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What is the Weather-Ready Nation (WRN) Ambassador program?
One of NOAA’s missions is to save life and property by providing critical environmental intelligence, including weather forecasts and warnings, to our partners and the general public. NOAA wants everyone, from communities across the country, businesses, and the public at large to be ready, responsive, and resilient to extreme weather, water, and climate events. Government cannot achieve success without the support and contributions from partners. NOAA recognizes that building a Weather-Ready Nation requires innovative collaborations with the media, emergency management community, the Weather Enterprise, and other organizations such as businesses and all levels of government. WRN Ambassadors are formally recognized by NOAA as organizations that share these goals. WRN Ambassadors collaborate with NOAA to share preparedness messaging to the public, serve as examples themselves by implementing resilience best practices, and advance outreach to vulnerable populations.
How does this benefit the nation?
NOAA wants to find ways to collaborate with external organizations in innovative ways to optimize all our efforts toward community resilience. Increased dialog and information sharing have resulted in reduced redundancy, more consistent weather safety messaging, and improved communication with stakeholders and the general public. Weather-Ready Nation Ambassadors act as force multipliers, encouraging others to become better prepared and ready to take action when needed.
Why become an Ambassador?
Extreme weather, water, and climate events can devastate a community, through loss of life, property, jobs, and livelihoods. Contributing to the greater public good, in collaboration with NOAA and other ambassadors, not only is good for others, but good for organizations. No organization is immune to the impacts. By becoming a WRN Ambassador, your organization can serve a pivotal role in affecting societal change. Here are four specific reasons:
What are the duties of a WRN Ambassador?
There are no “must-do duties” per se but at its core the program encourages active participation in sharing information with others, collaborating with NOAA offices on resilience efforts, and playing a key role in community engagement.. One very important detail for ambassadors to maintain is accurate contact information. If your point of contact(s) changes jobs or responsibilities, retires, or otherwise is no longer in the role, please reach out to us at wrn.feedback@noaa.gov with the updated contact information. Otherwise, opportunities exist to engage with NOAA in ways that benefit your organization. This program is aspirational vs. hardened requirements. Many of our successes are innovations in action, efforts that were the result of creative collaboration.
Who can become a WRN Ambassador?
Any organization across all levels of government, businesses large and small, non-profit and non-governmental organizations, and academia can become WRN Ambassadors. Submissions are reviewed to determine if it was made in good faith and the submitting organization shares in the goal of community resilience.
How does this program differ from NWS StormReady®, TsunamiReady™ and other external NOAA preparedness campaigns?
The WRN Ambassador program focuses on organizations wanting to partner with NOAA toward building a Weather-Ready Nation. National Weather Service (NWS) StormReady and NWS TsunamiReady are well-established programs with a higher level of requirements that need to be met to become recognized. To become a WRN Ambassador, an organization must provide an up-to-date point of contact and contact information.. Other campaigns, such as FEMA’s Ready campaign, are complementary efforts focused on all hazards preparedness. The WRN Ambassador program is primarily focused on sharing preparedness messaging and collaborating on events, new content, and engagements with those most vulnerable.
What parts of NOAA are participating in the WRN Ambassadors program?
The WRN Ambassador program is a NOAA-wide effort to strengthen collaborations toward a unified effort to increase national resilience against extreme weather, water, and climate events. This includes areas such as satellite services and information, coastal resilience, maritime safety, and the NOAA research labs that support NOAA services. The WRN Ambassador program targets partnerships at the national, regional, and local levels.
With the WRN Ambassador program, is NOAA endorsing products, services, and businesses?
Becoming a WRN Ambassador does not imply any NOAA endorsement of any third party products or services. NOAA recognizes WRN Ambassadors as organizations that share a commitment to protecting communities, businesses, and individuals from devastating extreme weather events.
How can I obtain an Ambassador logo for my web site or publication?
Once your organization’s submission to become an Ambassador is approved, an Ambassador “Thank You” email will be sent to the point of contact. This email includes a high-resolution image of the Ambassador logo. Alternative formats of the WRN Ambassador logo are available upon request to wrn.feedback@noaa.gov
Who can I contact for more information?
Questions can be sent to wrn.feedback@noaa.gov email account. Alternatively, you can reach out to your local NWS Weather Forecast Office. Contact information can be found at: https://www.weather.gov/stormready/contact.
