Crisis Communications

In the midst of an emergent situation, ensuring you have effective and appropriate Crisis Communications is absolutely crucial to the success of your emergency management efforts. We work with organizations in providing real-time Crisis Communications support, based on your existing capacity, the needs of your community, and the specifics of the crisis at hand.

 

For some organizations, this means we will take over all Crisis Communications on the ground. For others, it will mean providing ongoing support to your communications team in developing a plan appropriate for the situation at hand and executing that plan — while identifying opportunities and adjusting to emerging challenges along the way. We develop messaging that connects with residents, engages them in a transparent manner, and helps to build a lasting relationship with the community.

 

We have worked with communities through crises ranging from natural disasters (including wildfire evacuations, flooding, and more), to widespread misinformation campaigns impacting the organization in a negative way, and everything in between.

​

Crisis Communications Planning

 

Crisis Communications Plans must stand alone. They should not be incorporated as an afterthought within an organizational Communications Plan, or you risk Crisis Communications being an afterthought in your team’s mind, as well. 

 

Our Crisis Communications Plans are dynamic, recognizing that no two crises are the same, while incorporating organization-specific templates and processes that will make your crisis comms efficient and streamlined. When a crisis hits, you don’t want your team scrambling as they build messaging or determine what their next steps will be. Our plans ensure consistent processes that can be tested by staff on a semi-regular basis through included training scenarios.

 

Our plans can further include crisis-specific policies for enacting communications in a timely and effective manner. Recognizing that some crises are to be addressed by more than one organization (i.e. a public safety crisis might require involvement from local government and emergency services), we can work to build agreements amongst organizations for how communications will be executed in such scenarios.

 

Finally, we are happy to work with our partner emergency managers to develop and execute tabletop exercises that include communications as a crucial component of crisis management.

 

We are proud of our flexibility and adaptability in tailoring our Crisis Communications Planning to your specific needs.