Foundations of Trauma-informed Disaster Preparedness and Response
Date
Cost
Member: $15
Non-member: $30
CECs
1.00Emergency plans are designed to keep people physically safe — but the way we prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies can also have a significant emotional impact on campers and staff. Emergency plans are designed to keep people physically safe. But the way we prepare for, respond to, and recover from emergencies can also have a significant emotional impact on campers and staff.
This one-hour webinar introduces a trauma-informed framework for disaster preparedness and response using the principles of safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, and empowerment. Participants will explore how these principles can shape planning before an emergency, staff behavior during an emergency, and support after the immediate danger has passed.
Together, we will consider questions such as: How do we prepare staff to respond in ways that reduce unnecessary fear? What supports should already be in place before an emergency happens? How do we plan for the mental and emotional needs of campers and staff after a frightening event? And what community resources should organizations identify before they are needed?
This session is not about replacing emergency management standards. It is about adding another important question to our planning: How can we keep people physically safe while also reducing unnecessary emotional harm?
Why You Should
Participants will leave with a practical framework they can use to examine emergency procedures across a variety of situations, including severe weather evacuations, medical emergencies, and other critical incidents.
Presenter
Chris Rehs-Dupin (he/him) is a nationally recognized camp theorist, speaker, author, and consultant whose work explores belonging, leadership, identity, and what it means to stay human in complicated times. He is the founder of TQAMP and has spent more than two decades helping camps and youth-serving organizations build communities where young people and staff can more fully belong.
Chris is a leading voice on transgender inclusion in the camp industry and the recipient of the American Camp Association’s Hedley S. Dimock Award, a national honor recognizing significant contributions to the field of organized camping. His writing has appeared in Camping Magazine, where he combines practical strategy, personal storytelling, humor, and an enduring belief in the transformative power of camp.
In October 2026, Chris published his first book, Impounded: Real Lessons in Leadership, Humanity, and Holding the Line, a funny and deeply human exploration of the lessons he learned after trading summer camp leadership for a job at a city impound lot.
Lately, Chris has been thinking a lot about one deceptively simple idea: we need each other. Human connection is not an extra. It is one of the ways we survive. His work invites people to practice the courage required to stay in community, especially when fear, difference, grief, and a fractured world make disconnection feel easier.
Known for warmth, humor, bright clothes, and asking very big questions, Chris lives in Ohio with his wife, Amy, and their two children.
