Training and Exercises for Emergency Management and Cultural Inclusion
Ever sat through a training watching the clock? Left the training or exercise and soon forgot what was covered? Then a crisis hits or a service program changes and the scramble begins. Not when you work with us!
The Frew Group creates trainings and exercises that foster strong performance and enable participants to achieve organizational goals. We understand how shifting demographics, continual changes and expectations often lead to Blind Spots in work performance and program delivery.
The The Frew Group experience fosters an environment of learning that inspires, motivates and engages. Your team walks away fulfilling mandated training requirements while benefitting from an enjoyable experience and gaining new perspectives on their roles and core competencies.
We connect content to the job. Our goal is that when participants leave, what they learned goes with them and is immediately put into action in their job.
Trusted training partner of these government agencies and more
We deliver workshops, training, and exercises to federal, state, and local government agencies, and the private sector to prepare them for disaster management, social equity, and community resilience.

Department of Justice – FBI

State of California

FEMA

County of Sonoma

State of Hawaii
Increasingly critical training for all disaster workers
- Comprehensive process and approach for understanding and collaborating with anyone – it's like having a Cultural Rosetta Stone.
- Methods to include and protect vulnerable and at-risk populations that save lives and prevent disasters from becoming catastrophes.
- Key skills to respond more effectively and cost-effectively to your whole community's needs and vulnerability to hazard events.
- Low-cost or even no-cost mitigation strategies that are more effective and easier to implement than your biggest budget busters.
- Protect yourself against lawsuits, because you don't have time to be a legal expert when disaster strikes.
What makes our training and exercises different from other facilitators?
We pride ourselves on engaging training and exercise methods. With us, you don’t get cookie-cutter training.
Participatory learning is our top priority, our goal is to ensure that participants are thoroughly engaged in our training deliveries. Our trainers bring your content and industry-mandated trainings to life.
Participants feel respected and encouraged because we use a variety of culturally appropriate and innovative research-based learning approaches and training methods that respect different learning styles. These proven processes are used by top innovative companies and universities.
Our instructional design is based on the human, not just the data or process (known as human-centered design). For example, we shake it up with Serious Games (a.k.a. gamification) to level the playing field and ensure every diverse voice in the room is both heard and engaged. Active storytelling and scenario role plays inject a sense of realistic field experience. Technology, such as using live polls through smartphones, keeps engagement vibrant.
See an example of Serious Games “gamification” Suzanne helped create called Rim Sim: A Role-Play Simulation for USGS.
Our foundational philosophy is cultural and social inclusion.
Our subject matter expertise, rigorous needs assessments, and design approaches are enhanced by our market differentiator – the integration of inclusion strategies in every step of the planning, delivery, and evaluation process.
Another The Frew Group differentiator is our unsurpassed ability to break through challenging cultural issues. Trainings suffer when the goals and approaches do not ultimately address the whole population being served.
In building community risk resilience, we often speak of whole communities but fail to be trained on how to operationalize this important concept. Or even truly understand what diverse populations mean. For any organization working across sectors and diverse populations, increasing cross-cultural effectiveness has become critical to program survival.
Building upon expedient yet detailed needs assessments, The Frew Group tackles issues internal to organizations and external to communities and target audiences. We build every training, exercise, and workshop on a commitment to cultural competency and innovative approaches that drives diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What is our bench?
Participants benefit from our team’s decades of experience delivering trainings, exercises, and workshops. They learn from our team’s own personal field experiences, research, and personal passion.
Our training specialists have designed, conducted, and evaluated hundreds of capacity-building activities for all levels of government, organizations, academic institutions, and communities throughout the United States and around the world. (Check out our client testimonials for a few case studies!)
Our team reflects federally-certified Master Exercise Practitioners (MEP) deeply experienced in Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) compliant protocols, and private sector practitioners trained in design-thinking, human-centered design, cultural competency, and diversity.
Our training capabilities
✓ Trainings: 2-3 hours; half-day and full-day; multiple days
✓ Disaster Management Exercises
– Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP) compliant
– Workshops
– Top Exercises
– Functional Exercises
– Full-Scale Exercises
✓ Executive Leadership Programs
✓ Retreats
✓ Workshops: 2-3 hours; half-day and full-day; multiple days. See our Emergency Management Workshop page for more information.
What our clients and attendees say
Design thinking, research
Business community resilience
AAUW