Learn how playing Irvington Zombies will help your neighborhood to prepare for a disaster and how to play the game to win.  See more about this a Irvingtongreen.org/climate/emergency-preparedness While attendance is encouraged and will be helpful, it is not required and the meeting will be recorded. 

The Citizen Preparedness Corps gives residents the tools and resources to prepare for any type of disaster or emergency, respond accordingly and recover as quickly as possible to pre-disaster conditions.

Citizen Preparedness Corps training began in February 2014.  Trainings are led by the New York National Guard working with experts from the Division's Office of Emergency Management and Office of Fire Prevention and Control.  

The course provides an introduction to responding to a natural or human-caused disaster. Participants are advised on how to properly develop family emergency plans and stock up on emergency supplies.

In 2024, as part of a County facilitated Climate Action and Adaptation planning process, Irvington conducted a Climate Vulnerability Assessment. Extreme weather is increasingly causing serious damage to our communities, environment and infrastructure. Hudson Valley communities have faced severe flooding from storms like Irene, Sandy and Ida. Climate and environmental conditions are expected to worsen significantly, with more intense storms, droughts and heat waves, sea level rising in the Hudson River and native ecosystems collapsing. Power outages are occurring more frequently and for longer periods primarily due to climate change related extreme weather events. Proactive community planning and risk mitigation are critical to building resilience and protecting people, infrastructure, and habitat.

Communities that engage in mutual aid build resilience by ensuring that resources and support reach those in need quickly and efficiently, especially during crises. Mutual aid is voluntary and reciprocal sharing of what we have—resources, skills, ideas. Mutual aid is solidarity, not charity. This grassroots approach fosters deep social cohesion, strengthening communal bonds and reducing reliance on external institutions. By prioritizing collective care and strategic preparedness, these communities not only enhance survival and well-being but also create sustainable networks of trust and reciprocity that make them inherently stronger.

As part of Irvington's Climate Action, Adaptation & Resilience Planning, and correlating Emergency Preparedness work, the Green Policy Task Force is mapping the Village neighborhood nodes, with distinct communication channels, to identify the gaps and facilitate the development of mutual aid and resiliency. 

Join workshop to find out what we have learned, what we have planned, ask questions and share feedback. Light food provided. 

Speaker Olga Kuchar Anderson 

Olga will speak to her experiences with community response to disasters both in the Ukraine and in Highland Falls, NY. 

Olga is currently Chair of the Town of Highlands Citizens Environmental Advisory Committee which she founded in 2019. manager of the Community Garden at Holy Innocents in Highland Falls, a member of the Friends of the Highland Falls Library, and sits on the Board of Directors at Sustainable Hudson Valley.  She is a recent recipient of the Town of the Evelyn Drew Memorial Democratic Service Award for her environmental work.  “I am passionate about the environment and the need for all residents to participate in and understand the value of positive environmental action to current and future generations. I believe that despite the importance of these issues to our quality of life in the region, the Town Board cannot tackle them alone and I am determined to support positive action from the bottom up as a citizen advocate. 

Topic -- Drought or Deluge: What the future of water looks like for southern New York

Climate change and extreme weather are impacting all aspects of our lives, and nowhere more so than in the realm of water. Tracy Brown, President of Riverkeeper, will provide an overview of climate change's effects on waterways and ecosystems, and on our relationship to water itself, here in Westchester County and the Hudson Valley. She will also cover strategies we can use to protect our water resources and adapt to coming changes.

Tracy Brown became President and Hudson Riverkeeper at the environmental protection NGO 'Riverkeeper' in 2021. A recognized leader in clean water advocacy, she brings a multidisciplinary approach to her work, prioritizing data-driven, community-oriented strategies to protect and restore the Hudson River from source to sea. During her tenure as President, she has helped expand Riverkeeper's iconic water quality monitoring program, grown its fleet of boats engaged in patrol and science work on the River, spearheaded the passage of key environmental legislation, and led the formation of the Westchester Coalition for Clean Water -- a new group of organizations committed to working together to make sure Westchester County's waterways are clean and healthy.

Before taking on this leadership role at Riverkeeper, she was instrumental in developing water quality monitoring programs at both Riverkeeper and Save the Sound, and she was an architect of New York's Sewage Pollution Right to Know Law. A resident of Sleepy Hollow, Tracy is a founder of the Peabody Preserve Outdoor Classroom, a nature preserve for hands-on, outdoor education for the students of the Tarrytown-Sleepy Hollow public schools. She is also a member of the Pleiades Network, a national community of women leaders in environmental and social causes.