About Us

The Los Angeles County Department of Health Services (DHS) Public Health http://lapublichealth.org is the second largest public health system in the nation providing direct patient care and public health services for its more than 10 million county residents. The mission of DHS, Public Health is to improve health through leadership, service and education, by protecting health, preventing disease and promoting the health and well-being for all persons in Los Angeles County.

The Bioterrorism Preparedness Program (BTPP) is one of many programs in the Public Health Department. The mission of BTPP is to assure preparedness of the public and community responders to a terrorist event or other public health emergencies by coordinating federal, state and local resources to provide public health staff training, community education, and exercises.

The “Just Be Ready: Prepare Together” campaign, launched on July 20, 2005, is one of the many preparedness activities that is designed to the fulfill BTPP’s mission. The campaign is a multi-cultural education and outreach campaign with the goal of increasing the public’s awareness of the need to develop an emergency communication plan.

The “Just Be Ready: Prepare Together” campaign will include radio, television, and print public service announcements (PSAs) in 12 different languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Thai, Khmer, Tagalog, Vietnamese, Armenian, Russian, Arabic, and Farsi. Community outreach is a major component of the campaign. The Public Health Department will be distributing educational materials on emergency preparedness at various health fairs and community events across Los Angeles County. The campaign will include outreach to special populations, schools and businesses.

This “Just Be Ready: Prepare Together” web site is part of the campaign’s multicultural, multilingual outreach efforts to assist county residents prepare themselves and their families for emergencies.