Scouting/BSA/Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge

The requirements to this merit badge are copyrighted by the Boy Scouts of America. They are reproduced in part here under fair use as a resource for Scouts and Scouters to use in the earning and teaching of merit badges. The requirements published by the Boy Scouts of America should always be used over the list here. If in doubt about the accuracy of a requirement, consult your Merit Badge Counselor.

Reading this page does not satisfy any requirement for any merit badge. Per National regulations, the only person who may sign off on requirements is a Merit Badge Counselor, duly registered and authorized by the local Council. To obtain a list of registered Merit Badge Counselors, or to begin a Merit Badge, please contact your Scoutmaster or Council Service Center.

Requirements: 1. Earn the First Aid merit badge.

2. Do the following:

    a. Discuss with your counselor the aspects of emergency preparedness:

         1. Prepare for emergency situations
         2. Respond to emergency situations
         3. Recover from emergency situations
         4. Mitigate and prevent emergency situations.
    b. Make a chart that demonstrates your understanding of each of the 3 aspects of emergency preparedness in requirement 2a with regard to 10 of the situations listed below. You must use situations 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 below in boldface but you may choose any other 5 listed for a total of 10 situations. Discuss this chart with your counselor. (Get workbook from #REDIRECT [[1]]
    c. Meet with and teach your family how to get or build a kit, make a plan, and be informed for the situations on the chart you created for requirement 2b. Complete a family plan. Then meet your counselor and report on your family meeting, discuss their responses, and share your family plan.

3. Show how you could safely save a person from the following:

    a. Touching a live household electric wire
    b. A room filled with carbon monoxide
    c. Clothes on fire
    d. Drowning using nonswimming rescues (including accidents on ice)

4. Show 3 ways of attracting and communicating with rescule planes/aircraft.

5. With another person, show a good way to move an injured person out of a remote and/or rugged area, conserving the energy of rescuers while ensuring the well-being and protection of the injured person.

6. Do the following:

    'a. Tell the things a group of Scouts should be prepared to do, the training they need, and the safetey precautions they should take for the following emergency services:

         1. Crowd and traffic control
         2. Messenger service and communication
         3. Collection and distribution services
         4. Group feeding, shelter, and sanitation

    b. Identify the government or community agencies that normally handle and prepare for the emergency services listed under 6a, and explain to your counselor how a group of Scouts could volunteer to help in the event of these types of emergencies.
    c. Find out who is your community's emergency management director and learn what this person does to prepare, respond to, recover from, and migitate and prevent emergency situations in your community. Discuss this information with your counselor and apply what you discover to the chart you created for requirement 2b.

7. Take part in an emergency service project, either a real one or a practice drill, with a Scouting unit or a community agency.

8. Do the following:

    a. Prepare a written plan for mobilizing your troop when needed to do emergency service. If there is already a plan, explain it. Tell your part in making it work.
    b. Take part in at least one troop mobilization. Before the exercise, describe your part to your counselor. Afterward, conduct an "after-action" lesson, discussing what you learned during the exercise that required changes or adjustments to the plan.

9.Do one of the following: a. Using a safety checklist approved by your counselor, inspect your home for potential hazards Explain the hazards you find and how they can be corrected.

b. Review or develop a plan of