El Salvador Delegation Immersion Program

In June, Dr. Hung-En Sung, Dr. Jason Rivera, and Dr. Kenneth Quick hosted a delegation of officials from El Salvador to New York City for an immersion experience. Salvadorian officials representing various government ministries, the national fire department, the country's emergency management agency, the national police, and the national police academy visited the City to learn more about emergency management coordination, communication, and interorganizational relationship development. Along these lines, delegated met with individuals at the New York City Police Department, visited a local precinct in Brooklyn, the New York City Fire Department, and the New York City Emergency Operation Center. During the last day of the trip, the delegation engaged in the first part of a series of deliberative policy development meetings at John Jay College. 
 
The international informational exchange and learning will contribute to the development of national policy and practices that will be developed through an inclusionary deliberative policy process that provides each of the stakeholders opportunities to learn from one another and enhance each of their roles in the response to natural hazards and public health threats. The immersion experience that took place this past June was one of three experiences that the delegates and project team will participate in over the next two years as a means of enhancing El Salvador's emergency management system and developing national and organizational policies. Over the next two years, the delegation will engage in immersion experiences in Chile and Costa Rica.
 
These activities are part of a project funded by the Bureau International Narcotics and Law Enforcement within the U.S. Department of State. The project seeks to evaluate El Salvador's needs in policing during natural hazards and public health threats and how organizations can better enhance emergency management functions.  In addition to the development of national and organizational policies, an academic 5-course training sequence has been developed, based on the project's needs assessment to train police, emergency management personnel and other supporting agency staff in emergency management. For more information on the project, please visit the project's website: https://www.emergensa.com/