The Safer Congregations Workshop in Available Online!
Marte Keller and Dennis Strouble presented a look at how we can make our churches safer, how to prevent mishaps, and how to prepare for emergencies. They discussed preparing for medical events, intruders & disruptive persons, and weather events, all aimed towards creating a safer environment for our congregations.
The workshop was held on October 7, 2023, at Horizon UU Church in Carrollton and was divided into three parts.
Marte Keller presented an initial Overview of Safer Congregations, with a discussion of the who, what, and how to, of developing an emergency response plan.
This was followed by two break-out sessions:
Session A was led by Marte Keller and covered:
Medical Emergencies and
Intruders & Disruptive Persons
Session B was led by Dennis Strouble, where he discussed
Weather, Fire, Natural Disasters, and Accidents, as well as many of the available resources to provide alerts and enable communications within our facilities during an emergency.
You can watch the presentations on the NTUUC YouTube Channel:
Overview of Safer Congregations (15:30) – youtu.be/jZ6loSnDp24
Session A: Medical Emergencies & Intruders & Disruptive Persons (34:17) – youtu.be/h1Lw_qYAtTU
For those those asked, here is the listing of the contents of the First Aid Supplies – Red Bags
Session B: Weather/Fire/Natural Disasters/Accidents (35:33) – youtu.be/-R6kQygANsg
A .PDF of the presentation Dennis Strouble created for Session B is also available, including all of the links to the many online resources he cited. You can download that file here.
Dennis Strouble was raised in a Methodist Church in rural North Central Pennsylvania. Dennis became a UU over 40 years ago and has served in various positions over the years including as church president, RE teacher, part of Horizon’s safety task force, and as the current president of NTUUC.
Dennis is the Interim Associate Dean of the Purdue University Global School of Business and Information Technology. He cofounded an INC. 500 technology company and practiced law in West Texas for 5 years prior to becoming a university professor. He was a LTC in the US Army Reserves, worked with FEMA while assigned to the 6th Army Headquarters, and spent several years at the Pentagon.
He holds an Extra Class Amateur radio license, a private pilot’s license, is a licensed attorney, and has a PhD in Management
Marte Keller RN, MPH is the lead on Horizon UUC’s Safety & Preparedness Task Force and the coordinator for Horizon’s Greeters and Ushers.
She has a background in maternal/child and community health nursing. Following 9/11 she spent several years as the education and training program manager for the Office of Emergency Preparedness & Response with the Arizona Department of Health Services.
An unexpected and amazing experience after retiring was helping with and working at the Dallas Fair Park mass vaccination clinic in 2021.