Sadie Martinez is the Colorado State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management's (DHSEM) Access and Functional Needs Coordinator. She supports state agencies and local jurisdictions in the development of inclusive, whole community emergency operations plans that adequately account for people with Access and Functional Needs. She provides emergency preparedness workshops and serves as the Access and Functional Needs subject matter expert during state-level planning initiatives.
Sadie provides training across Colorado and the nation in her role for Colorado’s Office of Emergency Management using a solution focused "how to" approach in Whole Community Inclusion Planning and Emergency Preparedness for those who are most affected as a result of disasters. She collaborates at the state level with other agencies across Colorado. Across the state and the nation, she leads monthly statewide Access and Functional Needs Meetings and training, as well as State level Access and Functional Needs collaboration meetings nationally. This helps Colorado and others learn to "seek to understand" and "what we don't know, because we don't know" using a "plan with" approach towards whole community inclusion. Sadie also serves as the Access and Whole Community Inclusion Caucus Chair for the International Association for Emergency Management.
Sadie uses the CMIST resource framework which provides a whole community inclusion approach to identify the actual resource needs of the community in Communication, Maintaining Health/Medical, Independence, Support Services and Safety, and Transportation resources, rather than a specific “special need” or vulnerability. This helps Colorado emergency managers and others better understand what capabilities to acquire before, during, and after a disaster by approaching Access & Functional Needs from a resource perspective. This helps create a shared language that reaches across language, disability, under-resourced, and under-served barriers. (©June Isaacson Kailes Disability Policy Consultant June Kailes CMIST )