About The Ready Rating Program

Organizations understand the need to be prepared and ready for emergencies, but often consider the process as time consuming and complicated. Since its inception by the St. Louis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross in 2008, the Ready Rating program has been recognized by preparedness experts as the much needed and easy to understand solution to help an organization become prepared to respond to and recover from a disaster and other emergencies.  Are you new to Ready Rating? Watch these videos below for more details.

Answer: No, there is no cost for membership. Members are only financially responsible for costs incurred to improve their preparedness.

Answer: The Red Cross Ready Rating program provides a framework designed to help small to medium-sized businesses, schools, faith-based and cultural organizations, non-profits, social enterprises and other community organizations become better prepared to respond effectively and recover quickly from disasters and other emergencies.

Answer: This program does more than provide useful emergency preparedness information. The Ready Rating program’s Assessments, Next Steps Report and other templates allow members to better understand their particular risk to emergencies, and develop an emergency action plan that is tailored and fit-for-purpose to their organization’s circumstances and needs. Additionally, the Membership Seal makes emergency preparedness measurable and visible. Displayed at your facility and on your digital platforms, this serves as a public recognition of your organization’s commitment to preparedness and safety. Lastly, the Canadian Red Cross can provide additional services and resources to enhance emergency preparedness efforts that an organization undertakes.

Answer: The Ready Rating Seal is a visible statement that a member organization, business or school has committed to improving their level of preparedness by participating in the Ready Rating program. In adherence with Red Cross guidelines, members can also publicly display the Ready Rating Seal to show their commitment to preparedness.

Answer: Any small/medium-sized business, school, educational institution, faith-based or cultural organization, non-profit, social enterprise, and community organization that is committed to improving their emergency preparedness is welcomed and encouraged to join the Ready Rating program.

Answer: The Red Cross employed a powerful combination of research and practical experience to create a program to address the important components of emergency preparedness, meeting members where they are on their journey to preparedness and allowing them to work at the pace that meets their needs. The Ready Rating program is built through a combination of industry standards, good practices, and expert recommendations. The Ready Rating program not only provides members with helpful information — it also recognizes members for their efforts

Answer: For over 125 years, the Canadian Red Cross has responded to emergencies both large and small, helping people prepare for them through education and training programs. The Red Cross continuously builds on its experience to proactively respond to emergencies and disasters; this program is a step forward in our ongoing efforts.

Answer: The Canadian Red Cross’ most recent research shows that the majority of Canadians are not prepared for emergencies, citing a lack of awareness of risks they face and know-how of how to prepare as some of the main reasons. Because emergencies can happen at any time, there is a constant need to prepare for emergencies.

Answer: The Canadian Red Cross Society is a singular, not-for-profit corporation incorporated under the laws of Canada and a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency. Our charitable purpose is to prevent and alleviate suffering in accordance with the Fundamental Principles of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. In keeping with this purpose our mission is to help people and communities in Canada and around the world in times of need and support them in strengthening their resilience.

Answer:  For questions or issues related to forgotten passwords or usernames, access to assessment data or any other technical issue with the site, please contact a team member or submit a direct support ticket.

Launched in Canada in 2023, the Ready Rating program continues a long and storied partnership between the Canadian Red Cross and American Red Cross.

The program was created by the St. Louis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross in 2008 and was originally designed to be a marketing tool to help launch conversations within businesses, organizations, and schools about how to better prepare for emergencies.

Ready Rating was well received and by 2010, management of the program was transitioned to the national headquarters of the American Red Cross, allowing for Ready Rating to be rolled out throughout the United States.

In 2015, the program’s two key assessments, as well as the Emergency Action Plan templates were upgraded to meet or exceed minimal standards for organizational preparedness.

In 2021, the Canadian Red Cross partnered with the American Red Cross to further increase the reach, scope, and impact of the program. Through a thorough review of the program’s tools, content and resources, further upgrades were made to Ready Rating based on industry standards, good practices, and expert recommendations.

Ready Rating launched in Alberta and British Columbia in 2023. Ready Rating launched Canada-wide in 2024.

By using a shared Organization ID, each of your facilities/sites can be linked so that their Assessments and Next Steps Reports can be viewed and sorted from one Organization Manager account.
  • Only the Organization Manager can see all their facilities’ assessment information; each individual facility account can only view their own information.
  • A numerical code (Organization ID) is assigned to your organization; as new sites join, they will enter that code while creating their profile.
  • An Organization Manager profile will be created specifically for the purpose of seeing the assessments done at the various sites. The Organization Manager will be able to view and sort those assessments as needed.
  • This also means that the Organization Manager may have two separate accounts; one for viewing all of the different sites’ assessments, and one for their own site’s assessment, if necessary.
  • This functionality is perfect for school districts to view assessments done at schools within the district and for any business with more than one location.
What’s the first step? If you are not currently a member, please set up an account on the Ready Rating website. Once that step is complete, email websupport@readyrating.org requesting the Organization Manager role be applied. Provide the following information:
  • Organization name, address, city, province/territory, and postal code
  • Organization manager name, phone number, and email address
  • Usernames for any other member accounts that have already been created and need to be linked
A confirmation email containing your Organization ID #, and instructions on how users can subscribe to be an Organization Member, will then be sent to the email address provided.

Industry Standard SSL Security

The Ready Rating site deploys an industry standard SSL security certificate. The wildcard certificate is 2048-bit security and is used in various areas of site data submission and data display. The SSL cert is enabled on the Profile section of the site as well as the entire Assessment Centre. The Assessment Centre is self-contained within one page and section, meaning all submissions, displays and reports are transmitted while within a forced SSL session.

Web Application Firewall (WAF)

The Ready Rating site employs the use of a web application firewall to filter suspect traffic, monitor for appropriate site usage and protect against unauthorized data access.

2FA Member Login

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) increases security of member accounts and environments, by ensuring that the right set of eyes has access to member information and protecting member accounts from unauthorized access

Assessment Encryption

All responses to and displays of Ready Rating assessments are encrypted using a SHA256 algorithm.

Assessment Reporting

Ready Rating Members receive a Next Steps Report for each assessment taken. These assessment reports do not contain any member identification when printed. The printed report does not reveal any information or details about the member having taken the assessment.

Additional Details

Assessment scores, which are encrypted, are stored in the Ready Rating system associated only to a member ID and never in a directly accessible profile method. Access to the data is available client-side on the publicly-accessible website.

Distribution of printed member reporting information, such as the Next Steps Report, is outside the jurisdiction of the Ready Rating system and must be managed and monitored by member organizations.

Testimonials

Safia Ahmed
Executive Director
Rexdale Community Center

Dr. Nasima Akter
Executive Director
Bangledeshi-Canadian Community Services

Current Member Listing

Organizations that take steps to prepare for the unexpected help to create safer and more resilient communities. The Canadian Red Cross thanks all Ready Rating Members for doing their part. If you are a current Ready Rating Member and do not see your organization’s name listed, log in and under your profile settings change the value for the “Visible on Website” field to “Yes” and your organization’s name will appear.

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Member organizations. The column header sorts the table.
TEaM Safety Services, Ltd
The Butter Chicken Co.
The Distress Centre of Ottawa & Region
The Edson and District Chamber of Commerce
The Incorporated Ministry in Flemingdon Park
THE NEIGHBOURHOOD GROUP Community Services
The Old Bistro
The Scott Mission
Three Rivers Mi'Kmaq Band
Thrifty Dutchess