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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES - 06222004 - C134 TO: BOARD OF SUPERVISORS Contra FROM: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE ,;, Costa DATE: JUNE 7, 2004 `-`cois °` County '� SUBJECT. STATUS OF IMPLEMENTATION OF THE MULTI-LANGUAGE CAPABILITIES OF THE TELEPHONE EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION (RINGDOWN) SYSTEM6,1.>1f SPECIFIC REQUESTS)OR RECOMMENDATION(S)&BACKGROUND AND JUSTIFICATION RECOMMENDATIONS: 1. RECALL that in December 2003, the Board of Supervisors directed the Health Services and Sheriff's departments to proceed with the testing of the multi-language public safety messaging device to determine its applicability in the County's emergency notification system, fully evaluate both the current pilot project and the new device to determine which provides the best solution for the County, and report back to the 2003 Internal Operations Committee in January 2004 with the preliminary results of the test. 2. ACCEPT report prepared jointly by the Health Services and Sheriff's Departments on the methodology, results, and conclusions from the test of the multi-language database approach and the public safety messaging device approach involving the Laotian Organizing Project and the Laotian community of West Contra Costa County. 3. ACKNOWLEDGE that while each approach has its strengths and drawbacks, staff concludes that the public safety messaging device approach is the most promising, albeit the technology and coordination with public telephone utilities are not fully developed. CONTINUED ON ATTACHMENT: YES SIGNATURE: RECOMMENDATION OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMEND T14N OF BOARD COMMITTEE APPROVE OTHER (ABSENT) SIGNATURE(S): GAYLE B. UILKEMA, CHAIR MARK DeSAULNIER ----------------------------------------------------------- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------__--__-_-_--_--- ------------------- ACTION OF BOARD ON t f@ C g_� APPROVE AS RECOMMENDED_O--HER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT"HIS IS A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF AN ACTION TAKEN UNANIMOUS(ABSENT } AND ENTERED ON THE MINUTES OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS ON THE DATE AYES: NOES: SHOWN. ABSENT: ABSTAIN: ATTESTED: JUNE 15,2004 CONTACT: JULIE ENEA (925)335-1077 JOHN SWEETEN,CLERK OF THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS AND COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR CC: INTERNAL OPERATIONS COMMITTEE STAFF RANDAL'SAWYER,HAZMAT PROGRAM MANAGER MICHAEL KENT,;HAZMAT OMBUDSMAN LIS KLUTE,SHERIFF'S EMERGENCY SERVICES DIVISION LAOTIAN ORGANIZING PROJECT,FAX(510)236-4572 E3Y �� �,�'�--- er ,DEPUTY Multi-Language Emergency Messaging Capabilities June 7, 2004 Internal Operations Committee Page 2 4. REQUEST the Office of the Sheriff-Coroner, in concert with the Health Services Department, to continue to identify and pursue opportunities with manufacturers of public safety messaging devices or other new technology and public telephone utilities to provide affordable public emergency messaging in multiple languages, and to report back to the Internal Operations Committee with an implementation plan and budget for this initiative. 5. RECOGNIZE that public education and outreach, particularly to nor-English speaking communities, is an essential component of an effective public emergency notification system. FISCAL IMPACT: Unknown at this time. BACKGROUND: On december 13, 1999, the Internal Operations Committee was asked by the Board to receive updates from, and provide additional direction to, the Health Services Department on the status of implementing the multilingual capabilities of the Community Alert Network, the provider at that time of telephone emergency notification services to the County. The IOC has overseen, and received regular reports on, the progress of the project. The multi-language pilot project involving the Laotian community, begun in March 2001, has been led by Michael Kent, Hazardous Materials Ombudsman and Lewis Pascalli, Hazardous Materials Programs Director. The project involved hiring staff from the Laotian community to gather data about the languages spoken at each household within the target Laotian community, and building a database of this information for use by the telephone emergency ringdown system. Funding commitments were received in the amounts of $100,000 from the California Air resources Board and $40,000 from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to pay the costs to the pilot project. Mr. Kent worked with the community and affected agencies on this project and provided progress reports to the Internal Operations Committee in March, May, August and December 2001, in March 2002, and in June and November 2003, On March 4, 2002, Mr. Kent provided our Committee with a draft work plan developed by Phaeng Toommaly-Andersen, the Project Coordinator hired from within the Laotian community to help facilitate the project. The immediate goals for the project in March were to complete the work plan, hire and train outreach workers, develop a database for managing the information collected through outreach efforts, and develop outreach materials. In December 2002, the IOC reviewed and approved the updated work plan and asked for a six- month update in 2003. In June 2003, the IOC received a report prepared by Mr. Pascalli providing a comprehensive Multi-Language Emergency Messaging Capabilities June 7, 2004 Internal Operations Committee Page 3 history of the department's efforts to develop a database of languages spoken at homes in the target Laotian community. Mr. Pascalli advised that the biggest challenge encountered in the project was maintaining the information once it was enterered in the database. In any system that relies on a central database of information, it is essential that the data be kept accurate and current. During the course of the project, responsibility for managing the telephone emergency notification (ringdown) system was transferred from the Health Services Department to the Office of the Sheriff. During this period of transfer, the Health Services Department and the Office of the Sheriff have worked collaboratively on obtaining and providing emergency notification services. In November 2003, the Board of Supervisors approved a new vendor, Dialogic Communications, Inc., to provide the Telephone Emergency Notification System (TENS), which is capable of delivering emergency messages in multiple languages and, in the future, will be able to interface with personal alert devices. Following transition of the TENS responsibility to the Office of the Sheriff effective July 1, 2004, the Health Services Department and the Office of the Sheriff have continued to work collaboratively on the multi- lingual alert issue under the oversight of the IOC. In the course of researching telephone emergency notification systems, the Office of the Sheriff was introduced to a new device that connects to an ordinary telephone, detects the special frequency of emergency messages, and can announce an emergency situation or an "all clear" signal in any language specified without the resident having to pick up the receiver. Since the use of such a device, if it can perform as described, would obviate the need for maintaining a central database, our Committee directed that both options be thoroughly evaluated to determine which provides the best solution for the County. The Laotian Organizing Project, at our June 2, 2003 meeting, indicated that it fully supported the County's efforts to look at all potential solutions and would continue to actively participate in the County's pilot project. The IOC would also consider the BAAQMD's policy that fines for violations of air quality standards be applied to help communities affectedby reduced air quality, as a possible model for funding expenses related to a Countywide emergency messaging solution. At our November 3, 2003 meeting, the Health Services and Sheriff's Departments were granted authorization to proceed with a test in December of the new device in 100 households within the Laotian community. The test involved community outreach and education, installation of devices, and a follow-up evaluation. The costs of conducting the test included staff to conduct the outreach and education, the devices at $35 each, and certain telephone company charges. These costs were funded through grants awarded by the California Air Resources Board and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District Board, and required no additional County funds. The test of the Public Service Messaging devices was conducted on February 4, 2004. A follow-up survey was conducted with the participants to evaluate the effectiveness of this approach. The final report (attached hereto) summarizing the two pilot tests and staff evaluation was submitted to the Internal Operations Committee for consideration at our June Multi-Language Emergency Messaging Capabilities June 7, 2004 Internal Operations Committee Page 4 7, 2004 meeting , Based on the staff report, our Committee supports the development of the public safety messaging device approach to providing emergency messaging in multiple languages, The Laotian community also supports this approach as long as adequate public outreach and training is provided to ensure proper use of the devices, and the devices are provided affordably. Telephone Emergency Notification System Multilingual Pilot Project—)Final Report June 7,2004 Introduction. The Telephone Emergency Notification System(TENS)multilingual pilot project was conceiver)in response to a major chemical explosion in March of 1999 at the Chevron Refinery in Richmond. The Richmond area is home to a sizable Laotian community. Many of these residents are refugees and don't speak English as their first language, or at all. Inquiries by Asian Pacific Environmental Network(APEN) staff to their students in the Richmond area revealed that either Laotian people diet not know what happened, or they had no access to information about what to do in response to the incident due to their language barrier. Many elderly people were not informed of emergency safety procedures, including"Shelter-In-Place"information. Due to this lack of information, many Laotian senior citizens went outside to assess the situation instead of following proper emergency safety procedures, causing great concern within the Laotian community. In response to this situation,the Laotian Organizing Project(LOP), a grassroots organizing effort of APEN, launched an advocacy effort requesting the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors and Contra Costa Health Services to implement multi- lingual capability for the TENS component of the County's Community Warning System. This system has the capability of quickly sending multiple recorded phone messages to targeted areas containing information about the steps people should take to protect themselves from a near-by chemical release. Over the next year,the LOP,working with the Board of Supervisors and Health Services, developed a pilot project proposal to integrate multilingual capability into the TENS for four Laotian languages. In July of 2000, the Internal Operations Committee of the Board.of Supervisors directed Health Services to secure funding for, and implement,the pilot program. With the assistance of the LOP and Communities for a Better Environment,Health Services secured$140,000 in grants for the project in late 2001 from the California Air Resources Board and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District. Upon completion of a test, the pilot project would be evaluated to determine the best approach:to take to create multi- lingual capability for the TENS for the Laotian community and other ethnic communities and languages within the County. The approach of the initial pilot project was to identify all the households in the Richmond/San Pablo area of the County in which members spoke one of four predominant Laotian languages-Lao,Khmu,Mien or Hmong. The phone number and address of each household, as well as the language spoken at each household,would then be entered into a database. The members of each household would also be given 1 instruction as to the proper Shelter-in-Place procedures to follow in the event of a chemical release or fire. The database would be used by the vendor responsible for operating the TENS to send messages to appropriate households in the identified language during and after a chemical release or fire, simultaneous with the English messages sent to the same area. At about the same time the initial pilot test was being completed in the Spring of 2003, the Office of the Sheriff was introduced to a new Public Safety Messaging{PSM}device that connects to an ordinary telephone and can announce an emergency situation in any language specified without the resident having to pick up the receiver. This device has the potential for being placed in any household or business for the purpose of receiving emergency messages. The use of such a device, if it could perform as described, would do away with the need for maintaining a central database. Therefore, on June 10, 2003 the Board of Supervisors directed staff to test this technology so that it could be compared to the comprehensive database approach to determine which provides the best solution for the County. This system was installed in selected Laotian households and tested. This report describes the findings of this pilot project and recommendations based on those findings. It then describes the development, implementation and evaluation of both approaches tested in the pilot project. Findings 1. Both the comprehensive database approach and the Public Safety.Messaging System approach to providing multilingual capability for the Telephone Emergency :Notification System were generally well received by the Laotian Community.Both approaches have their strong points and their shortcomings. The results of the follow-up evaluations indicated that both approaches were well received. Ninety-nine percent of the respondents that evaluated the approaches felt the approach they evaluated worked well and would be beneficial to the community. The only significant negative feedback to either approach was in response to suggested ways to update a database. The database approach is the simplest to use from the resident's point of view—in the event of an emergency a resident simply answers the phone when it rings and hears a warning message in their native language. However, a database of this type can be very costly to develop because of the complexity and resource-intensive nature of obtaining this type of information from an immigrant community, as was found in this pilot. Also, a comprehensive database must be updated periodically or it quickly becomes obsolete. When developing a comprehensive database of this type, there is no way to ensure that all of the desired households are included. There is currently no method to comprehensively create or update this type of database in an automated fashion, and none of the methods evaluated by participants in the database test were highly well received. Expanding and 2 maintaining this approach for other languages such as Spanish would be very costly and cumbersome. The Public Safety Messaging system is more involved for residents to use, as boxes need to be installed and maintained. But once a resident has a box,they can take it with them if they move, and set it up in their new home so they are not dropped out of the system.. The Public Safety Messaging system is also more multi-faceted and more accessible than a single recorded message. the resident is warned that an emergency is occurring without having to choose to answer a phone call; and if a resident is not home or does not know the meaning of the alert tone, the written message provides them with a phone number to call for more information. This information can be repeated if necessary. Public Safety Messages can also be delivered more quickly than recorded phone calls. However, a method would still have to be developed to initially identify households in the County that want boxes, and to continually identify new households moving into the County that would want boxes. Also, as of now, homes must have Caller-ID to receive the alert tone and written message. Finally, as of now, the manufacturer has a minimum order quantity of 2000 boxes in any particular language. The cost to residents for a Public Safety Messaging system is also of concern to the community. The Laotian Organizing Project expressed their concern to project staff about whether residents would have to pay to access the system through Caller-DD or some other means, and for the PSM boxes themselves. 2. Both approaches could be expanded to notify residents about other types of emergencies. In this pilot,both approaches only tested warning messages about chemical emergencies. The evaluations showed that participants could understand and react to complex messages and instructions about chemical emergencies. This indicates they could respond well to messages about other types of emergencies such as earthquakes, fires, and floods. The new vendor for the TENTS system has the capability to implement both types of approaches,though they already have experience utilizing the PSM system in Canada with French as one of two national languages. 3. Regardless of which approach is taken to provide multilingual capability for the TENS,a certain amount of direct education will have to be done for participating residents about the Community Warning System and how to Shelter-in-Mace, as well as the"FENS itself. This will be true whether residents are being asked to provide their personal information to develop and maintain a database, or being asked to install and maintain a Public Safety Messaging System.Unless residents understand the important role the TENTS message plays in enabling them to protect their health and the health of their families,it is unlikely either system will be effective. This education can be in the form of group workshops, 3 videos, written materials, one-on-one meetings or any combination of these. The Laotian Organizing Project expressed these same concerns to project staff, emphasizing that no system will be effective without adequate public outreach and education. Recommendations Staff from both Contra Costa Health Services and the Sheriff's Emergency Services Division Community'Warning System program believe the best way to expand the multilingual capability of the TENS is to further develop alternate warning technology such as the Public Safety Messaging System. Multilingual capability for the Telephone Emergency Notification System could proceed along three approaches: 1. A comprehensive database system 2. A self-identified database system 3. A Public Safety Messaging System 1. The overriding drawback of the comprehensive database approach is the large cost and complexity of the outreach program that would be required to develop and maintain comprehensive databases of multiple languages throughout the County. Staff lacks confidence that such a database could remain comprehensive or accurate. Unless these databases were regularly maintained, they would quickly deteriorate. Some homes would receive messages in languages that would no longer be spoken in those homes, and some homes would only receive messages in English even though the current residents don't speak English as a first language. In comparison, once a household had a PSM system, they could remain in the system even if they change addresses or phone numbers, and they wouldn't have to notify the County of the change. 2. The County could develop a database that only contained the addresses and telephone numbers of household that were self-selected. The comprehensive database approach that was tested attempted to develop a database that contained all Laotian households without employing a screening tool to determine which homes truly needed a message in their native language. The County could develop a more limited database that employed a self- selected screening tool. This would place the responsibility of initially being added to the database and remaining in the database in the hands of residents that felt they would benefit from receiving a warning message in their native language. However,staff does not recommend this approach either. The County would still have to conduct extensive outreach and maintain multiple databases,yet the responses to the evaluation questions concerning updating a comprehensive database lead staff to believe that a number of residents that would benefit from being part of the database would not update their information if they moved or changed phone numbers. 3. The Public Safety Messaging system is evolving. Currently, users of the system must have Caller-ID activated to receive the alerting tone. However, this may change so that 4 ............. ............................ ................................................................................................... .......... ......... ....... ........... . ...... ... ........ .................... ................ ......._ ........ .................................................... ........ .. ............... ................................ all phones can receive the alert tone using a universal carrier called Utility Telemetry. The Community Warning System program is talking with SBC and working towards making this system universally available. Also,PSM boxes currently have to be programmed in a specific language by the manufacture before shipping, and boxes in a particular language have to be manufactured in large lots. Efforts are underway to develop a box that could be programmed by the user in the language of their choice. This would provide greater flexibility for providing alert units for languages spoken by limited numbers of households. Given the versatility of this technology and its evolving nature, a Public Safety Messaging system approach is the most promising for providing multilingual capacity for the Telephone Emergency Notification System. The Initial Pilot Test—the Comprehensive Database Approach MeIh�odolo�v Contra Costa Health Services worked closely with the Laotian Organizing Project to implement the initial pilot project. One program coordinator and four Community Outreach Workers were hired to complete the pilot project in a one-year time frame. Oversight for the project was the responsibility of the Hazardous Materials Ombudsman and the Director of the Hazardous Materials Programs. All project staff were bilingual, and the Community Outreach workers represented each of the four major Laotian communities in the Richmond/San Pablo area-Lao,Mien,Khmu and Hmong. The Program Coordinator was hired in April of 2002, and the four Community Outreach Workers were hired in May of 2002. The primary duty of the Program Coordinator was to oversee the day-to-day implementation of the pilot,hire and train the Community Outreach Workers, develop educational materials, disseminate information to community leaders and coordinate the effort of the data collection process. The Community Outreach Workers' primary responsibilities included collecting the telephone number and address of Laotian language-speaking households and entering that data into the database system. They also conducted workshops,presentations, and home visits to the Laotian community to inform them about the Community Warning System and how to Shelter-in-Place.The Community Outreach Workers were also responsible for conducting a follow-up survey evaluating the test of the system, and soliciting input on what would be the best methods to update the database. Project staff were trained by the Executive Director of CAER about how the Community Warning System works and what is the proper way to Shelter-in-Place. Training was also conducted with APEN on how toxic chemicals affect the body, and on how chemicals contaminate the air,water, and soil. The training with APEN also included a tour of local toxic hot spots. The program coordinator trained the community outreach workers on presentation skills,home visit skills,and data entry.After the staff was trained, the data collection phase was initiated. The team met on a weekly basis to work on administrative 5 issues, develop educational materials for the community, input data Into the database, receive updates on the progress of the data collection, and discuss the progress of the project. The educational materials developed were program descriptions in three languages, letters to community leaders, the Shelter-in-Place message in.Lao attached to the CAER safety turtle, an instructional video and a Shelter-in-Place poster. Outreach materials developed were data collection forms,home visit protocols for the Laotian community, weekly report forms, and a follow-up survey form. The purpose of the letter to the community leaders was to inform and introduce the project to the community leaders so that they could pass on the information to the rest of their members during community meetings. Individual meetings were also conducted with community leaders to explain the program. Meeting with the community leaders was essential, particularly in the Mien and Khrnu communities. Because these two communities are used to a tribal type of organization, the community members tend to look to the community leaders for information. The video and poster were considered essential teaching tools because of literacy issues. Data Collection The Laotian community, as a whole, is very skeptical about government agencies and government services. Also, many community members feel that some community leaders have used community members for their own.benefit. Many community members have had bad experiences with people contacting them, taking their name and other information, promising them something in return, but never delivering on their promises. Therefore, when the Community Outreach Workers started to collect data, they experienced tremendous difficulty in obtaining information from community members. The community members did not attend workshops partly because of time,but mostly because they did not believe that the project would truly help them. After several months of fruitless efforts at getting people to attend workshops, the team met to strategize. A telephone survey was conducted with community leaders to find out the most effective way to obtain the needed information from community members. As a result, a decision was made to exclusively collect data from community members through individual home visits. Another issue that arose during the data collection phase was accurately estimating the number of Laotians households in the West Contra Costa County area. The LOP had initially provided the County with information that there are approximately 10,040 Laotians or approximately 3,000 Laotian families currently residing in the West Contra Costa County area. However, in a Laotian community,the number of families is different from the number of households. In order to save money or make ends meet, it is not unusual for Laotian families to live together in one house,but still maintain their sense of individual families. 6 ......_........................ ._ _.............................................................................................................................. .._... ........ ......... 11.11 ... ......... ....... .. ... ....... ......... ......._ The staff decided to conduct informal surveys with community leaders to find out approximately how many households are in each of their communities. It was determined that there are approximately 200 households in the K:hum community, 250 households in the Lao community, 4 households in the Hmong community, and 350 households in the Mien community, for a total estimate of 804 Laotian households in the Richmond/San Pablo area. The data collection and data-entering phase was completed in March 2003. Seven hundred and forty Laotian households,their language, address and telephone number, were entered into the database system. The staff was able to collect data from 8810 of the total estimated households. The Among Outreach Worker collected 100%of the Hmong households. The Khmu Outreach Worker Collected 97%of the Khmu community households,the Mien Outreach Worker collected 98%of Mien community households, and the Lao Outreach Worker collected 80%of the Lao community households. Community Alert Network(CAN)was the vendor contracted by the County to run Telephone Emergency Notification System. The project coordinator worked closely with CAN to develop the database system that would be compatible with CAN's database system. The system was installed into the county's computers so the Community Outreach Workers could directly input data into the system. In addition to transferring the database to CAN's system,outreach staff worked with CAN staff to record the Shelter- In-Place message and the All-Clear message in Lao,Mien, Khmu, and Hmong. System Test and Evaluation On Wednesday,April 2, 2003 the system was tested. The purpose of the test was to detem-iine if the pre-recorded Shelter-in-Place and All-clear messages sent to the Laotian households in Lao,Mien, Khum and Hrnong were understandable and complete. That day was picked for the test because the siren component of the CommunityWarning System is tested the first'Wednesday of every month at 11:00 AIM. Therefore the pre- recorded messages were also sent at 11:00 A.M. The test was also repeated at 6.00 PM to allow for increased coverage. After the test, .257 households that were entered into the database were called and asked to evaluate the test message. These households were also asked to respond to a series of questions about various possible methods of updating the database(Attachment 1). Evaluations were completed.by 161 Mien households, 83 khmu households, 10 Lao households, and 3 Hmong households. Each respondent was asked.9 questions(Table 1). The first question asked if the respondent listened to the test message. Two hundred and forty eight of the 257 households had listened to a test message. Only one of these 248 received the message in the wrong language. They were a household that spoke Mien but received the message in Lao. Two hundred and forty five respondents said they could understand the message and 243 said it was helpful for them to hear the message in their native language. Two hundred and forty four of the respondents said they knew what to do in the event of a chemical emergency. 7 Table I.--Survey Results of Households Participating in the April 2 2003 Test Language Group i Number of Number of i Households Households Households i Households Households Households ! that that said that said it ` that said they I on database ? Surveyed listened to they could was helpful now know and called the test i understand to hear the what to do in during test message the test message in i the event of a f E message j their own chemical ! i Janguage emergency Dien 343 161 152 149 147 f 148 Lao 200 10 10 10 10 ! 10 Khmu 194 83 83 -[-8-3 83 83 Hmong 3 3 3 3 3 3 Total ' 740 257 248 245 ; 243 ' 244 E Language E Households that ; Households that said Households that said they would E Households that said Group said they would ? they would ask a new ; respond to a recorded message they would respond 3 number call a toll-free E { Laotian neighbor to that would automatically call � to a posy card that surveyed) number if they call a toll-free them to get an up-date of their would be mailed to moved or changed number to get on the residency status every six them for a residency their phone database ; months. up-date every six 3 ! number E months. e Dien(l61) 43 154 92 119 Lao l0 10 9 10 10 E Khmu83 = 78 77 e 80 76 Hmon (3) e 3 3 3 3 E Total 257 134 243 185 208 Respondents were also asked to answer questions about different ways to update the database. Only 134 of the 257,respondents, or 52%, said they would be willing to call a toll free number to inform the County if they moved or if they changed their phone number. However, a touch larger percentage, 95%, said they would be willing to tell a new Laotian neighbor about a toll free number so they could enter themselves into a database. When asked if they would respond to a recorded message that would automatically call them every six months to update their residency status, only 185 of 257 respondents, or 71%, said yes. The last question asked if the responded would send back a post card that would be mailed to them every six months to update their information. Two hundred and eight of the 257 respondents, or 81 percent, said yes. 8 ......_........................ .................................................................................................................................. ....... ............ .............. ..... ... ................_ The responses to the questions about methods to update the system varied amongst the language groups and even based upon who was asking the questions. When asked if they would call a toll free number to update their phone number or address, 7 of 121 Mien respondents said yes to one interviewer, but 38 out of 40 said yes to the other. Follow- up discussions with the interviewers revealed that the way this question was posed to the group of 121 may have led the respondents to only answer yes to this method of updating the system if they liked this method best, instead of evaluating it individually. While this may have reduced the number of positive responses to this question, a change in this result would not have impacted the overall conclusions or recommendations o.fthis report. If a database approach is taken to provide multilingual capability for the TENS system, resident surveys should be repeated to help determine the best way to update the database. Also, there was much more variation in answers amongst the Mien respondents than of the other language groups. To the questions about responding to a recorded message or a post card,the Mien respondents that were asked the questions by the native Mien-speaker answered yes 49% and 75%of the time respectively. The Mien-speakers asked this question by the non-native Mien speaker responded yes 99% and 100%of the time. The Khmu respondents answered yes to these two questions 96% and 92%of the time respectively. The Lao and Hmong speakers all responded yes to these two questions. The Second Pilot Test—the Public Safety Messagjng System Approach The ClassCo Company Inc. of Concord, New Hampshire manufactures a device that can be installed in a home or business by connecting it to a telephone system. The installation is a"Do It Yourself'matter similar to plugging in a cordless phone. The device requires 110 volt AC power and connection to a standard telephone jack. The device has extra telephone jacks so that it can be connected in series with other installed telephones, fax equipment or caller ID boxes.The device has an intrusive alarm sufficient to wake sleeping persons,the ability to provide alerts that are heard by all members of a household, and is designed to meet special needs and activate secondary devices used by differentlyt-abled individuals. This small box can also be programmed to emit a short audible emergency message in one of many different languages, and display ashort written message in English,(or any other language selected during the message generation)when activated. This written message gives a phone number to call for more detailed information in specific languages. The manager of the Sheriff's Emergency Services Division Community Warning System Program saw the Public Safety Messaging system demonstrated at a conference and felt it could be adapted to provide multilingual warning messages for the County's Telephone Emergency Notification System. At the direction�of the Board of Supervisors, a test of this approach was conducted on February 4,2004. Contra Costa Health Services, the Sheriff's Emergency Services Division Community Warning System Program, the City of Richmond Office of Emergency Services, Contra Costa CAER and the Laotian 9 Organizing Project worked together to develop a methodology to test this approach. The methodology results, and evaluation of this test are described below. Methodology Two Laotian outreach workers were employed to recruit 100 Laotian households to participate in a test of ClassCo's Pubic Safety Messaging System. Two of the outreach workers previously employed to implement the initial comprehensive database pilot test were hired for this project because of their familiarity with the Community Warning System and the Emergency Telephone Notification System. One outreach worker was fluent in Lao and Khmu, and was asked to recruit 50 Lao-speaking Lao and Khmu families to participate in the test(Khmu-speaking people commonly speak Lao). The other outreach worker was fluent in Mien and was asked to recruit 50 Mien-speaking families to participate in the test. The outreach workers each recruited approximately 50 households to participate in the test with the aid of the Laotian Organizing Project and in consultationn with various Lao, Mien and Khmu organizations. The phone numbers of these households were provided to ClassCo and the primary local telephone provider, SBC, in the weeks before the test. During the month before the test,the outreach workers installed the ClassCo PSM boxes in participants' homes,provided instruction on their use, and provided written instructions on how to use the boxes during the test in their languages. Since most of these residents had already received education about the Community Warning System and instruction on how to Shelter-in-Place during the initial phase of the pilot project, this test did not include an extensive education component. After the test was complete, the outreach workers collected the boxes from the participants and asked there to complete a written evaluation of the test. The ClassCo PSM system normally consists of a single small box that is connected to a phone using a normal telephone cable, similarly to an answering machine. A modified system was used for this test because of time and cost considerations. This modified system consisted of two small boxes installed in series and attached to the phone(Figure l). One box provided the audible alert tone and the short audible message, and the other box provided the written message. The short audible message was programmed to say "Chemical Emergency, Shelter in Place"in either Lao or Mien. The written message said, "This is a test, Shelter in Place,For Information call(925)957-7403".The test participant could either directly call the number provided or push a button on the box to automatically dial the number. The number provided called the County's Information Systems Call Center. The recorded message gave the listener the option of receiving additional information in English,Lao or Mien about how to Shelter-in-Place. In the actual system,the TENS provider would operate this call center function. PSM boxes are activated by the same phone system signal carrier that activates the Caller-ID function. Therefore, for the PSM system to work during the test,the participant's phone system had to have Caller-ID activated. The Community Warning 10 System staff approached SBC and secured their cooperation to activate Caller-ID, for no charge, for those participants that did not previously have it activated. The California Public Utilities Commission gave SBC permission to activate the Caller-l3 function for the test for those participants that did not already have it. They stipulated, however,that participants having the Caller-ID blocking function already activated could:not have their Caller-ID function activated for the test. SBC was only able to activate the Caller-ID function for participants that used SBC as their local service provider. The day of the test, the PSM system was activated twice, once at 11:04 am and once at 7:00 pm. This was done to enable maximum opportunity for participation in the test. The 11:40 am test coincided with the monthly testing of the siren system. As will be discussed in more detail in the results section, some of the participants ultimately did not have operable PSM boxes available for the test. System'Test and evaluation Approximately 2 weeks before the test, ClassCo was provided with the phone numbers of 53 Mien-speaking homes and 50 Liao-speaking homes. They entered these phone numbers into their database so that on the day of the test the PSM boxes installed in these homes could be activated..Ultimately, only 49 Mien-spearing homes and 21 Lao- spearing homes received units(Table 2). 'Cable 2. Survey Results of Households Participating in the Febru@U 4,20{ 4'fest Language Homes I Homes Homes Homes responding to the survey that had the { receiving receiving I responding PSA boxes installed in their homes and PSA boxes the PSA I to the i received the PSA Tone. Tone survey ` E y i i Mien 49 39 47 37 Lao 21 16 18 = 14 "total 70 55 165 51 L E. Language Hames Homes with Homes with PSA Homes Homes with PSA PSA boxes boxes that responding to ; responding boxes that that j participated in the survey ; to the tried to participated ` the test and felt that felt survey that i participate in the test the alert message having a felt having a e in the test and listened and the pre- system to system to j to the ; recorded follow- provide i provide a follow-up up message were ' audible alerts # follow-up f message understandable in their message in native their native language ''=. language would be I would be 3 i 4 beneficial beneficial Mien ! 27 25 24 46 46 Lao 13 10 10 E 17 1 18 3 , Total 40 35 �34 63 64 Of the Mien-speaking homes, 39 of the 49 homes with PSM boxes received the alert tone. The other 10 did not previously have Caller-U) in place, and it could not be activated for the test. SBC could not activate Caller-ID for 3 of these homes because they had different local service providers, and they could not activate Calder-ID for the other 7 homes because they previously had Caller-ID Blocking in place. Of the 39 Mien- speaking homes that received the alert tone, 7 previously had Caller-ID in place and. 32 were provided Caller-ID by SBC for the test. Of the Lao-speaking homes, 16 of the 21 homes with PSM boxes received the alert tone. The other 5 did not previously have Caller-ID in place, and it could not be activated for the test. SBC could not activate Caller-ID for 3 of these Domes because they had different local service providers, and they could not activate Caller-ID for the other 2 homes because they previously had Caller-ID Blocking in place. Of the 16 Lao-speaking homes that received the alert tone, 11 previously had Callers-ID in place and 5 were provided Caller-ID by SBC for the test. All participants in the test were asked to fill out evaluation forms upon completion of the test(Attachment 2). Forty-seven Mien-speaking participants completed evaluation.forms. Thirty-seven of the 47 Mien-speaking participants that filled out evaluation forms had the PSM boxes installed in their homes and received the alert tone.Twenty-seven of these 37 participants indicated that they tried to participate in at least one of the two tests. Of these 27 participants,25 indicated that they heard at least one of the tests and also listened to the pre-recorded follow-up message they were instructed to call. However, 6 of these respondents were helped by the outreach worker to make the follow-up call. One of the other two respondents tried to participate in the 11:00 am test,but never heard the alert 12 tone, the other heard the 7:00 pin alert,but could not figure out how to automatically dial the phone number provided to hear more information. The 10 respondents that had the units installed in their homes and received the alert tone, but indicated that they did not participate in the test gave the following reasons: Not home (5); Did not understand the instructions(2); Tao busy(1); No Reason Given (2). Only one respondent indicated that the alert message and the pre-recorded follow-up message were not understandable. Forty-six of the 47 respondents said yes in response to the questions asking whether having a system to provide audible alerts and follow-up messages in their native language would be beneficial. One respondent did not answer these 2 questions. The only other comment made by a respondent was that they thought the system should be simpler. ,Eighteen of the Lao-speaking participates completed evaluation forms. Fourteen of the 18 Lao-speaking participants that filled out evaluation .forms had the PSM boxes installed in their homes and received the alert tone. Thirteen of these 14 participants indicated that they tried to participate in at least one of the two tests. The other participant was not home at the time of the test. Of these 13 participants, 10 indicated that they heard at least one of the tests and also listened to the pre-recorded follow-up message they were instructed to call. The other three respondents said they tried to participate in the test, but the PSM did not work. All of the ten respondents that heard the alert tone and made follow-up phone calls felt they could understand the messages. Seventeen of the 18 respondents thought having an audible alert system in their native language would be beneficial. One of the respondents commented that they thought the test system of two boxes was too complicated. All 18 respondents thought having a number to call in their native language for more detailed information would be beneficial. 13 Figure 1 Alarm Sound... -2- i cccf' SHELTER IN PLAC i "Emergency" Lao/Mien a^ et}lata}r—a;i xw�t .. �}�}rr�rtiSit u 1 � a r— h 857�� � � ��Nc r• i t iiRR 1 on A. Push to stow alarm.. ' ` Ct With info number B: Push twice more to visible,pick up i Push quickly and release to read message and display phone, push to vial replay Lao/Mien message [call center info number t ` call center __ 11 }"J r�r CJ ✓ VAI IA co ts t CSS G ' y A, CC co t et- k4 eon. UC-t ` tit it 'a S ,� i d• ,,yyyj�yapl���.�' i tlli,i kt rSit 1. a �° fG t i � i a i i :t 't c ii Attachment 2 Evaluation Questions for ClassCo Box Test of February 4,2004 PHONE NUMBER Yes No 1. Were the boxes installed for you to participaW in the test? QUESTIONS 11,00 AM 7:00 PM ' f Test 1 'fest Yes No Yes i No 2. Did you particivate in the test? 3. Did you hear the alert message? 4. Could ou understand what was said? 5. Did you make a call to hear more information? 6. Did you use your telephone to dial the number yourself? ------------ Or 7. Did you push the mode Dial button on the White Box to make the call? 8. In what language did au listen to this message? i En Wish Lao Mien ' 9. Could you understand what was being said in the message? 10. Were the instructions of the messy e understandable? i 12. Were the instructions and materials given to you when the boxes were installed sufficient for you to be able to use the boxes and make the follow-up call during the test? y N Why. 13. Do you feel having a box that makes an audible alert in your native language to warm you of emergencies would be beneficial? y N Why: 14. Do you feel having a number to call in your native language for more detailed information would be beneficial? y N Why: Other Comments Not Covered in Above Questions: ......................... ........................................................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. __