Urban Responder Launches UrbanResponder.com to
Promote Civilian Emergency Preparedness in Urban Environments
Urban Responder announces the launch of its inaugural website. UrbanResponder.com showcases product reviews, training resources, news, information and a store to purchase products for civilian and public service first responders in urban environments.
The Urban Responder lifestyle is grounded in the integration and ongoing refinement of four elements which contribute to the effective application of “good Samaritan” virtues and first responder mentalities in metropolitan, industrial and big-city environments:
- Values
- Philosophies
- Skills
- Tools
Values
First and foremost, the Urban Responder is committed to values which contribute to health, sustainability, security and unity in our local, regional and global communities.
Stewardship instills a sense of responsibility for our environment and others who share our spaces, which encourages us to take action in response to events and conditions that may adversely impact our lives and the lives of others.
Empathy allows us to identify and relate to others, regardless of gender or sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, nationality, age, religion or any other construct that is used to categorize and divide us as humans.
Compassion drives the natural humanitarian urge to go beyond our usual barriers of self-preservation to respond to others in need and goes well beyond technical skills or knowledge to include essential elements of mental comfort and emotional care.
Style may not typically fit into a traditional list of values, but visual appeal remains an important element of any product we may intend to keep close at hand at all times, both in the way that it reflects our own senses of style and appearance, as well as in consideration of purely practical concealability.
Philosophies
Many of us rarely commit much time or energy to exploring the philosophies that are fundamental to who we are, what we do and how we see the world. We tend to perform tasks, observe events, relate to others and form opinions without thinking much about the subtle undercurrents which motivate, filter and shape everything that makes us the individuals we have been, are and will become.
Without an emphasis on core philosophies and the values that enrich them, our development of skills and the tools we deploy in the use of those skills fall flat. As we explore history, however, we find that those who have answered the call to render aid and protect our communities have always developed key philosophies at the core of their practices. Whether Bushido of the samurai’s, the Hippocratic Oath taken by modern medical professionals, or something as simple and universal as The Golden Rule of treating someone else as you would want them to treat you, we have always sought meaning in our experiences and applied meaning to our actions.
Skills
With the right motivation and drive in place, it is most critical to develop and consistently maintain applicable skills through training and practice.
Communication forms the foundation for effective response to nearly any imaginable event in an urban environment. Whether asking an injured person for symptoms, to engaging a threat, to conveying information to professional first responders who arrive on a scene, it is critical to be aware, listen carefully, speak clearly and share information concisely. These skills are developed throughout life and in some cases, there are courses and programs which can sharpen the natural learning process.
Medical skills typically begin with readily-available and simple First Aid/CPR courses and continue through a wide variety of more advanced and specialized skillsets including trauma, triage, wilderness, children, sport, tactical and even pet/animal first aid. Medical emergencies are the most likely scenarios that any urban responder will encounter and
Rescue programs often includes advanced medical training, but also offer more specific skills such as vehicle extraction, building searching firefighting and use of specialized rescue equipment. These abilities are often most applicable in natural disasters, vehicle accidents, large-scale structural damage.
Tactical skillsets vary widely, and practical applications may include hand-to-hand self-defense, knife combat, active-shooter scenarios and even tactical driving. Perhaps more important, however, are observational skills, situational awareness, threat analysis and even less obvious capabilities such as de-escalation and conflict-avoidance.
Tools
There is no shortage of tools, gear and equipment available on the market today and new products emerge daily from both larger producers as well as small businesses and visionaries. Limitless human imagination continues to create exciting solutions to real-world problems, and technology continues to advance to meet the appetite of human innovation, resulting in not only improved production but also increased access to products that were once beyond the reach of civilians and individuals in general due to costs and availability.
Whether helping a little old lady cross the street at night, extracting a victim from a vehicle accident, living through a natural disaster that wipes out public services, engaging an active shooter or fishing out a particularly nasty splinter, Urban Responder will seek out, review and present the products that make it possible for anyone to effectively respond to neighbors in need.
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