The COSTEP Starter Kit: A Handbook for the Cultural Community
Source: NEDCC – New England Document Conservation Center
Many partners are needed to protect the cultural collections and historic sites that represent our heritage. Collaborative planning and coordinated response will lessen the damaging effects of disasters and help speed recovery. But the partnerships essential to protecting cultural heritage need to be in place before disaster strikes, and that is what makes the Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness framework a brilliant tool.
The work of coordinating statewide disaster response can seem daunting, but the COSTEP program can be built in stages and worked around busy schedules. It should be viewed as a process that will continue over time, rather than a project that begins and ends. To help make the process more manageable, COSTEP is organized around four components: Building Relationships, Mitigating Hazards, Preparing for Response, and Sustaining COSTEP.
