Programme overview
Introduction:
Mass care and emergency shelter management, covering evacuation centres, feeding and reunification, is a 1-week course for civil defence shelter units, municipal social services, Red Crescent and relief society shelter teams and social welfare agencies, ending with a Shelter Operations Plan for a case agency. Displaced households suffer when evacuation centres open late in unsuitable buildings, arrivals go unregistered, meals run short and separated relatives cannot find each other. Nominees already supervise shelter, welfare or volunteer teams and learn through timed simulations of shelter opening and operation. CoreConcept Training Center delivers this mass care and emergency shelter management course.
Course Objectives:
- Assess candidate buildings and open sites against shelter selection criteria and prepare an evacuation centre for opening within hours of activation
- Run arrival registration, household records and Restoring Family Links tracing so that separated relatives and unaccompanied children are reunited safely
- Plan mass feeding and distribution of household items inside a shelter, sized to resident numbers, dietary needs and food safety controls
- Organise dormitory layout, sanitation, shelter health surveillance and safeguarding rules that protect residents with different needs
- Identify and support older people, persons with disabilities, pregnant women and other at-risk residents using structured screening questions
- Plan shelter staffing, volunteer rosters, resident participation and the phased closure of a shelter with transition to interim housing
Target Audience:
- Civil defence units responsible for designating, opening and supervising public evacuation centres
- Municipal social services departments that register displaced households and arrange welfare support
- Red Crescent and relief society branches that run shelter teams, family tracing and volunteer deployment
- Social welfare and child protection agencies accountable for at-risk residents in emergency shelters
- Facility management units of schools, sports halls and community buildings pre-designated as shelters
- Charity and community organisations that provide meals, bedding and psychosocial support to sheltered families
Course Outline:
Day 1: Mass Care Functions and Shelter Readiness Baseline
- Mass Care Functions of Sheltering, Feeding, Distribution and Reunification
- Shelter Typology From Collective Centres to Planned Camps
- Lessons From Mass Shelter Failures in Large Disasters
- Pre-Designated Shelter Inventory and Capacity Register
- Shelter Readiness Self-Assessment Against Agency Mandates
Day 2: Sphere Shelter Standards and Camp Management Frameworks
- Sphere Shelter and Settlement Standards Applied to Collective Centres
- Sphere Living Space and Household Items Planning Figures
- Minimum Standards for Camp Management Roles and Responsibilities
- Camp Management Toolkit Templates for Site Coordination Meetings
- Restoring Family Links Principles for Tracing and Safe-and-Well Lists
Day 3: Opening and Running an Evacuation Centre
- Shelter Site Survey Checklist for Structure, Access and Utilities
- Shelter Activation Sequence From Alert to First Arrivals
- Arrival Registration Desk Workflow and Household Record Cards
- Dormitory Zoning Plan for Families, Single Adults and Quiet Areas
- Mass Feeding Plan With Meal Counts and Food Safety Checks
Day 4: At-Risk Residents, Shelter Health and Problem Cases
- Washington Group Questions for Disability and Functional Needs Screening
- Unaccompanied and Separated Children Registration and Interim Care
- Shelter Health Surveillance, Hygiene Stations and Outbreak Triggers
- Safeguarding Code of Conduct and Complaint Channels for Residents
- Service Animal and Pet Accommodation Rules in Congregate Shelters
Day 5: Shelter Simulation and the Shelter Operations Plan
- Timed Simulation of Opening a School Shelter Overnight
- Family Reunification Inject Exercise Using Tracing Requests
- Volunteer Roster and Shift Handover Plan for Day and Night
- Shelter Closure Criteria and Transition to Interim Housing
- Shelter Operations Plan Completion for the Case Agency
Skills You Will Gain:
- Shelter Site Assessment
- Evacuation Centre Activation
- Household Registration Management
- Family Tracing and Reunification
- Mass Feeding Planning
- Functional Needs Screening
- Shelter Safeguarding
- Shelter Closure Planning
Why Attend This Course:
- Deliver a Shelter Operations Plan for a case agency to the head of civil defence sheltering, the municipal social services director or the relief society branch manager
- Decide which buildings open first, how many residents each can hold and when a shelter is ready to close
- Avoid unregistered residents, lost children, food shortages and disease outbreaks that damage public trust in the first nights of a displacement
- Pass on registration cards, site survey checklists, dormitory plans and volunteer rosters to shelter teams and branch volunteers
Conclusion:
Back at work, the participant presents the Shelter Operations Plan to the agency leadership and the partner bodies that share shelter duties, including municipal welfare, relief society branches and building owners. They use it to confirm which pre-designated buildings are activated, who staffs registration, feeding and safeguarding, and how separated families are traced and reunited. After the first activation or exercise, the agency should compare opening time, registration accuracy, meal coverage and reunification cases against the plan and update the shelter inventory and rosters.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):
What should participants know before a mass care and emergency shelter management course?
Participants should already supervise shelter, welfare, relief or volunteer teams and know their agency's role when people are displaced. Bringing a list of pre-designated shelter buildings or a past activation report helps them apply the simulations and the capstone plan to their own agency.
How does mass care and emergency shelter management differ from an evacuation planning or relief logistics course?
It covers what happens after people arrive at a shelter: registration, feeding, dormitories, at-risk residents, family reunification and closure. Evacuation planning courses move occupants out of a site, and relief logistics courses move supplies to an area rather than run the shelter itself.
Why does family reunification matter in mass care and emergency shelter management?
Family reunification matters because separation causes distress, protection risks for children and long shelter stays. Registering every arrival, recording separated relatives and sharing safe-and-well lists with tracing services allows families to find each other quickly and leave the shelter together.
What do participants take back from the mass care and emergency shelter management course?
Participants take back a Shelter Operations Plan for a case agency, with a site survey checklist, activation sequence, registration workflow, dormitory and feeding plans, at-risk resident screening, volunteer rosters and closure criteria ready to adapt to their own shelters.