When disaster strikes, prepared Scouts don’t panic – they act fast and save lives. One of the biggest reasons is the Emergency Preparedness merit badge. In completing this Eagle-required badge, Scouts learn both the science behind emergencies and the practical skills to handle them!
Earning this badge means building on your First Aid knowledge and mastering the five phases of emergency preparedness. You’ll create home emergency plans, practice safe response techniques, study how communities coordinate disaster relief, and discover the best ways to help others in emergencies like fires and floods – without putting yourself at risk.
In this article, we’ll walk through the importance of the Emergency Preparedness badge and cover some of the most crucial skills you’ll develop. After that, I’ll review each requirement you’ll need to complete, along with its difficulty rating. Finally, we’ll cover some insider tips on how to complete this badge more smoothly, and go over some helpful resources so you’ll be 100% prepared to get started. Ready to go? 🙂
Why The Emergency Preparedness Badge Is Important
At its core, Emergency Preparedness teaches one central idea: good outcomes in emergencies are rarely accidents. They are usually the result of learning and preparation done long before anything goes wrong.
Scouts studying this badge learn the five phases of emergency preparedness:
- Prevention – reducing the likelihood an emergency occurs
- Protection – limiting exposure to danger
- Mitigation – minimizing damage when disaster hits
- Response – taking immediate, effective action
- Recovery – rebuilding and learning from what happened
Throughout the badge, you’ll apply this framework to real emergencies like fires, floods, accidents, power outages, and document your thinking. Then you’ll explain your reasoning to your counselor, proving you understand not just what to do in an emergency, but why it’s the best course of action.
Because First Aid is a prerequisite, you’re already equipped with medical fundamentals. Emergency Preparedness takes that foundation further. You’ll move beyond treating injuries to preventing them, coordinating responses, thinking in systems, and leading others through crisis situations.
If you’re more of a visual or auditory learner, be sure to check out this great video overview (2:18) of the Emergency Preparedness badge below, created by ScoutMaster Dave!
Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Overview (Eagle-Required)
| Merit Badge Name: | Emergency Preparedness |
| Creation Date: | 1972, originally featuring a red cross design |
| Badge Difficulty: | 5 – Low to Moderate (planning, analysis, and service project) |
| Top 3 Skills Covered: |
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| Fun Fact: | The Emergency Preparedness merit badge patch secretly spells “HELP” in Morse code with the little green dots and dashes. |
| Ideal Ages To Earn: | 14–16, often during First Class or Star ranks |
| Merit Badge Pamphlet: | Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Pamphlet Link |
The Most Important Skills You’ll Learn
The Emergency Preparedness merit badge is one of the few badges whose value continues to grow after it is earned. Whether you’re guiding your patrol on a hike or driving in icy conditions, the skills you cover will always be top of mind to make you a more prepared individual.
Personally, these were the biggest skills I began developing from earning the Emergency Preparedness merit badge:
- Risk awareness and prevention: You’ll start spotting hazards before they become emergencies. It’ll become instinct to notice the overloaded outlet, the blocked exit, or the weather turning dangerous and have a plan in case things go wrong.
- Decision-making under pressure: You’ll train yourself to slow down and think clearly when chaos erupts so that you can assess situations clearly and act with focus instead of emotion.
- Planning and communication: Creating emergency charts and written analyses teaches you to guide others in high-pressure situations – a skill that matters in every leadership role you’ll hold.
- Systems thinking: Emergencies don’t happen in isolation. By studying how communities and disaster response services respond to crises, you’ll understand how to best support your loved ones in a disaster scenario.
By keeping these skills in mind as you earn your badge, you’ll find yourself more quickly completing requirements and connecting to the importance of what you’re learning. Arguably, Emergency Preparedness is one of the most important skills Scouts cover, so make sure to take the time to let things sink in. Now, we’re ready to go over each of the badge requirements!
What Are The Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Requirements?
I’d suggest using the table below to plan your work. For this badge, most Scouts start with requirement 2b, batch the family requirements, then schedule the service project. Those are the 3 most time-consuming aspects of this essential Eagle-required badge!
| Req # | Requirement Summary | Requirement Group | Difficulty | ScoutSmarts Notes & Tips |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First Aid Merit Badge. Earn the First Aid merit badge. | Foundation and Personal Safety | High | You do not need to earn First Aid before starting Emergency Prep. You just need it completed before this badge is signed off. |
| 2a | Discuss with your counselor the aspects of emergency preparedness and include in your discussion the kinds of questions that are important to ask yourself as you consider each of these: Prevention, Protection, Mitigation, Response, Recovery | Foundation and Personal Safety | Medium | This sets the mental framework for the entire badge. Understanding the differences between the five phases matters more than memorizing definitions. |
| 2b | Using a chart, spreadsheet, or another method approved by your counselor, demonstrate your understanding of each aspect of emergency preparedness listed in requirement 2(a)… for 10 emergency situations from the list below. Discuss your findings with your counselor. | Systems Thinking and Analysis | High | This is the most time-intensive requirement. Start early and choose emergencies relevant to where you live and how you travel. |
| 2b (1–21) | Home stovetop or oven fire; Home flammable liquid fire; Gas leak; Food poisoning; Automobile crash; Vehicle stalled in the desert; Vehicle trapped in a blizzard; Backcountry injury; Boating or water accident; Toxic chemical spills; Nuclear power plant emergency; Fire or explosion in a public place; Violence in a public place; Wildland fire; Avalanche; Earthquake; Tsunami; Major flooding or flash flood with water outage; Hurricane with power outage; Tornado; Lightning storm | Systems Thinking and Analysis | Low | You only choose 10 of these. Quality matters more than quantity. Avoid copy-pasting the same idea into each phase. |
| 3a | At a family meeting, discuss the situations on the chart you created for requirement 2(b) and make emergency plans for sheltering-in-place and for evacuation of your home. Discuss your family meeting and plans with your counselor. | Family-Level Planning | Medium | This is about clear communication. A short, focused family meeting is enough. |
| 3b | Develop and practice a plan of escape for your family in case of fire in your home. Draw a floor plan with escape routes and a map with a safe meeting place. Discuss your family’s home escape plan with your counselor. | Family-Level Planning | Medium | Simple and clear beats detailed and confusing. Make sure everyone knows the meeting place. |
| 3c | Using a checklist in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, prepare or inspect a family disaster kit for sheltering-in-place and for evacuation of your home. Review the needs and uses of the items in a kit with your counselor. | Family-Level Planning | Medium | Prepared does not mean heavy. Ask your counselor or camp what they expect before packing gear. |
| 4 | Preventing Accidents and Emergencies. Do ONE of the following: | Judgment, Prevention, and Survival Mindset | Medium | This requirement is about thinking ahead, not reacting later. |
| 4a | Using a home safety checklist… inspect a home (or similar building)… Present your completed checklist to and discuss your findings with your counselor. | Judgment, Prevention, and Survival Mindset | Low | Good choice if you prefer observation and discussion over writing multiple plans. |
| 4b | Develop emergency prevention plans for five family activities outside the home… Each plan should include an analysis of possible hazards, proposals to prevent, protect from, mitigate, respond to, and recover from emergencies… | Judgment, Prevention, and Survival Mindset | High | This option takes longer but connects strongly to the five-phase framework from Requirement 2. |
| 5 | Show how you could save a person from the following dangerous situations without putting yourself in danger: Live electric wire; Carbon monoxide; Clothes on fire; Drowning (nonswimming rescues). | Judgment, Prevention, and Survival Mindset | Medium | The key phrase is “without putting yourself in danger.” |
| 6 | Signaling for Help. Show ways to attract attention from aircraft or drones, ground searchers, and water searchers. | Judgment, Prevention, and Survival Mindset | Medium | Think redundancy. If one signal fails, another should still work. |
| 7 | Moving an Injured Person. With another person, show two good ways to transport an injured person out of a remote area using improvised stretchers to conserve the energy of rescuers while ensuring the well-being and protection of the injured person. | Judgment, Prevention, and Survival Mindset | Medium | Focus on teamwork, energy conservation, and protecting the injured person. |
| 8a | Describe the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the local Incident Command System (ICS). | Community Systems and Command | Medium | This explains how real emergency handling is organized. |
| 8b | Find out how your community and its leaders work to manage and to train for disasters. Discuss this information with your counselor. | Community Systems and Command | Medium | Your city or county emergency management office is a good place to start. |
| 8c | Discuss how a Scout troop can help in an emergency situation using ICS. | Community Systems and Command | Medium | This is about safe support roles, not first response. |
| 9a | Discuss with your counselor the duties a Scout troop should be prepared to do… Crowd and traffic control; Messenger service; Collection and distribution; Feeding, shelter, sanitation | Service, Mobilization, and Real Practice | Low | Not all emergencies involve rescues. Logistics and support roles matter. |
| 9b | Prepare a written plan for mobilizing your troop when needed to do emergency service. If your troop already has a mobilization plan, present the plan to your counselor and tell your part in making the plan work. | Service, Mobilization, and Real Practice | Medium | Many troops already have a plan. Your role in it still matters. |
| 9c | Using a checklist in the Emergency Preparedness merit badge pamphlet or one approved by your counselor, prepare or inspect a personal emergency service pack for a mobilization call. Explain the needs and uses of the contents to your counselor. | Service, Mobilization, and Real Practice | Medium | Ask your counselor or camp what is acceptable. Photos may be allowed, but it is their call. |
| 9d | Take part in an emergency service project, either a real one or a practice exercise, with a Scouting troop or a community agency or at Scout camp or at a school. Review what you learned and practiced with your counselor. | Service, Mobilization, and Real Practice | High | If no real drills exist locally, a troop-run simulation is often acceptable. |
| 10 | Do ONE of the following: a)Interview a professional; b) Research careers; c) Apply preparedness to a hobby or lifestyle | Looking Forward: Careers and Lifelong Use | Medium | Choose the option that genuinely interests you. Reflection matters more than length. |
I shortened a few extra-long sections, so here’s a link to the full Emergency Preparedness badge requirements from Scouting America.
Why Scouting America Includes The Emergency Preparedness Badge
The Emergency Preparedness merit badge exists because Scouting aims to develop upstanding, prepared citizens who can be trusted to act responsibly when it matters. Emergencies reveal character. They test judgment, calmness, and the ability to think a few steps ahead to support the people around you. This badge was designed to train those qualities early, focusing on emergency response and family planning, before moving into community disaster relief systems and emergency response professions.
Scouting America includes Emergency Preparedness as an Eagle-required badge because it teaches Scouts to approach preparedness as both a science and an art. It reinforces that helping others safely is more important than acting quickly or dramatically. It also introduces Scouts to the reality that most emergencies are best managed through planning, coordination, and systems, not individual heroics.
Just as importantly, the badge emphasizes preparedness at every level: Personal safety, family planning, troop readiness, and community response. This layered approach matches how real emergencies are handled and does an excellent job of helping Scouts be more prepared for anything!
Who The Emergency Preparedness Badge Is Great For
The Emergency Preparedness merit badge is especially well-suited for Scouts above First Class rank who already understand first aid fundamentals and are just stepping into leadership roles. Whether during a campout or in the face of a real emergency, learning and earning this badge will help any Scout better support their troop and feel more confident in case of the unexpected.
The Emergency Preparedness badge also tends to resonate strongly with Scouts who enjoy planning, leadership, and understanding how systems work. Scouts interested in medicine, emergency response, engineering, public service, the military, or leadership roles often find this badge especially relevant to their future because it mirrors real-world decision-making.
What Scouts Have To Say About The Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge
Earning this badge is what finally gave me self-confidence in my preparedness and allowed me to not be as worried about emergencies. In Scouting and life, disasters are bound to happen. However, after learning response plans forcatastrophic events like earthquakes or fires, I feel more ready to handle anything – especially the small things like falls or first-aid emergencies!
– Cole K
(More Scout opinions to come!)
Insider Tips to Finish Emergency Preparedness Faster
If you treat completing this badge like training instead of homework, it becomes easier to finish the requirements and much more memorable. Here are some of the best tips I discovered when completing this badge back when I was a Scout!
- Find a partner to discuss emergency situations with, and quiz each other. I’d recommend a Scout around your rank. You can role-play quick emergency situation decisions, then ask each other, “What is the safest next step?” and “What would make this less likely in the first place?” That kind of back and forth is how emergency planning actually gets better, and how you develop an instinct for handling emergencies, instead of just memorizing best practices.
- Start with requirement 2b and let it drive everything else. Choose your 10 scenarios first, then build your prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery ideas for each one. Once this chart is solid, the family plan and troop plan become much easier because you are reusing the same thinking.
- Mitigation is arguably the most important concern in an emergency. Mitigation is where you reduce damage before things get worse. You typically do this by strengthening what is already in place, removing obvious hazards, and planning around predictable failure points.
- Use one simple rule every time: do not become the second victim. In this badge, bravery is not the goal. For any scenario that looks dangerous, your first job is to keep yourself and others out of the hazard so you can actually get help and support the right response.
- Use a mnemonic for your family plan so people can remember it under stress. You want something that helps your household remember where to meet, how to communicate, and what to do if you are separated. Ready.gov’s family communication guidance focuses on planning how you will reconnect and practicing meeting places, which is a perfect match for what this badge is trying to teach.
- Batch the family requirements in one meeting. Show up prepared with your 2b chart, then cover sheltering in place and evacuation, then immediately review your kit, then finish the home fire escape plan while everyone is still together.
- Ask an older Scout who has earned the badge what mattered. Helpful questions to ask include: how did your troop/community agency handle the emergency service project, did the counselor have them revise or improve any requirement answers to be more complete, what safety checklist did they use for the home requirements, and if they have any big takeaways they still remember from the badge. You can also ask if they have a good contact for requirement 10.
- Keep NIMS and ICS simple when you explain them. The practical idea is that NIMS is the big national framework, and ICS is the on-scene structure that assigns clear roles so groups can coordinate. If you can explain roles and communication in plain language and give a troop example that stays safe, you are in great shape.
- You do not need First Aid completed to start the badge, but it helps. You can begin the planning and chart work right away, but you need First Aid completed before the merit badge can be signed off, and the concepts will make more sense if you already have that foundation.
- If your summer camp or council offers this badge, a group class can be the easiest route. You can still get ahead by completing your 2b chart and family planning before camp, so the class feels like a review.
If you take one thing from this badge, let it be this: preparedness is a skill you can train. When you talk through scenarios, write clear plans, and practice simple drills, you’re building your emergency preparedness muscle, which will surely help if ever you find yourself trying to prevent a disaster.
Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge FAQs
Is Emergency Preparedness required for Eagle Scout
Yes. Emergency Preparedness is one of the Eagle-required merit badges, but keep in mind you can choose Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving to fill that specific Eagle-required option.
What is the hardest requirement in Emergency Preparedness
For most Scouts, requirement 2b is the most time-intensive because it asks you to apply all five preparedness phases across 10 different emergency situations.
What are the easiest scenarios to pick for requirement 2b
Choose scenarios you can realistically understand and plan for based on where you live and what you do often, like a home kitchen fire, gas leak, food poisoning, auto crash, lightning storm, or a public place emergency. The “easiest” choices are usually the ones you can picture clearly.
How long does Emergency Preparedness usually take to earn
It depends on how quickly you can schedule the family meeting and the requirement 9 service project. If you work steadily, many Scouts can finish in 2-4 weeks. If you wait on scheduling, it can drag out for months.
Can a practice drill count for the emergency service project requirement
Often, yes, as long as your counselor approves it and you take it seriously. Some Scouts participate in a community drill, and others do a troop run simulation that includes planning, roles, and an after-action review.
What should be in a personal emergency service pack for requirement 9c
Bring practical basics that let you help safely without being a burden, like water, snacks, a flashlight, first aid items, layers for weather, basic hygiene, a notepad, and any troop-required items. Your counselor may have specific expectations, so ask before you buy anything. Here’s a great resource from Scout Life of emergency preparedness items to consider packing.
What should I do first if I want to get started on the E-Prep badge today
After speaking with your merit badge counselor about starting, pick your 10 scenarios for requirement 2b, open a spreadsheet, and fill in one row for each scenario with the five phases. Then schedule your family meeting and figure out the date of the next upcoming emergency service project. Those three steps create the momentum to finish everything else.
Resources For Earning Your Emergency Preparedness Badge
Helpful Emergency Preparedness Resources
These links will support your work on the Emergency Preparedness merit badge.
For local emergency planning materials, community drills, or council resources, I’d recommend checking with your merit badge counselor or council office.
You can also get the Emergency Prep merit badge pamphlet from Scouting America to help you complete the requirements and better understand the essential skills of emergency preparedness!
Cheering for you as you work on the Emergency Preparedness merit badge! If you want extra support, be sure to check out my free Emergency Preparedness badge guide, where I break down each requirement, share tips for answering the questions confidently, and even include a few video resources. Hope this helps you out a ton, and wishing you all the best on your journey to Eagle. 🙂