Programs

Disaster Resistant Business (DRB) Program Suite

A disaster can strike at any time. The DRB Program is a suite of resources and services that can be use standalone or be incorporated into existing programs and forums. The DRB Program delivers expertise to businesses and non-profits, but also assist vendors, suppliers, partners, government, communities, and the public.

For example, at the core of the DRB Program is the revolutionary DRB Toolkit^® application (designed like Turbo Tax^®)  which provides guidance, tips, tools, and other resources to improve disaster resilience for small-to-medium business and non-profits – and yes, large businesses also use it. The Toolkit includes simple video instructions and easy templates to facilitate an organization creating or enhancing their disaster plan and choosing their preparedness options. These step-by-step guides and interactive content are customizable for each organization to produce tangible, measurable, disaster-planning progress covering your specific business local hazards, whatever they are. Get all the DRB Program tools here!

DRB Program provides the following services to assist you:

Earthquake Strengthening Project (ESP) – for Food Banks and Independent Living Centers (ILC)

PHASE I – The Food Bank Earthquake Strengthening Project (ESP) targeted California’s Charitable Food Assistance System (CFAS). CFAS serves over 8 million people annually and is an important component of California’s overall food system. Food banks play in the long-term resilience of their surrounding community and region. The Food Bank ESP was designed to forward the physical earthquake mitigation of food distribution facilities as well as promote operational all-hazard readiness. As a pilot, ESP targeted 12 of CFAS’ largest regional distribution arteries that are located in areas where there is high potential for earthquake damage.

In designing this project, Disaster Resistant Business Toolkit Workgroup (DRB), a 501(c)(3), has been working with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services’ (Cal OES) Earthquake Program to provide structural and non-structural assessments then train the Food Banks on how to use the assessments to apply for available federal funds to harden their vulnerable facilities.

Why?

The CFAS sector supports the already under-resourced, socially vulnerable portions of our community. As the pandemic demonstrated, major disasters are likely to dramatically increase and broaden the portion of the community that suffers from food insecurity.

For non-profits, the cost of physical mitigation can be an obstacle to the uptake of seismic retrofit projects. Although there are federal programs available, pre-application costs, a lack of understanding about the programs, and the complexity of the application process have been cited by eligible non-profit organizations as reasons why essential service non-profits, such as food banks, have rarely applied to the programs, leaving them and the community they serve vulnerable.

• The Food Bank ESP pilot targets 12 Regional Food Banks, large distribution arteries that in 2021 provided over 500 million tons of food. These food banks support the vulnerable and under-resourced portions of California’s communities facing food insecurity.

PHASE 2 – The Earthquake Strengthening Project (ESP), in 2024, began a new phase targeting Independent Living Centers (ILC) serving California communities, recognizing the role these ILCs serve in the Access and Functional Needs (AFN) community and the vulnerability of the ILCs to structural and nonstructural damage from a significant earthquake. ILCs provide short and long-term assistance to many individuals with Access and Functional Needs in the community who will be detrimentally impacted if their ILCs are damaged or disrupted.

DRB is continuing efforts with Cal OES to now include the Office of Access and Functional Needs (OAFN) to target ILCs that are in the California Community Network and a part of the California Foundation for Independent Living Centers. Participating ILCs can improve their structural and non-structural earthquake vulnerabilities so they can continue to serve the AFN community.

Why?

According to the California Department of Rehabilitation, there are twenty-eight ILCs in California, located in fifty communities across the state, providing services to over 100,000 people annually. Like food banks, ILCs provide essential services but rarely apply to mitigation programs, leaving them and the community they serve vulnerable

Resilient Workplace Project 

This is a multi-year project. In 2025, a Resilient Workplace cohort will be organized and conducted across California. This will build upon the new mobile-optimized tool developed to aid small businesses and non-profits by beginning their education on earthquakes, learning how to mitigate their vulnerabilities that could stop operations, and starting them planning their own resilience. Detailed cohort workshops will answer their questions while walking them through developing their own specific disaster plans and solutions.

This project is a partnership between the Disaster Resistant Business Toolkit Workgroup (DRB), a 501(c)(3), the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES), and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Other partners include the Federal Alliance for Safe Homes (FLASH) and the Earthquake Country Alliance (ECA). Workshops are supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), US Chamber of Commerce, UPS Foundation, and many others.

The Resilient Workplace project assists businesses and organizations in beginning the development of their own full business continuity plans and the implementation of mitigation actions by walking them through the DRB Toolkit plan-builder site and partner resources. We are connecting complementary business programs together to support outreach to the private sector and provide access to participating CA businesses.

Why?

California has the most small businesses of any US state with 4.2 million and they employ around 7.2 million workers, which is almost 50% of California’s total workforce. In addition, over 43% of California’s exports are generated by small businesses. However, over 60% have not completed a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) which prioritizes mitigation activities to reduce their vulnerability to many natural hazards.   Hazards like fires and climate change pose a threat not only to the businesses themselves, but to their communities. When disaster strikes, unprepared businesses will fail or take longer to recover, impacting the supply chain, local, regional, and potentially, the national economies. FEMA research shows that about 40% of small businesses won’t reopen after a disaster, another 25% will close permanently after one year, and more will fail by year three without a BCP. Disasters can create devastating impacts in California communities, like the recent Palisades and Altadena fires did in LA County, and the state as a whole. Yet, news stories highlighted how some businesses had an “it’ll happen to my neighbor’s business, but not mine” mindset until those entrepreneurs were caught unprepared and suffered the consequences. This also occurred during the pandemic, and small businesses were closed for many, many months.