Emergency Response Plans
Emergency Response Plans (ERPs) are the documentation we use to plan for all reasonable incidents that could happen. We have two different forms, but each has the same information requirements.
emergency-response-plan-jr-sections.pdf
emergency-response-plan-sr-sections.pdf
Each doument asks for the name of your council, which for us is "Northern Lights". Your group, section (IE. Beavers, Scouts), and who the ERP is prepared by. Anyone in th egroup can prepare and ERP. It does not need to be the contact scouter. Involve your youth in the creation of this document, it will get them thinking about safety as well.
Next section is for naming the Contact Scouter and any other Scouters that will be joining, plus the Group Commissioner.
You then fill in where you are meeting. The title of this section is Regular meeting place, but its a placeholder for any meeting place. Include the address if you can. A phone number for the location if one is available and what time you expect members (volunteers OR youth) to be present.
Name your first aiders, wht type of first aid they have and when it expires. This is good practice as it gives you and others an idea of what different qualifications exist. Most, but not all, people in the medical field require their first aid be up-to-date yearly or every two years. A Pediatric Physician and a Family Physician have different specialties, but would likely still be helpful. Someone who gets standard first aid thier job will have a different level of emergency responce versus others who have wilderness first responder.
Next is other important information. This section lists where the first aid kit will be held, the location of other devices like an AED, who is responsible for restocking the kit and where should the kit be when you're not at your regular meeting place. Filling that information out will help others who need to use it.
Important Group Medical information should include youth and adults in the group. Include their Scouts Canada number and Alberta Health care number if available. When you contact emergency Services, having that information will make check in at a health facility faster. Include the important details of medical conditions, allergies. Medical conditions are always physical, they can include facts like a youth is nerodivergent. Knowing if they take medication for this will help Emergency services know what interactions other medication may pose. Lastly, get a phone number of a trusted Emergency Contact. But also let the adults know that it needs to be at least one adult that will sober and able to drive.
Make sure you have phone numbers your location, if one is available. we all know that 9-1-1 will get you the Fire Department, Police, and Ambulance. But if you just need the police and its not an emergency you should include it. In Edmonton the non-emergency number is 780-423-4567, check to see what your local number is going to be. Poison Control is 1-800-332-1414 and the Capital Region (Edmonton and the surrounding communities) only have one Children's dedicated Emergency Department, that is the Stoller Children's Hospital. All other Emergency Departments will see everyone. Make sure you include turn by turn instructions on how to get to the nearest health facility. When you're in an emergency or panicked you might not be able to think. Having the instructions for a second Scouter to read to you will be helpful, even if they are simple. We all react to shock in different ways.
Have an evancuation plan. Know what is a safe distance from the event epi-center in case you are required to get out. We have all heard of people getting stranded, like the summer of 2024 with the wild fires in Jasper and youth were not able to get out. Have a plan to get out if you can.
The Risk Identification and Management Plan portion requires that you name people as the leader and secondary lead for each situation. There is also a section for setting out custom risks. If you are going to partake in other activities that increases the risk to everyone, think about what could happen and how to mitigate those risks.
We can't predict the future, but we can think through how to be as safe and realistic as possible.
