Citizens Organized to Prepare for Emergencies
C.O.P.E.

Citizens Organized to Prepare for Emergencies (COPE) is the winner of the California League of Cities Helen Putnam Award for Excellence.

COPE was started by residents of the Santa Rosa community of Oakmont, in cooperation with the Santa Rosa Fire Department and American Red Cross. The COPE Leaders in Oakmont, Sue Hattendorf and Al Thomas, now have over 70% of their 2,800 households in the COPE Neighborhood Preparedness Program. It is the belief of the City of Santa Rosa that we can, and need to repeat this success. The City of Santa Rosa is now recruiting leaders in all parts of the city to help train and prepare their neighbors, so that we can all COPE a little better with disasters that may disrupt our lives, such as earthquake, fire, flood, and landslide.

The mission of COPE is to help residents, families, and neighborhoods become and remain better prepared to respond to and recover from emergency situations. This includes developing individual response plans, maintaining individual emergency supply kits, and outreaching to neighborhoods in the community. To foster this effort, the City of Santa Rosa provides a guide for setting up COPE Neighborhood Teams, “How to COPE with Emergencies” in English and Spanish.

See the growth of the program by viewing the COPE Map.

If you have organized your neighborhood or business and have not registered as a COPE Leader, or you wish to organize your neighborhood or business using COPE, please contact:

Ed Buonaccorsi
City of Santa Rosa
Emerency Preparedness Coordinator
707-543-3710
ebuonaccorsi@srcity.org

COPE Community Partner Program
If you are a business, industry, school, church, or community organization, we would like to invite you to become a COPE Community Partner. We will help you get your employees and members prepared for a future earthquake or other community emergency. Click here for more information.

COPE Neighborhood Team Census Form
Click here to download and print the COPE Household Census Form used by COPE Team Leaders. Click here to download and print an alternate COPE Household Census Form used by Burbank Gardens Neighborhood COPE Team Leaders.

COPE Neighborhood PowerPoint Presentation
Click here to download a copy of the COPE training PowerPoint presentation and here for slide notes used to get neighborhoods organized in the COPE Program.

Oakmont COPE Program
Click here to see an article about the success of the Oakmont Adult Community and how they started and are maintaining the COPE Program.

Earthquake ‘06
The Community Media Center has created a DVD in recognition of the centennial of the 1906 Earthquake. It is available via dial-up or broadband.

USGS Bay Area Earthquake Guide
Click here to open a PDF version of a handbook entitled "Putting Down Roots in Earthquake Country" put out by U.S Geological Survey, which is full of valuable information on preparedness. Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, or Korean Versions available. Click here to open.