Designing Innovative Exercises that Improve Readiness with the MRC STTRONG Program in Hawai'i

Emergency managers are increasingly challenged to strengthen preparedness and resilience while navigating limited resources, evolving grant requirements, and complex stakeholder landscapes. The Hawaii Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) STTRONG Program offers a practical, scalable model for addressing these challenges through innovative drill and functional exercise design. This session explores how Hawaii leveraged the MRC STTRONG framework to move beyond compliance driven exercises toward hands on, scenario based activities that intentionally build partnerships, clarify roles, and improve operational readiness.

Participants will learn how drills and functional exercises were designed around real world hazards and mission needs, employing a crawl walk run approach to test coordination, communication, and decision making across multiple volunteer teams and partner organizations. The session highlights how exercises were used as partnership building tools-strengthening trust, informing memoranda of understanding, and aligning expectations between public health, emergency management, healthcare, nonprofit, and private sector stakeholders.

Attendees will leave with actionable insights on designing exercises that are anchored in resilience, proven through practice, and adaptable to changing grant landscapes-demonstrating how a prepared community is, ultimately, a safer and more resilient community.