Is Your Program As Safe As It Should Be?

Safety, understood as an absolute freedom from harm, is an ideal we strive towards on a daily basis. As most incident investigations show, it is the exception when a significant incident results from one single misjudgment. Usually, a significant incident results from a cascading chain of linked events. Had any one of those pieces been different, the outcome would likely not have resulted in a safety incident.

The best strategies for safety abroad are therefore multifaceted and redundant. They include training and developing staff, creating feedback loops, fostering organizational alignment and developing the systems, documents and policies to support operations that are often spread across the world.

International education and service organizations have tremendous variability in the who/what/where/why/how/how long of what they do. Each organization’s strategy is going to be somewhat unique. Developing safety strategies is a dynamic process that continues year after year. We all strive to improve our health, safety and security based on our understanding of our programs, the hazard landscape, the legal landscape, the cultural landscape and what we see as the available options. For most of us, this process is disciplined by limitations of time, money and personnel.

Lodestone Safety International will work with you to choose and develop the most effective strategies for your program. We can create or upgrade a particular system or document, or provide a comprehensive development strategy.

Full Range of Solutions

As an industry leader, Lodestone offers a wide scope of services, including:

▪   Mission alignment, program design and approval strategies

▪   Emergency response and crisis management plans

o   Stakeholder identification, field protocols, administrative protocols, communication guidelines, contingency teams, external expertise, family plans, media plans, crisis communications

▪   Medical strategy

o   Medical facility assessment, medical oversight, policy development, first aid training, first aid kits

▪   Vetting

o   Policies, methodology, resources

▪   Policy/procedure development

▪   Communications strategies, policies and systems

▪   Transportation strategy

▪   Incident reporting system

▪   Information acquisition strategies

▪   Contracting with partners, providers and vendors

▪   Student facilitation and behavior management strategy

▪   Student screening

o   Policy development, forms, Essential Eligibility Criteria

▪   Participant preparation

o   Orientation process, manuals, pre-travel medical advice