Messaging Tools

400+ Translated Messages

View the messages in these Google Spreadsheets:

Wildfire Prevention, Preparedness, Evacuation, Safety: bit.ly/wildfiredangermessages 

Wildfire Smoke: bit.ly/wildfiresmokemessages

Languages include: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Russian, Korean, Arabic, Japanese, Ukrainian, Tagalog, Khmer, Romanian, Somali, Persian, Thai, Hindi, Lao, Telugu, Hmong, Karen, Chuukese, Nepali, Swahili, French, Rohingya, Bosnian, Burmese, Pashto, Marshallese, Oromo, Amharic, and Mien

Illustrations & Audio Files

Illustrations and audio files of these wildfire messages will be available in late 2023.

150+ Translated Messages

View the messages in a Google Spreadsheet at bit.ly/HeatMessages. Languages include English, Arabic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Simplified Chinese, Chuukese, Farsi Persian, French, Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Karen, Korean, Lao, Nepali, Rohingya, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Telugu, Thai, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. 

Illustrations & Videos

Illustrations are copyright free and stored in Google Drive. Videos can be found at bit.ly/heatsafetyvids. 

Audio Files of Key Messages

WAV files of these key messages in Arabic, Chinese Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, Chuukese, Farsi, Hindi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Nepali, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Tagalog, Telugu, Thai, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. 

100+ Translated Messages

View the messages in a Google Spreadsheet at bit.ly/WinterMessages. Languages include English, Arabic, Bosnian, Cambodian, Simplified Chinese, Chuukese, Farsi Persian, French, Hindi, Hmong, Japanese, Karen, Korean, Lao, Nepali, Rohingya, Romanian, Russian, Somali, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Telugu, Thai, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese. 

Illustrations & Fliers 

Illustrations copyright free and stored in a Google Drive. You may also use these fliers in English, Spanish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Somali, and Vietnamese. 

Audio Files of Key Messages

MP3 and MP4 files of these key messages in English, Arabic (with English), Mandarin Chinese (with English), Russian (with English), Somali (with English), Spanish (with English, with images), Vietnamese (with English). 

Anyone is welcome to use and share the resources on this page. 

Messages

The messages were gathered from many dozens of community partners, public agencies, and other subject matter experts in the Portland Metro Region. The goal was to address the needs of those most impacted by disasters, including people living outside, people with low incomes, older adults, people with medical needs vulnerable to power outages, people who do not speak or read English, and people hesitant to use utilities because of the expenses. 

Translations

Translations were done by a local vendor with a focus on cultural competency. They have been reviewed by community partners. Languages are selected using Metro’s Factor 1 Analysis and feedback from local community-based organizations.

Illustrations 

Illustrations were designed by a local vendor. The goal is to be visually informative and instructive; reflect our many communities; be scientifically and technically accurate yet friendly, non-terrifying, approachable, empowering, and culturally competent; communicate valuable information visually to low-literacy viewers; include vibrant color for social media/digital applications/color printing; leave blank space around for adding safety message text; be formattable into a variety of formats for social media; have high contrast of tones that print clearly on black and white low-quality printers; and be unbranded so anyone can use them. The illustrations include translated alt-text. 

Audio Files 

Audio files of recorded messages allow community partners to send safety messages to those who have low literacy or cannot read English. They can share the messages using the apps that are popular in the communities they serve, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, and Telegram. 

Future Message Creation

Wildfire and smoke messages will be released in 2023-2024. The next stage will address earthquake messaging.  

Project Background

This project began during the devastating heat dome that impacted the Portland Metro Region in June 2021. Community partners shared their messaging needs with the City of Portland's COAD Coordinator, Kate Szrom. She designed this project to be responsive of their needs. The project is supported by the Disaster Messaging Work Group of the Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization (RDPO) and is funded by the Urban Areas Security Initiative. For more information about this project, email coad@portlandoregon.gov or rdpo@portlandoregon.gov. 

Feedback is Welcome

Community input is a critical part of this project. If you have feedback, please email us at coad@portlandoregon.gov or rdpo@portlandoregon.gov.