Person-Centered Emergency Preparedness

At Upstream Access, we’re proud to use the Person-Centred Emergency Preparedness (P-CEP) model — a disability-led approach originally developed in Australia that aligns beautifully with our values of equity, dignity, and community care.

Upstream Access is the first organization in the United States to partner with Collaborating 4 Inclusion to bring P-CEP program. We have over 70 facilitators throughout Oregon.

P-CEP starts with a simple belief: disabled people are the experts in our own lives. Instead of one-size-fits-all checklists, it centers the skills, strengths, and support needs of each person and builds a real plan around what matters most to them.

This approach brings disabled people, emergency personnel, community partners, and support services together at the same table. It creates space for honest conversations about access, safety, communication, and what we each need to stay connected and supported before, during, and after an emergency.

Trained facilitators — including peers with lived experience, community leaders, service providers, and emergency responders — help guide these conversations in a way that honors autonomy, interdependence, and cultural responsiveness. In Australia, P-CEP Peer Leaders have already strengthened their own preparedness and are supporting others to do the same. We’re excited to bring that same spirit of collective resilience to Oregon.

P-CEP emphasizes the value of planning conversations, which connect people with disability to those responsible for enhancing disaster resilience.

The P-CEP workbook was co-designed by people with disability and is a conversation guide used to tailor emergency preparedness planning to their individual support needs. It outlines four steps to increase emergency preparedness. It is helpful to think of these steps as a series of planning conversations.

Each step provides information, resources, and guidance to get the emergency preparedness conversation started. Each planning conversation results in self-assessment and actions to increase personal emergency preparedness. People with disability can use this P-CEP Workbook to tailor emergency preparedness planning to their support needs – so they know how they will act together with their support network in an emergency.

The P-CEP workbook has three components:

1. Capability Framework – Eight elements to support self-assessment of strengths and support needs
2. Principles – Guiding the joint effort of multiple stakeholders to enable tailored emergency preparedness planning
3. Process Steps – Four process steps enabling the developmental progression of preparedness actions and facilitating linkages between people with disability, their support services and emergency managers.
   • Identify your individual strengths and support needs in everyday life. 
   • Know your level of emergency preparedness and learn about your disaster risk. 
   • Plan for how you will manage your support needs in an emergency. 
   • Communicate the plan with the people in your support network and address gaps through collaboration.