Emergency Response is a standalone Reach product. For more information, please contact our sales team at info@reach.cloud

Overview

Emergency Response powered by Reach allows schools to predefine Emergency Profiles that members of the school community can trigger from the desktop Reach portal or the Reach app. Each profile corresponds to a different kind/type of emergency. 

When an emergency is triggered, Reach will be responsible for 

1. sending notifications to campus community members
2. facilitating communication between Crisis Response Team members
3. accounting for campus community members’ safety
   

HIGH SEVERITY INCIDENTS

Examples of high severity incidents may be fire on campus, armed or unarmed intruder, bomb threat, etc.  High severity incidents will likely require that the entire population is accounted for as safe.

Stakeholders in a high-severity school emergency can be broken into two groups: 

1. Responders consist of staff and administrators that are responsible for 
   
1. confirming the emergency is on-going
2. accounting for non-responders and 
3. ensuring their safety
   
2.  Non-responders are generally students, visitors and other non-responding staff. Reach will request the non-responder to confirm their safety status
   

LOW SEVERITY INCIDENTS

When a low-severity emergency profile is triggered, a non-responder can share time-insensitive information with the school’s Incident Response Team in a central place.

1. Creating Emergency Profiles

Creating a profile defines the rules by which the Reach system will operate in the specified emergency. Schools define ahead of time who can trigger the emergency profile, what actions are taken, and who the non-responder target population is. 

2. Triggering an Emergency Profile

Triggering an Emergency Profile is done by a user that has been granted permission when the profile was created. When an Emergency Profile is triggered, the defined workflow begins.

3. Responding

In a high severity emergency, non-responders can be asked to share their location or update the status of whether they are safe, in danger, or unsure. Different instructions on what to do can be sent to different user roles. 

4. Viewing

Display of information is required for Responders and Non-responders.  

Non-responders have the ability to chat one-on-one with staff and the Incident Response Team, and if required in the configured workflow, are able to indicate their current status either by selection or selecting to enter in a code provided by a near-by staff member.  Updates sent by the Incident Response Team are also displayed for reference.

In addition to all of the visible items listed for Non-responders, Responders also have access to take attendance, utilizing search and filter features in addition to being able to display a unique 4 alphabetic characters that students and staff can enter into their Reach app. 

5. Reviewing

This involves assessing how the incident was handled both by the system and by the operators (responders and non-responders)

How to Create Emergency Profiles

1. System Configuration > Emergency
2. Add Emergency Profile

1. Set Label
   
2. Set Severity
   
1. Low
   
2. High

1. Set Icon and Color

1. Set the locations for trigger.  The Trigger Location setting is specifically for students and defines their options when triggering an Emergency Profile. For example, if an Emergency Profile has a Trigger Location set only to be On Campus and the location of a student is set to an Off Campus location, the option this Emergency Profile will not be available to that student for selection when they are on the Activate Emergency Response screen. Staff can trigger any Profile, anywhere, regardless of their current location setting within Reach.
   
1. On Campus
   
2. Off Campus
   
3. All Locations
   
2. Define Incident Command System team members and any contacts to exclude from being Incident Command team

1. Set Trigger Permissions as to who can trigger this type of Emergency
2. Set Anonymity preference; User Defined only applicable with Input workflows
3. Add Description as to what defines this type of Emergency
4. Add Instructions for this Emergency Profile

1. Set Profile Workflows using the +Add button.  Workflow Actions include:
   

1. Send Notification - Send Notification Alert to Emergency’s defined contacts
2. Send Instruction - Send Instructions Alert to Emergency’s defined contacts
3. Take Attendance - Facilitate Emergency Attendance for Responders and Non-Responders
4. Prompt Input - Requires the user who triggers the Emergency to input some text information prior to the Emergency Profile being triggered (the inputted response is also reviewable in the EMS Instant Report)

Take Attendance and Prompt Input workflows can only be configured one time for each Emergency Profile.  Emergency Profiles can have multiple Send Instruction and Send Notification workflows configured.

Configure Send Notification Workflow

1. Workflow Label - Give a label for the workflow
2. Trigger During Drills - Indicate if this workflow is to be triggered during a Drill for Emergency Profile
3. Select Communication Delivery Method(s) - Email, SMS*, Push (*SMS requires additional SMS account configuration with Reach and third-party SMS provider ARTICLE: SMS Messaging in Reach)
4. Minutes after Emergency - Set how soon after the trigger for the emergency should this notification be set to defined contacts
5. Contacts/Roles/Groups/Dorm/Year - Define which Contacts, Roles, Groups, Dorms and/or Years should be sent the notification (Selecting specific contacts will ignore selected roles, groups, dorms and years)
6. Leave State Filter - Filter your selected Contacts/Roles based on their Leave State
7. Emergency State Filter - Filter your selected Contacts/Roles based on their Emergency State
8. Additional Emails - Enter any additional external emails you would like this message to be sent to
9. Additional SMS - Enter any additional external phone numbers you would like this message to be sent to
10. Notification Message - Message to notify users with when this workflow is triggered
11. Append Profile Instructions - Select if you want the instructions defined by the Emergency Profile appended to your message
    

It is possible to have more than one notification workflow within an Emergency Profile.  For example, there could be a need to prompt three different notification workflows for filtered groups all set to 0 minutes after the Emergency is triggered.  Utilizing the Contacts, Roles, Groups, Dorm, Year Leave State, Emergency State, Additional Emails and Additional SMS filter settings, different notifications can be triggered to send to varying audiences.  All the notifications that have a minute value greater than 0 will all be queued and scheduled to send at the respective time after the start of the Emergency.  If a notification is sent that has the Append Instructions checkbox toggled, it will append only the Profile Instructions to the bottom of the notification, not the separate Instruction Workflows.

Configure Send Instructions Workflow

1. Workflow Label - Give a label for this workflow
2. Trigger During Drills - Indicate if this workflow is to be triggered during a Drill for Emergency Profile
3. Contacts/Roles/Groups/Dorm/Year - Define which Contacts, Roles, Groups, Dorm and/or Year should be sent the instructions (Selecting specific contacts will ignore selected roles, groups, dorm, year)
4. Leave State Filter - Filter your selected Contacts/Roles based on their Leave State
5. Emergency State Filter - Filter your selected Contacts/Roles based on their Emergency State
6. Instructions - Define instructions for this workflow audience 
   

Instructions are similar to Notifications, but they are flexible and can change according to the state of a contact.  For example, there can be 2 different instruction workflows, one for safe contacts and one for in danger contacts based on the filter value.  When an Emergency is in progress, the instruction the contact qualifies for would be displayed to them via the Instructions icon and in the Communication Dashboard, and those instructions would update based on their state.  If the contact qualifies for more than one instruction workflow at this time, they will be appended on each other.  Both, or however many sets of instructions they match will appear to the contact in the Communication Dashboard and the Instructions icon. 

Configure Take Attendance Workflow

1. Workflow Label - Give a label for this workflow
2. Trigger During Drills - Indicate if this workflow is to be triggered during a Drill for Emergency Profile
   

Configure Prompt Input Workflow

1. Workflow Label - Give a label for this workflow
2. Trigger During Drills - Indicate if this workflow is to be triggered during a Drill for Emergency Profile
3. Select Communication Delivery Method(s) - Email, SMS*, Push (*SMS requires additional SMS account configuration with Reach and third-party SMS provider ARTICLE: SMS Messaging in Reach)
4. Roles/Contacts - Define which Roles or Contacts should be sent the notification (Selecting specific contacts will ignore selected roles)
5. Additional Emails - Enter any additional external emails you would like notification of the input message to be sent to
6. Additional SMS - Enter any additional external phone numbers you would like notification of the input message to be sent to
   

How to Trigger an Emergency/Drill

Emergencies can be triggered from the desktop Reach portal or the Reach app. Each profile corresponds to a different kind/type of emergency and the Emergency’s configuration settings will determine who is able to trigger that type of emergency workflow.

From the Reach desktop portal, select the triangular Emergency icon from the top menu bar and select Activate Emergency Response.

From the Reach mobile app, select the More menu button, then select Trigger Emergency.

Select which Emergency (High Severity or Low Severity) or Emergency Drill to activate

If Prompt Input is configured as part of the workflow, the trigger will require additional information to be entered to notify those included in the configuration for the Prompt Input workflow settings. 

The notes entered here are also reportable in the Emergency Response report.  If the anonymity setting is configured for an Emergency trigger, the report will note the notification note was submitted anonymously.

How to Manage Emergency Response

Non-Responders: Will be prompted to indicate one of the following about themselves (they begin in the “I am Unknown state”):

1. I am safe
2. I am unsure
3. I am in danger
   

Responders: Will be prompted to indicate one of the following about themselves (they begin in the “I am Unknown state”):

1. I am safe
2. I am unsure
3. I am in danger

 

Staff Control Center Navigation (Desktop)

Kiosk Filters: Filter attendance list view by Contact Type, Dorm, Year, Location, Groups

Search Bar: Search by a specific contact's name

Alpha Group Sort: Display attendance list based on alpha groups

Attendance Status Filters: Filter attendance list based on current status of Emergency Attendance

Your Current Status: Set your individual status and see if your status has been verified by another staff as accounted for in the Emergency

Staff Navigation Options (left to right):

      Stop Emergency - End current Emergency for all (conclude Emergency Response for the incident)

      Open Code - Displays a unique 4 alpha digit code to say or show.  Allows others to select the Code button in their device and enter a responders unique alpha code to verify for their status.  Contacts verified accounted Danger, Unsure)

      Open Instructions - Display Instructions for this Emergency Profile as configured in System Configurations > Emergency

      Toggle Map - Toggle Map widget visible or not visible

      Toggle Message Centre - Toggle Message Centre widget visible or not visible

      Bulk Flag - Use the Bulk Flag button to flag all selected contacts in bulk

      Bulk de-select - Use the Bulk de-select button to de-select all selected contacts in bulk

      Bulk Mark - Use the Bulk Mark button to mark accounted for to all selected contacts in bulk

Toggle Map View: Toggle between the View All map option and the Heat Map, displaying GPS locations of contacts in your system as an ability of Emergency Response being triggered

Communications Dashboard: Toggle between Updates (sent by the Incident Command System team), Chats (individual chat conversations), and Chat (ICS)

Certain Control Center Navigation items may not be available to all staff.  Stop Emergency, the Communication Dashboard's Chat (ICS), and posting Updates are limited to staff assigned to the Emergency Profile as an Incident Command System team member.

Staff Control Center Navigation (App)

Kiosk Filters: Filter attendance list view by Contact Type, Dorm, Year, Location, Groups

Toggle Communications Dashboard - Toggle between Information, Chat and Updates.  Chat allows students to send and receive one-on-one direct messages with staff and the Incident Response Team.  Updates displays important informational updates that are shared out directly from the Incident Response Team to the community regarding the status of the emergency and any additional instructions.

Open Code - Displays a unique 4 alpha digit code to say or show.  Allows others to select the Code button in their device and enter a responder's unique alpha code to verify for their status.  Contacts verified accounted Danger, Unsure)

Stop Emergency - End current Emergency for all (conclude Emergency Response for the incident)

Attendance Status Filters: Filter attendance list based on current status of Emergency Attendance

Search Bar: Search by a specific contact's name

List and Map Toggle: Toggle back and forth between the contact list and map widgets

Toggle Map View: Toggle between the View All map option and the Heat Map, displaying GPS locations of contacts in your system as an ability of Emergency Response being triggered

Toggle back to List View: When viewing the Communications widget, you can select the attendee button to navigate back to the attendance list

Toggle Communications Dashboard: Toggle between the Incident Instructions, Chat messages and Update messages (sent by the ICS team)

Your Current Status: See if your status has been verified by another staff as accounted for in the Emergency

Certain Control Center Navigation items may not be available to all staff.  Stop Emergency, the Communication Dashboard's Chat (ICS), and posting Updates are limited to staff assigned to the Emergency Profile as an Incident Command System team member.

Student Control Center Navigation (App)

Open Code: Displays a text field to input a unique 4 alpha digit code that a nearby staff has said or shown.  Allows students to select the Code button in their device and enter a responder's unique alpha code to verify for their status.  Contacts verified accounted Danger, Unsure)

Toggle Communications Dashboard - Toggle between Information, Chat and Updates.  Chat allows students to send and receive one-on-one direct messages with staff and the Incident Response Team.  Updates displays important informational updates that are shared out directly from the Incident Response Team to the community regarding the status of the emergency and any additional instructions.

Your Current Status: See if your status has been verified by another staff as accounted for in the Emergency

Managing Emergency Attendance

            

Confirm Status - marks contact accounted for in emergency attendance

Flag Absence - marks contact flagged in emergency attendance to alert responding staff that the contact is unaccounted and should be present

View Contact Info - Displays contact's history of actions during the current Emergency, their current status, and association information

View GPS - Trigger a ping to the contact's device that will geolocate the contact on a map (contacts with location services disabled will not render a location on the map)

Chat - Opens a chat thread with the contact directly within the Reach Emergency Response app

Send SMS - Trigger an SMS message to be sent to the contact's mobile phone on file with their account details

Call - Open your devices phone app and inputs the contact's associated mobile number to allow for calling directly from phone (does not call from within the Reach Emergency Response app)

 

Concluding the Emergency

          

          

Reporting on Emergency Response Data