Step 2: Estimate the Number of People in At-risk Populations Living in Your Community

Once you have collected information, establish baseline criteria to define groups within your community. As you consider the data you are gathering, identify the categories that are significant to your community. You can then synthesize the data into a brief report to estimate the number of people in different population segments within your community. This will help you gain a greater understanding of the scope of the outreach required.

At first, you might want to only focus on a few populations that will give you access to the largest number of people. As your program grows and you establish more partnerships, you can then consider adding categories to your plan.

Review the national (103KB/1 page) and state (252KB/1 page) information sources in the eToolbox section for more examples of resources that may be available to help you create this snapshot.

Defining the groups and numbers within your region is one of the first steps to accessing the largest number of people possible during an emergency.