Individuals, families, roommates, and caregivers who need a calm, locally relevant emergency foundation rather than fear-driven gear lists.
Course 38 · Life course 10
Personal Safety & Emergency Basics
Assess local risks, build a household plan and practical kit, protect records, learn safe response boundaries, and run drills.
Before you start
Identify household ages, disabilities, health needs, languages, pets, transport, work or school locations, and available support.
See everything you’ll needWhat you’ll leave with
A household emergency plan, tailored stay and go supplies, contact and document system, hazard cards, and completed practice drill.
Start course Start without an account. Sign in to save lesson progress across devices.
Your project
Start with the practice files. Build your project one lesson at a time.
Practice files are free without an account. Sign in to save your project record in My Proof: a description, checklist, and optional work link. Keep the original files in your own app or notebook; saving a project record does not upload them.
- Get your materialsDownload the practice worksheetUse the downloadable worksheet or toolkit alongside the lesson instructions.
- Make your projectView the project checklist Work in your own notebook, document, or software. Use the supplied practice examples when you prefer.
- Keep a private recordSave a project record Sign in to save a description and checklist, then return to update them.
Optional course overview
Watch an introduction.
This overview from Federal Emergency Management Agency introduces ideas you’ll practice in the lessons.
Watch directly on YouTubeFederal Emergency Management AgencyHow to Prepare an Emergency KitYouTube
Course handbook
Know the route before you begin.
Here’s what you’ll need and what you’ll make. You can return to this guide during any lesson.
- Identify household ages, disabilities, health needs, languages, pets, transport, work or school locations, and available support.
- Use local emergency management, weather, utility, public health, building, school, and employer guidance for specific hazards.
- Store medicines, weapons, fuels, batteries, tools, documents, and emergency supplies safely and lawfully.
Finish with proof you can use.
Complete and practice a household readiness system with local hazard map, alert setup, contact and meeting plan, evacuation and shelter routes, tailored supplies, medical and document notes, utility and fire response cards, digital backups, and two scheduled drills.
Save a project record in My ProofSee project checklist and review criteria
- A local hazard profile and alert map listing source, signal, immediate action, season, and backup channel.
- A household contact card, two meeting points, responsibility chart, and reunification procedure.
- A household supply inventory, prioritized gap list, packed portable kit, storage map, and six-month rotation schedule.
- Fire escape map, utility response card, medical information sheet, alarm schedule, and certified-training plan.
- A secure document index, encrypted backup, protected physical packet, property inventory, and account-recovery map.
- A completed drill record, timed observations, improvement list with owners, and a 12-month practice calendar.
Three ideas to help you along the way
Three useful ideas
The rules behind the steps.
Plan for people first
Communication, access, medication, mobility, caregiving, pets, and reunification determine whether generic supplies are actually usable.
Official information beats rumor
Alerts and instructions should come from verified local authorities, weather services, utilities, schools, and emergency responders.
Practice finds friction
A plan becomes real when someone tries the route, opens the kit, contacts the backup, and discovers what is missing.
What do these words mean?
Key words
Key terms worth knowing.
- Shelter in place
- Remaining inside a suitable location and taking protective actions as directed for a specific hazard.
- Evacuation
- Leaving an area by an instructed or preplanned route for a safer destination.
- Reunification point
- A predetermined place or process household members use to reconnect after separation.
- Go bag
- Portable essentials prepared for a rapid departure and tailored to the person carrying it.
Your route6 lessons.
6 lessons.
One useful project.
Work in order the first time. Each lesson makes something the next lesson can use.
- 1Up next
Assess local risks and set alerts
Identify the main local dangers and choose more than one way to receive official warnings.
- 234 min
Make the household communication plan
Decide how people reconnect, share status, support dependents, and act when normal communication fails.
- 341 min
Build useful stay and go supplies
Assemble affordable, rotated supplies based on people, duration, hazard, transport, and official local guidance.
- 438 min
Prepare fire, utility, and medical actions
Create simple response cards that protect life, trigger emergency help, and prevent untrained intervention.
- 532 min
Protect documents and digital access
Preserve identity, insurance, property, medical, financial, and recovery information without creating a new privacy risk.
- 635 min
Drill, review, and update
Test one realistic scenario, capture friction without blame, and maintain readiness through life and seasonal changes.
Use the tools
See all tools Tools to help you practice.
Source transparency
Sources and further study.
Explore the references behind the lessons and take your learning further. Source notes explain access and reuse.
Ready when you are
Start lesson one Start with the first useful move.
You’ll always know what to do, what to make, and where to go next.
Open collaboration ideaHelp keep this complete course free.
Potential collaboration: Safety equipment, insurers, emergency communications, training providers
Partner with LifeStarter