Education & Workshops
Fostering a Culture of Preparedness
ZDR3 aims to improve preparedness for individual facilities, our response network, and the entire zoological industry, leveraging its reputation in disaster response.
With an increase in potential threats from natural and manmade disasters, and the resultant media and public scrutiny, our industry must not just plan and prepare for what has happened in the past. Our future depends on us facing the fact that the unexpected and unthinkable could befall us.
Regional Response Readiness Workshops
These 2-day workshops allow personnel from different facilities to establish relationships that evolve into collaborative preparedness.
Participants will meet ZDR3 personnel and learn:
how to develop disaster response teams to support other zoological facilities impacted by a disaster
how to strengthen your own facility’s response capacity
about ZDR3’s disaster response planning specific to the state of Texas and Gulf Coast region, and how to be more involved
how teams from different facilities can complement each other's strengths
how preparing to respond to other facilities can help enhance a facility’s own planning and preparedness needs
areas to consider in facility planning and preparedness based on lessons learned from ZDR3’s responses activities
Workshop participants take what they learn back to their home facility to share and utilize for incidents they need to manage, and to be better prepared to assist other facilities facing their worst day.
The zoological industry has always embraced the spirit of peer-to-peer support. The connections and engagement we witness at workshops among industry professionals eager to enhance their disaster preparedness and response skills are truly inspiring. Requests for disaster response workshops have increased as word about their usefulness spread.
“It was a really great opportunity to get in touch with colleagues in an environment that is conducive to growing. Everybody wants to help.”
- Zoo Horticulture Technician
“A lot goes into preparing. We want to make sure that we, at any given moment, are ready to respond.”
- Zoo Safety and Security Manager
“I learned about all the background work that people don't think about, and that there's definitely more things that I can do personally, and training that's available.”
- Zookeeper
2023 Workshops
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Regional Response Readiness: Region 5
January 2023
FEMA Region 5, hosted by Columbus Zoo & Aquarium, Columbus, OH
Participants: 65 attendees from 39 zoological facilities and 7 FEMA regions
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Regional Response Readiness: Region 4
August 2023
FEMA Region 4, hosted by Jacksonville Zoo & Gardens, Jacksonville, FL
Participants: 40+ attendees from 16 zoological facilities and 4 FEMA regions
Facilitated Training & Certification
ZDR3 encourages network responders to seek training that will prepare them to manage acute emergencies, including First Aid, CPR, Stop the Bleed®, automated external defibrillator (AED), and Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response (HAZWOPER). When we offer workshops that include these instructional opportunities, we coordinate with specialized instructors to facilitate certified training. The ZDR3 Network includes a number of certified trainers who have generously volunteered their time and expertise to provide training to their peers.
2023 Facilitated Training
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Stop the Bleed®
October 2023
Training hosted at Zoological Association of America, Safety & Security Committee, Annual Meeting, RI
Certified trainer provided by Dakota Zoo, ND
Participants: 12 attendees from 3 zoological facilities
2022 Facilitated Training
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HAZWOPER 24
March 2022
Training hosted at Frank Buck Zoo, TX
Certified trainer provided by Moody Gardens, TX
Participants: 9 attendees from 3 zoological facilities
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First Aid, CPR, AED
March 2022
Training hosted at Fort Worth Zoo, TX
Certified trainers provided by Fort Worth Zoo, TX
Participants: 9 attendees from 3 zoological facilities