Meet Able Citizen: A Home-Readiness Plan for Canadians

The gear is half of it. The plan is the other half.

You've probably got some of the gear already. A good flashlight. A lantern. A kit in the hall closet. Maybe a Faraday bag for the spare phone.

That's a solid start. But when the power goes out on a January night, gear only helps if you know what to do with it, and so does everyone else in the house.

The gear is half of it. The plan is the other half. That's why we built Able Citizen.

What is Able Citizen?

Able Citizen (ablecitizen.ca) is a Canadian home-readiness membership. It gives your household a short, practical plan to handle outages, storms and emergencies on your own, one small task at a time.

It comes from the same Ontario company as Civil Safety.

No thick binders. No 200-item checklist you never finish. One small task at a time, until the house is ready.

How it works

Start with the 30-Day Starter Track. Twenty minutes a day. By the end, your house is ready to get through 72 hours without help.

Then take on one Monthly Standard each month. Each month brings a new Standard, like Ready for Winter in December, then Household Comms and Family Plan in January. Standards include hands-on drills, like December's Exercise LONG NIGHT, so you know the plan holds.

Ask when you're stuck. The members' community is where questions go, and every question gets answered.

What you get

• The 30-Day Starter Track: 20 minutes a day to get the house ready for 72 hours without help
• A new Monthly Standard every month, with hands-on drills
• The Household Audit: three pages, under 30 minutes
• Lock It Down, a bonus course, free for members
• The members' community, where every question gets answered

Gear is half of it. Here's how the halves fit.

Good kit doesn't do much in a closet if nobody knows where it is, whether it works, or who's supposed to grab it. That's the plan's job.

Lighting. An outage plan starts with light you can find in the dark, with batteries you've checked. If you're filling gaps, start with our LED lanterns for lighting a whole room.

Emergency and survival kits. A kit is only as useful as the plan around it: where it lives, what's in it, and who takes it when you leave. Browse our survival kits if you're starting from scratch.

CBRN protection. If you own a gas mask, know where it's stored, that it fits, and which filters you have on hand. See our CBRN gear.

Faraday bags. A backup phone or radio in a Faraday bag is only half of it. The other half is a family comms plan everyone in the house knows. That's what January's Standard, Household Comms and Family Plan, is for.

Every ABLE house counts.

Not sure where to start? Take the free audit.

Not ready to join yet? Start with the free Household Audit. It's three pages and takes under 30 minutes.

Get the free Household Audit →

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