Crisis Communications Message Templates

The CEMIR is seeking research material from school districts, especially those without their own emergency management staff or School Safety Director teams, on how crisis communications messages are originated and designed.

The person designated from the school or district, responsible for posting messages about threats and hazards is probably the same one who does it for routine announcements (and all those COVID notices we had not too long ago!). Those communicators need crisis communications training; and better yet, they need to be part of a community-wide crisis communications team including those from their own community’s public safety, library, hospital, recreation department, etc. Everyone can be collaborative and coordinated on message templates, tools, systems, and more – plus they can potentially back each other up, too. In emergency management, we pool all these folks together under a Joint Information Center - so that a unified set of crisis messages are delivered quickly, effectively, and accurately to the public.

These pre-scripted message templates can and must be built in advance. Vetted and approved by legal, risk management, any other groups needed to approve AND ALSO translated into the languages needed in that community. That may include audio versions, American Sign Language versions or whatever the sign language is in your country. This is crucial when messages are read on TV or turned into videos for social media, as examples. If you work together to script any threat messages – such as a person with a gun, a tornado watch or warning, nearby chemical spill, etc., it is only slight additional nuances and language which may be applicable to each site, such as a museum vs. library vs. warehouse vs. school vs. hospital. A Shelter-in-place concept should be the same regardless of where you are at. Same for a lockout or a lockdown.

Please see our poll below. We want to know what your school district is doing now, and how you may or may not be collaborating with local public safety officials on crisis communications, in your community. Thank you.