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Using Risk Communication Best Practices to Deliver Earthquake Preparedness Workshops for Spanish Speaking Communities

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Spanish-speaking communities are rarely involved or represented in earthquake preparedness resources and few materials are tested for their effectiveness at promoting preparedness. To address this gap, researchers worked to develop earthquake education workshops that are accessible to Spanish-speaking audiences and are facilitated by Spanish-speaking community members. They employed a pre- and post-workshop survey to assess participant learning and engagement. They used education best practices to develop a general flow for the interactive 90-minute workshop and then updated the content based on feedback from community members and partners to ensure it was culturally relevant. The team used a “train the trainer” approach to teach local partners how to deliver the workshops in Spanish. The workshop audience were Spanish speakers living in the Portland, Oregon region who will be impacted by a Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake.

More than 50 participants attended five workshops held in the summer of 2022. Two workshops were online and three were in-person at local meeting areas (e.g., libraries, church). Results from the pre-and post-workshop surveys are now being analyzed.

Investigators

  • Carson MacPherson-Krutsky, PhD, Research Scholar, Department of Geosciences
  • Brittany Brand, Associate Professor, Department of Geosciences
  • Michael K. Lindell, PhD, Affiliate Professor, Department of Geosciences