Community Tasks: The community is an essential organizing unit in disasters and the level at which both immediate disaster response and long-term recovery occur. Collaboration with all the disaster players is essential. This includes traditional first responders as well as local government representatives, health care providers, schools, faith-based and religious organizations, community organizations and members of the community.
Stakeholders: Local, state, federal, private-sector, and non-profit sector: A stakeholder is defined as any entity – public or private, directly or indirectly affected – that has a vested interest in the outcome of a disaster. In disasters, there are many stakeholders to consider ranging from governmental entities to private corporations to community-based groups.
Stakeholders fall into three categories: social groups (households, citizen groups, non-profit organizations and non-governmental organizations); economic groups (area businesses, large and small), and political groups (governmental systems: federal (FEMA- Federal Emergency Management Agency, state-State office of Emergency Management, Transportation Agency or local-fire, police, public works, planning, etc.).