ECHO PARTNER EVENTS

Get ECHO e-alerts on your cell or mobile phone: A step-by-step guide. 

In an emergency, ECHO will send alerts by e-mail and to your cell or mobile phone in multiple languages.  Find out how you can subscribe to this valuable service!  Download the ste-by-step guide here. 

Minneapolis Emergency Preparedness Director and ECHO Supporter, Rocco Forté, presented with an Award of Excellence

Rocco Forté, the Director of Emergency Preparedness for the City of Minneapolis, received an a Award of Excellence by the Minnesota Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) for his leadership in the I-35W Bridge Collapse last year. Forté has been a strong advocate of ECHO and its mission to provide life saving information to limited English proficiency populations in Minnesota. “Rocco understands and supports the core mission of ECHO and has aggressively worked to maintain funding for the program,” says Lasamy Mila, a member of Forté’s staff and an ECHO TV host and translator for the Lao Community. Mila also received an award in January 2008 from the City of Minneapolis for her work and commitment to ECHO. “I think that being part of ECHO is very important… we serve as a bridge to close the gap while Minnesota’s newest residents learn English as a second language. In an emergency, the goal of ECHO is to make sure that no Minnesotans are left out, because of barriers of language or culture,” adds Mila who has worked with ECHO since its creation in 2004.

From Left: Lasamy Mila, City of Minneapolis Manager, Staff Services/ECHO Coordinator; Rocco Forté, City of Minneapolis Director, Emergency Preparedness; Mandy Hang and Yin Jiang, City of Minneapolis Emergency Preparedness staff.

From left: Henry Reimer, Director of Inspections; Lasamy Mila, Manager, Staff Services/ECHO Coordinator; Rocco Forté, City of Minneapolis, Director of Emergency Preparedness.  

2007 ECHO Notification Test

More than 50 ECHO Partners participated in ECHO’s first notification test, August 30th from 2-3 pm. The notification test was NOT a scenario based test but was intended to for the first time, collect some measurable results to help ECHO find ways to improve its emergency communication and outreach to specific limited English proficiency populations across Minnesota. Information was translated for print, broadcast and internet use in up to ten languages. ECHO Partners were asked to tune in to ECHO TV (Minnesota Channel 17 - Twin Cities only), call the phone line (888-883-8831), click on the web site (www.echominnesota.org), and critique the test message. Feedback was collected from partners with detailed results.  Highlights of ECHO Test:

• Of the seventy agencies that were notified about the planned test, thirty-nine agency partners responded within two hours. Most of the respondents were from local public health agencies.
• About half of the participating organizations relayed the test message to Limited English Proficiency (LEP) individuals locally.
• Most individuals received the test message from the web site or phone line. 

To download the 2007 ECHO Notification Test Results click here.

WEBINAR

ECHO held its first webinar on July 19th 2007 -- “Reaching People with Limited English Proficiency in an Emergency: Integrating ECHO Into Emergency Plans.” 80 registrants signed up and 61 tuned in for the hour long Webinar. Special thanks to the following panelists (and others behind the scenes) for their professional contributions: · Aggie Leitheiser, Director of MDH – OEP · Lillian McDonald, ECHO Exec. Director · Diane Thorson, Otter Tail Public Health · Somly Sitthisay, ECHO Lao Ambassador · Bill Belknap, Hennepin County Public Health If you missed the Webinar or would like to watch it again, click here.

ECHO SUMMIT

On April 25, 2007 ECHO held a “Partner Summit” attended by 100 participants from local and state public health and emergency management agencies, non-government or community-based organizations, health plans and hospitals.  More than a dozen counties were represented including some new partners across Greater Minnesota. Our objective was to explore how partner agencies might work with ECHO to provide information to LEP audiences during a health emergency using which parts or all, of our communication toolkit.  It’s an important and challenging next step in ECHO’s development as agencies help us identify a process for activating ECHO so we can deliver consistent information in multiple languages efficiently and in concert with Minnesota’s emergency response system. These partner agencies now are figuring out and formalizing how to best use what ECHO has to offer and integrate that into their respective emergency communication plans.

TO HELP OUR PARTNERS CONTINUE THIS IMPORTANT WORK, PLEASE FIND INFORMATION PROVIDED AT THE SUMMIT INCLUDING:

Frequently Asked Questions about ECHO Partners (PDF).

ECHO Partner Letter of Commitment (PDF)

Outreach to LEP populations by Local Public Health Agencies – A Guide (PDF)

Emergency Action Plans:

Sample Emergency Action Plan (PDF)

Blank Emergency Action Plan (Word)

Diagrams:

Using ECHO in a Message Development and Delivery Cycle (PDF)

Sample ECHO Partner Alerting/Promoting Plans (PDF)

ECHO Summit Materials:

Summit Attendees List  – Alphabetical Order (PDF)

Summit Power Point Presentation (PDF)

Summit Evaluation Form (Word)