Is Your Facility Ready

Is Your Facility Ready?

A Security and Safety Readiness Assessment for Houses of Worship

By JT Henry

Your doors are open. Your community feels welcome. How well does your preparation support the people who gather inside?

A medical emergency, threatening visitor, severe-weather warning, or missing child can interrupt an ordinary gathering without warning. Preparing for those moments begins with examining the people, procedures, and physical spaces your congregation relies on.

Is Your Facility Ready? helps leaders look beyond assumptions and identify where preparation needs attention. Part of the Securing the Sacred preparedness collection from Trident Storms LLC, this practical field guide connects an honest self-assessment to clear, assigned actions.

Inside, you will find guidance to help you:

• Review leadership responsibilities, emergency plans, and local risks.
• Examine lighting, entrances, door hardware, and protective spaces.
• Strengthen greeter awareness, team coordination, and emergency communications.
• Assess medical readiness, evacuation procedures, training, and drills.
• Plan for family reunification, continuity, and recovery.
• Document gaps, assign responsibility, and track improvements.

Readiness scorecards, a walk-through route card, and an action-plan worksheet help turn discussion into organized follow-through. The assessment treats scores as planning tools, keeping attention on the evidence behind each answer and the work that remains.

Written for congregational leaders, facilities staff, safety teams, greeters, ushers, and volunteers, this guide supports thoughtful preparation while respecting the hospitality at the heart of every house of worship.

This educational self-assessment does not certify safety or replace professional assessments and applicable local requirements.

Protect the welcome. Prepare together. Care for every person.