that prepared households can form prepared neighborhoods to provide assistance and support during the early hours and days following a disaster and over the long-term as well. Read more here.When a neighborhood reaches out to Anne to be included in the program, one of the MYN trainers makes a kickoff presentation to the participants via Zoom or in person. Anne says now most meetings are in person since people feel so "Zoomed out."PreparationAnne meets with the dozen or so MYN trainers quarterly. She also provides outreach to the community and tries to recruit more neighborhoods into the program. She meets with current MYN captains quarterly to keep the participating neighborhoods engaged.Accomplishments and ObjectivesCurrently, 35% of the Island is mapped and participating in the MYN program. But Anne says, "We need to keep pushing to get everyone on board." Her goals for the upcoming year are to add another 30 neighborhoods to the roster and to keep currently mapped neighborhoods "engaged and involved."Anne is also hoping to find two true co-leads to take over from her, as she is quite busy preparing the City for emergencies.Check this map to find out if your neighborhood is already signed up. If not, here’s what to do:
- Determine the parameters of your neighborhood (about 15 to 20 homes or the entire floor of an apartment building, for example).
- Email Anne at alesage@bainbridgewa.gov to start the process.
- Coordinate with Anne on dates and times that will work for a presentation to the neighborhood given by MYN trainers.
- Organize your MYN training meeting for the selected date. Reach out to all households in the defined neighborhood to invite them.
- Send Anne the addresses of all households included in the plan.
