How To Use

How to use the At-risk Populations eTool to Define, Locate and Reach Special, Vulnerable, and At-risk Populations in an Emergency

The eTool guides you through three phases: Phase 1, Defining At-risk Populations, Phase 2, Locating At-risk Populations, and Phase 3, Reaching At-risk Populations. Following these sections is Next Steps, which will give you suggestions for expanding and enhancing your Community Outreach Information Network (COIN). Finally you can access the eToolbox, which collects a large variety of helpful links and information resources.

When you click BEGIN, a window with a row of six tabs across the top will open.

These six tabs divide the eTool content into sections, beginning with First Steps, which contains useful background information that will help you understand the concepts behind each of the following phases and Next Steps. The sixth tab is called the “eToolBOX.” This tab contains a full list of the resources contained within the eTool.

The main content of each tabbed section is displayed in the big window below. Each section begins with a brief overview, and the first page of each section contains blue bars with the section divisions on each. You can navigate through the sections by either clicking these bars or reading and scrolling through the entire page and then clicking the “Next” or “Previous” links at the bottom right of the page.

You will also notice on the left a large blue vertical bar. This bar contains a full clickable list of all the content items in the eTool, rather like a Table of Contents. You can navigate to any section of the eTool using this bar.  The vertical bar can be collapsed or expanded using the clickable round icon on its right side.

At the bottom of the page, you will see a horizontal blue bar called Suggested Resources. There are six clickable icons here that will show you a list of the resources in the eTool as well, divided up into broad types: Information, a Dictionary, Templates and Checklists you can download and save to your own computer, and other information. Clicking the icon called Plan Components will open a form you can also download to your own computer. By filling in information as you read through the eTool, you can gradually build your own COIN. Note: Be sure to remember to save the information you input into any checklist or form each time you change, so you will not lose your information.

Comments on improving the eTool are welcome; for more information please see the Contact CDC button in the eToolbox section at the end of the eTool. We hope you enjoy using the eTool and that it helps your community create a strong network.