Nearly four years after a group of women calling themselves “security moms” beat a path to the polls to cast ballots with national security and terrorism concerns at the forefront of their minds, they are again working to secure a spot on the national stage.

This time, it might be more appropriate to call them by a different name: resiliency moms.

Leading the way are the president of Family Security Matters, Carol Taber, a former publisher of Working Woman magazine, and the New York director of the Center for Security Policy, Amanda Bowman. They are reaching out to American women during this presidential election year and working to reframe the issue of homeland security so that it refers to security against terrorist attacks as well as protection against natural disasters.

“In terms of homeland security, perhaps the real issue is one of national resiliency,” Ms. Bowman said. “The fact that our nation is living on borrowed time, and our total inability to deal with any major disaster, natural catastrophe, terror. We have not taken the necessary steps as a nation, as individuals. And our political leaders are not doing so either.”

The women are kicking off a new outreach effort by distributing a survey to the presidential candidates today that quizzes them on their stance on security issues.

During the 2004 presidential election, Ms. Taber and representatives from her organization made hundreds of radio and television appearances to talk about national security concerns. Ms. Taber said women who defined themselves as “security moms,” meaning they voted with the idea of terrorism or the Iraq war as their top issue, pushed President Bush over the 50% mark “and helped hand him the election.”

The survey asks whether the candidates would, as president, support a tax deduction for home emergency supplies, such as water, flashlights, and power generators, or support the idea of a National Resiliency Day, designed to remind Americans to review emergency plans and honor the “spirit of individualism and self-reliance that built this nation.”

It asks candidates to state whether their family has an emergency “go bag” and if they think Americans should be more involved in developing local emergency plans and working with government officials.

Family Security Matters is a nonpartisan organization, Ms. Taber and Ms. Bowman said.

By broadening the idea of national security to include the threat of natural disasters, the women say they are trying to move away from the partisan debate over the war in Iraq and reach out to women — mothers in particular — from all political camps.

They said they’ve been frustrated watching recent presidential debates, because they said the candidates are avoiding tackling difficult issues facing the country. Ms. Bowman said that in addition to the effort to force talk about national security to the forefront of the national agenda, she and Ms. Taber also are trying to mobilize families to think about protecting themselves from a disaster of any kind.

The women, both grandmothers, have plans in place that can be executed in the event of an emergency of any kind. They noted that just because people don’t want to believe a disaster will strike doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

“Really, what this comes down to is the ability to survive a punch,” Ms. Bowman said. “Whether that punch is a natural catastrophe or a terrorism-related event.”