So much. It's so great to see all the faces that I haven't seen in so long. Can everyone see my slides? Good to go? Yes? Okay. As Brian mentioned, I'm Sarah Chasen. I am the Communications and Outreach Program Manager at the non-profit Federal Alliance for Safe Homes Flash. This month actually marked my 20th year with Flash, and I've spent a lot of that time supporting NEHERP and FEMA programs in particular.

I also have the pleasure of serving as the QuakeSmart program manager, and I'm going to spend the next couple minutes giving you a quick look at the program, what the workshop looks like, what we're learning from attendees, and most importantly, how partnerships with FEMA, NEHERP, and state earthquake program managers help bring this program into local communities.

QuakeSmart takes what can be a complicated topic and makes it practical and actionable for businesses and organizations. It's a one-day workshop that walks attendees through a step-by-step process to identify risk, develop a plan, and identify actions they can take to become more resilient. We bring together building science, building codes, engineering, mitigation, business continuity, and of course personal preparedness, but the goal isn't simply to provide information.

We want people to leave knowing what they can actually do next.

The Quakesmart Toolkit that we use in the workshop gives us the framework for the day. We organize around what we call the six S's, which you can see here on the screen, which are staff, space, system, surrounding, structure, service. Say that fast six times. That allows us to move from from protecting people to what's inside the building, to the building itself, and ultimately to how a business or organization can continue operating and serving its community after an event.

It also makes the program adaptable. Every business or organization has different vulnerabilities, but everyone can find a place to start.

So, there's a lot that happens before we even walk into the room. We work with our local partners on scheduling, venue, logistics, planning meetings, agenda development. It goes on and on. And the biggest part of that is local outreach.

We rely on chambers, emergency management, small business networks, community organizations, and state and regional partners to really help us reach the right audience. So a successful workshop begins with relationships long before the actual day.

On the day, our goal is to make participation as easy and useful as possible for the attendees. They receive the toolkit and all the supporting materials, and we build the day around both expert information and practical application. We collect an evaluation before they leave and give them a closing activity that asks them to identify specific actions they intend to take. It also gives us an opportunity to look beyond attendance and begin measuring whether the information is actually leading to action.

Over the life of the program, we've successfully completed more than 35 workshops and the participants have represented an incredibly diverse cross-section of businesses and organizations.

I'm sure you saw some recognizable names on the previous slide, but just as important are the smaller businesses, nonprofits, healthcare providers, engineers, community organizations, and local employers that participate.

And these photos are really what QuakeSmart looks like. It's people in a room together, learning from experts and from one another for that matter, and talking about what earthquake resilience means for their organization.

This is where I think it gets really interesting, and I do want to take some time to talk about this. What happens after the workshop? So we're looking not only at immediate evaluations, but also follow up with participants 60 days later. For fiscal year 25, 98% said they received the information they expected. 80% said they intended to develop a business continuity plan, and 89% intended to perform non-structural mitigation. At the 60-day check-in point, we begin to see intention translating into action, where 63% reported completing a non-structural mitigation activity, 13% reported completing structural mitigation, and 54% started or updated their business continuity plan.

These results suggest that attendees aren't just leaving with information, some are actually putting it to work.

And participant comments kind of put a human voice behind our numbers. These are some sample comments that capture what we want QuakeSmart to accomplish. It gives people information they can understand, tools they can use, and a reason to take the next step.

So, sorry, I went too fast. That brings me to where we see the opportunity going forward and where all of you come into this story. This may be the most important slide in my presentation. QuakeSmart doesn't happen because of any one organization. It works because of the relationships that connect FEMA and NEHRP resources with national, regional, and program partners, and ultimately with the state and territory earthquake program managers, you guys, who know your communities.

Earthquake program managers bring something we can't replicate nationally. Knowledge, trusted relationships, understanding of the businesses and organizations in your community, and the ability to help us identify where a program like QuakeSmart would have the greatest impact. I don't see this as a top-down model. These arrows intentionally go both ways. The strongest programs happen when information, needs, resources, expertise, and relationships move in both directions.

And this map shows what those partnerships have already made possible and where there is still opportunity. The blue states represent FEMA eligible states and territories with high or very high seismic risk. The stars show where we've held QuakeSmart workshops and Montana represents our upcoming workshop in December. We've built a meaningful footprint but what I really hope you notice is the opportunity represented by the blue states where there isn't yet a star. We aren't looking to come into a state and simply put on an event, we want to work with the earthquake program managers to determine whether QuakeSmart makes sense for your community, who needs to be at the table, what local expertise we should incorporate, and how we can make the workshop genuinely useful.

So if you're looking at this map and thinking, we could use this in our state, that's exactly the conversation I'd like to have. We're starting to plan for 2027, and I would love to hear from you. I want to emphasize that these workshops are no cost for the regions. We will work with you on logistics, marketing, day of, you name it.

We make it as easy a lift as possible for you.

In closing, QuakeSmart gives us a proven framework, but partnership lets us take it into communities and make it locally relevant. We'd love to continue expanding the relationships, learning from all of you, and identifying opportunities to bring QuakeSmart to additional communities. Thank you to FEMA and all of our partners who have helped make this work possible and please reach out if you'd like to talk about a workshop and we can see what we can do in your state.