The Santa Clara County Public Health Department Advanced Practice Center created The Emergency Dark Site Toolkit: A Toolkit on How to Build, Use and Maintain an Emergency Dark Site for Public Health Emergencies. This toolkit is intended to serve local health departments in setting up a public health department emergency dark site -- a static Web page used to post critical public health emergency messages when a server goes down. The Santa Clara County APC, in conjunction with Stanford University and Google, tested their newly created Dark Site during the April 2009 H1N1 outbreak. Due to an overwhelming number of web hits, the Santa Clara County Public Health Department's server went down, resulting in the activation of their Dark Site. When the site was activated, the Public Information Officer had a new tool to manage the public demand for H1N1 information. The Emergency Dark Site Toolkit: A Toolkit on How to Build, Use and Maintain an Emergency Dark Site for Public Health Emergencies includes step-by-step instructions to build your own emergency dark site for public health emergencies. Insert the CD into your computer or download the program and follow the interactive menus to view the simple instructions.

This “Best Practices Resource Guide” will help public health agencies develop and implement special policies and procedures during an emergency. Please note that this tool is currently being revised and a new version will be released in 2012.

Every community is made up of diverse groups of residents with varied and sometimes complex everyday needs. Is your community prepared to handle those needs so that no resident is left behind? Meeting the Needs of Vulnerable Populations: Equity in Emergency Preparedness is a web toolkit that will help you organize, communicate and connect with your community.

The Montgomery County Advanced Practice Center has developed an educational tool that promotes preparing a disaster kit with at least 9 items. The toolkit includes the following items: Poster; Take-away brochure; and Tri-fold brochure. In addition to emphasizing the 9-item disaster kit, the materials also introduce a three-step disaster plan, which includes: Starting a conversation; Making a plan; and Making a kit. Each product within the toolkit is available in a downloadable format that will allow for individual customization.

This tool kit identifies techniques for conducting pre-event public education activities, as well as strategies for pre-event and event risk communication planning. The tool kit is organized into three sections: Plan, Prepare and Perform. Each section includes Santa Clara County Public Health Department insights, key tactics, lessons learned and tools when communicating to the public during a health or medical emergency event.

Risk Communicating Resources for Rural Areas is a toolkit to help rural public health clinics communicate their message to the community during an emergency or disaster. The goal of this tool is to put comprehensive, accessible, and ready-to-use materials in the hands of local health departments. The tool contains information on the following topics: Communicating during a natural event Communicating during a biological event Communicating during a chemical event Communicating during a radiological event Communicating during a mass vaccination/medical event How to have a Joint Information Center in your community Non-traditional ways to communicate