Importance of Diversity Awareness and Civil Rights in Emergency and Disaster Assistance (Essay Sample)

Importance of Diversity Awareness and Civil Rights in Emergency and Disaster Assistance
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Importance of Diversity Awareness and Civil Rights in Emergency and Disaster Assistance
Diversity awareness and civil rights are critical elements of emergency and disaster assistance. Diversity awareness denotes a person’s ability to embrace all individuals’ uniqueness along multiple dimensions, including religious beliefs, ethnicity, race, socioeconomic status, physical abilities, gender, political opinions, and age. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) considers diversity awareness essential for strengthening people’s commonalities, including a shared vision of serving the United States. Civil rights are also crucial to FEMA’s work. One fundamental principle of the United States is that all individuals are equal in their possession of civil rights. Civil rights have evolved throughout the country’s history to be more inclusive. The most typical civil rights include freedom of speech, equal access to public services, information, and places, and the right to vote. The right to access public services is crucial to effective emergency and disaster management. In essence, since diversity awareness and civil rights are critical elements in emergency and disaster assistance, FEMA should enact programs to promote them to effectuate service delivery and ensure that all Americans receive equitable, timely, and adequate assistance during emergencies and disasters.
Diversity awareness enables responders to deliver equitable emergency and disaster assistance for all. The United States population shows increased racial and ethnic diversity, necessitating an inclusive and integrated approach to emergency and disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. This approach is critical in ensuring that FEMA does not overlook or misunderstand culturally and linguistically diverse populations and provides them with essential emergence and disaster assistance (Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, 2020). FEMA builds a diverse workforce and equips them with diversity awareness skills and cultural competence to effectuate emergency and disaster assistance efforts. The lack of cultural diversity awareness can result in miscommunications and misunderstandings during task execution. Therefore, adequate cultural awareness is crucial for promoting a better strategy and more decadent ideas from interacting with team members during emergency or disaster management planning. Understanding a specific community’s cultural values support