Moving into the new year, Windsor COPE is working on becoming more known around the Windsor community. Community involvement is the disaster preparedness organization’s main goal for 2022 and forward.
Short for Citizens Organized To Prepare For Emergencies, the community-led group began to work collaboratively in June with the Sonoma County Fire District and Windsor police.
At the moment, Windsor COPE has 15 neighborhood leaders representing 15 different neighborhoods.
“Each neighborhood leader guides 10 to 20 neighbors in their immediate area. They work together to prepare. So you prepare individually, but as a neighborhood,” said Diana Borges, Windsor COPE community leader.
She stressed most people in Sonoma County are aware of being prepared when it comes to wildfires, but other emergencies are often forgotten.
“A big one is earthquakes. Because in our area a major earthquake has the possibility to destroy our town just as much or more than a wildfire. If you think about the big earthquake, it can come through and just tumble buildings down. And you need to know what resources you have in your area. ‘Do you have a nurse or does someone have a generator? Is there someone with construction, who has all the extra water that we’re all supposed to be having?’ It’s all that type of thing that we need to start focusing on,” she said.
“The information is getting out there, it’s getting the people to step up to actually meet their neighbors, is where we’re trying to focus on. The communication dissemination really is important to have the neighborhood leaders so they can be the liaison to their neighbors,” she said.
In November, COPE put a focus on communication during emergencies. Borges had someone from the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) talk about the different apps for getting notified about disasters nearby.
“He talked about things we can do when 911 doesn’t work when the cell towers are out and all that type of thing,” she said.
Another thing the group is working on is doing more outreach to every community that might not have heard of Windsor COPE yet.
“One thing we want to do is reach out to the Latino community. Angelica Nunez came on board, and she’s our bilingual neighborhood leader. She’s going to start trying to reach out and try and get neighborhood leaders and get people to sign up,” Borges said.
In order to be in the loop regarding information, people can join the organization’s email list and follow the Windsor COPE Facebook page.
The organization also conducted three workshops in 2021. The first one was wildfire- and evacuation-oriented, as well as an introduction to COPE. The second one covered defensible space and home hardening, how to get your property ready for wildfire. The last workshop was focused on senior citizens. All workshops can be watched at the YouTube channel for Windsor COPE.
“We wanted to focus on seniors because the seniors are more vulnerable than a lot of younger people that are, you know, (more) capable. They might have mobility issues, hearing issues and not be able to prepare for themselves,” said Borges.
All workshops and information provided are free for attendees and those seeking to know more.
Borges said one goal is to have more neighborhood leaders, similar to block captains, on board.
Borges said that there is more to disaster preparedness besides go bags and knowing evacuation routes. She gave an example of how a neighborhood leader was unaware people with landlines can receive alerts on their home phones.
“There’s more to emergency preparedness than people think. It takes more than just one meeting,” she said.
Jim Boggeri, community outreach specialist of Sonoma County Fire District, said his role with Windsor COPE is of an advisory position.
“We pretty much provide the expertise,” Boggeri said, noting that the COPE is largely run by volunteers. “We are subject matter experts, if you will, on some of the different categories, vegetation management, home hardening, anything really doing with any kind of safety around the home within the community, we are pretty much advisors, and material experts.”
He added the Windsor COPE program is invaluable. Mainly because it is about the community helping one another.
“When these events happen … we don’t really have the manpower to really get out there and help everybody. And the great thing about the Windsor COPE program is it’s really based on neighbors helping neighbors and teaching members of the community how they can prepare for these large-scale disasters and what they can do to help protect themselves and their neighbors,” he said.
“I don’t think people really have an understanding of how they fit in or what they can do to become part of COPE. I think, you know, our biggest struggle right now is really getting the word out as far as what COPE really is and how they can become part of it. On top of that, finding people who are willing to be neighborhood leaders, which is another important role, people who are willing to take the time to kind of lead the charge,” Boggeri said.
The group meets over Zoom on the third Tuesday of each month at 6 p.m.
