What Is Brace
Our Mission, Purpose & Vision
BRACE is the successor organization to the Escambia Long Term Recovery Committee, which helped over 800 families recover from Hurricane Ivan -- the fourth most costly disaster in US. History as of 2004. Over 100 "Lessons Learned" following Ivan and Dennis were documented and now guide the work of the organization.
To reduce loss of life, injury, property damage, environmental impact and economic loss due to disaster through fostering communication, cooperation, collaboration and coordination among community, faith-based, non-profit, private and public organizations active in one or more phases of emergency management.
Statement of Purpose
To engage our community in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.
vision
To be the most disaster-resilient community in
BRACE serves a key coordinative role with our Partners during major emergencies. BRACE is assigned a seat at the Escambia County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) allowing the organization to serve as a link with partner organizations throughout the community during an emergency, ensuring coordination of effort, minimizing duplication, and addressing gaps in service.
The County’s Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan indicates, “BRACE will coordinate social and support services utilizing local, donated and purchased resources from its membership and the community abroad to meet individual unmet needs and manage and maintain social service casework where appropriate.” One of the ways that BRACE prepares to fulfill those responsibilities is through our Program of Work, which was developed with the input of our Partner organizations and our Board of Directors (representing a dozen sectors of the community), with significant weight given to the ranking by Escambia County Emergency Management.
The links available under the "What We Do" section will take you to each of our Program of Work Initiatives and our programs in support of Emergency Management. We hope those descriptions will help you determine how you might become involved with BRACE.