April 20, 2007

This newsletter is for public agencies, businesses, non-governmental organizations, and other stakeholders involved or interested in public-private partnerships for joint emergency preparedness, planning, and prevention.

Michigan State University (MSU) produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Office of Grants & Training, Preparedness Directorate, U.S. Department of Homeland Security. This newsletter provides ideas, suggestions, best practices, and lessons learned to establish critical incident protocols using public-private partnerships. Through the CIP Program, Michigan State University facilitates public-private partnerships for cities, counties, and regions across the nation.

Please visit our website at www.cip.msu.edu for more information about the program.

Participating Communities in the CIP Program
The CIP Program has been introduced in 31 communities of 20 states with over 2,100 participants collaborating on public-private partnerships for joint management of critical incidents. We are looking to work with other cities, counties and regions.  Is there a location in the nation that you think may be interested in building a public-private partnership? If so, please let us know. Presently, we are working with:

Allentown, PA / Annapolis, MD / Bethlehem, PA / Brooklyn, OH / Brown County, WI / Buncombe County, NC / Carroll County, MD / Casa Grande, AZ / Clark County, NV / Dallas, TX / Douglas County, KS / Evansville, IN / GCCC-St. Louis, MO / Greensboro, NC / Hoover, AL / Layton, UT / Lewis & Clark County, MT / Libertyville, IL / Littleton, CO / Marquette County, MI / Milwaukee, WI / Monroe County, MI / Northampton County, PA / Norwalk, CT / Oakland County, MI / Perkiomen Valley, PA / Redmond, WA / Racine, WI / Richmond, VA / Rockville, MD / Sandy City, UT

Welcome Greensboro, NC to the CIP Program
This week, Michigan State University introduced the CIP Program in Greensboro and Guilford County, North Carolina.  This area is known for its great weather, national landmarks, diverse business community, large number of educational institutions, beautiful countryside, and a strong arts culture.

The Guilford County Office of Emergency Management, Greensboro Merchants Association, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, and Global Security Solutions co-sponsored the CIP Program.  During the workshop, attendees were committed to establishing a public-private partnership for collaboration on emergency preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery, utilizing an all-hazards approach.  Please welcome Greensboro to the CIP Program.

The following organizations participated in the workshop: Guilford County Departments, Greensboro City Departments, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Marshalls Service, U.S. Secret Service, North Carolina State Highway Patrol, High Point Police Department, Greensboro Merchants Association, Global Security Solutions, Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, Moses Cone Health System, WFMY News 2, The Greensboro Partnership, Guilford County Schools, Takata Holdings, Dell, Duke Energy, Kinder Morgan Inc., American Red Cross, United Way of Greater Greensboro, Valor Security Services for Four Seasons Town Centre, Lowes Food Stores, Guilford Technical Community College, ELC Investigative Services, Syngenta, Bank of America, The Salvation Army, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Sentry Watch Inc., North Carolina A&T University, Piedmont Natural Gas, and Vertellus Performance Materials.

A Security Program for Universities and Colleges
Michigan State University is offering a 'free' U.S. Department of Homeland Security funded campus safety and security program called the Campus-Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).  The C-CERT, which is a train-the-trainer program expands on the national Citizen Corps and Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) programs and is for institutions of higher education.  The C-CERT program will:

• Prepare campus safety and security personnel to recruit and train C-CERT team members.
• Provide C-CERT "start-up" materials and equipment.
• Maximize networking and sharing of best practices through the C-CERT website.
• Provide web-based refresher or advanced training courses and tabletop exercise templates to C-CERT trainers.
• Provide guidance for establishing campus Citizen Corps Councils.
• Provide guidelines for establishing C-CERT as an accredited academic course (MSU, 2007).
  

Here is a program that utilizes campus resources, such as students, faculty, administrative support, and public safety personnel to educate people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their campus and train them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.

For more information about this program, either visit www.c-cert.msu.edu or contact Phil Schertzing at schertzi@msu.edu or (517) 432-3156.

NFPA1600 - Disaster / Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) released their 2007 edition of the NFPA1600 Standard.  In the CIP program when working with communities we encourage businesses to incorporate this standard into their emergency preparedness plans.

The non-profit NFPA international organization has been in existence over 100 years and provides codes and standards, research, training, and education on fire prevention and public safety.  NFPA1600 is an excellent resource that covers preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery.  Organizations can use NFPA1600 to assess current programs or to develop, implement, and maintain aspects relating to this standard.

With the 2007 edition, NFPA1600 has introduced a fifth component, which is prevention.  NFPA states that this brings the standard into alignment with related disciplines and practices of risk management, security, and loss prevention.  In Annex A of the document, a prevention strategy includes:

• Ongoing hazard identification
• Threat assessment
• Risk assessment
• Impact analysis
• Program assessment
• Operational experience
• Ongoing incident analysis
• Information collection and analysis
• Intelligence and information sharing (NFPA, 2007)
  

For more information about NFPA or the NFPA1600 standard, please go to www.nfpa.org.  Additionally, in the 'CIP Information Exchange' website is the 2007 edition of NFPA1600 - Standard on Disaster / Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs.

Building A Public-Private Partnership
The CIP Program was founded in 1998, and then in 2001, Michigan State University started facilitating in cities, counties and regions across the nation public-private partnerships for joint critical incident management.  The CIP Program is for the decision-maker, and not the front-line operational first responder, as a partnership in communities require the leadership to ensure that the mission is clear, objectives are being met, and that sustainability is built into this collaboration.  The greatest strength in these partnerships is the diverse representatives from the public and private sectors.  Yet, this is also its biggest challenge.

To ensure that there is a collaborative spirit and commitment to the mission, partnerships requires those with the ability to see the value in sharing with others, while ensuring that their own organizational needs are being met.  Michigan State University uses a method to evaluate the effectiveness of a partnership in the CIP Program, which is the social capital survey.  Participants fill out the survey and the results are anonymous.  MSU measures the level of contact, trust, understanding, cooperation, and empathy between the participants and others within their network and community.

On building relationships with others, we could ask various questions, such as, with your peers in the community, how much contact is there?  Is it rare, as needed, or on a regular basis?  What is the level of trust between you and others within the community?  When communicating with peers in your network, do misunderstandings get resolved?  What is the level of cooperation?  Is the spirit of cooperation at the level that you would like it to be?  How empathic are others with the challenges you face in the service your provide?

These concepts provide the foundation we use to evaluate the level of social capital in the communities that participate in the CIP Program.

The Protective Security Advisor and Critical Infrastructure Protection
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Protective Security Advisor (PSA) focuses on critical infrastructure protection, along with other job responsibilities.  To better partner with state governments, local communities, and businesses, the PSA professional brings an average of 20 years of anti-terrorism and security experience.  These critical infrastructure and vulnerability assessment experts provide a federally funded resource to communities and businesses to assist in the protection of critical assets.  PSA professionals are assigned to each state.

The role of the Protective Security Advisor is to:

• Support the development of the national risk picture by assisting in identifying, assessing, monitoring, and minimizing risk to critical assets at the local or regional level.
• Facilitate, coordinate, and / or perform vulnerability assessments for local critical infrastructure and key resources.
• Assist in and support comprehensive risk and physical / technical security analyses.
• Provide guidance on established security practices.
• Convey local concerns to DHS and other federal agencies.
• Communicate requests for federal protection training and exercises.
• Provide local context and expertise to DHS to ensure that community resources are used appropriately, efficiently and effectively (Weber, 2006).
  

To locate a PSA professional in your state, either contact your state homeland security department or call the PSA Duty Desk, Risk Management Division at (703) 235-5724.

Upcoming CIP Workshops

• Audubon, Pennsylvania on April 26, 2007 (Tabletop Exercise for Saint Gabriel's Hall and Public Sector Agencies)
• Brooklyn, Ohio on May 7-8, 2007 (Enhanced Social Capital Survey Project)
• Grand Rapids, Michigan on May 9, 2007 (Presentation on Public-Private Partnerships at the Great Lakes Homeland Security Conference)
• Racine, Wisconsin on May 10, 2007 (Tabletop Exercise for Modine Manufacturing Company and Public Sector Agencies)
• Lansing, Michigan on May 17, 2007 (Initiating the CIP Program for the Capital Area Region)
  

Recent Postings to the CIP Information Exchange Website
The CIP Information Exchange website is a large database for public and private sector professionals interested in homeland security, emergency preparedness, business continuity, disaster recovery, and emergency management.  It also contains research, government documents, news items, and more.

To enter the CIP Information Exchange website, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and enter “msu.msu@angel” in the User/NetID and “partnership” (both without quotation marks) as the password to log in. On the next page, please click on CIP, which launches to the welcome page, then on the bottom of the page click on Continue, which takes you to the main menu.

Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are a variety of postings, including the following:

• Critical Infrastructure Protection A Must - Free DVD (EMR-ISAC)
• Two Retail Trade Associations and FBI 'Partner' to Share Information on Crimes
• Emergency Evacuation Planning Action Guide for People with Disabilities (NFPA)
• Risk Mitigation Toolkit for Buildings (EMR-ISAC)

There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, use the "search" function, which can be found on the main menu page on the right-hand side in the green task bar.

Past Newsletters
If you are interested in viewing past CIP Update newsletters, please go to www.cip.msu.edu and select "Newsletters" from the main menu.

Closing
If you have any topics and/or ideas for a future CIP Update newsletter, please contact Brit Weber at weberbr@msu.edu or (517) 355-2227 or other MSU staff members. About every three weeks you will receive this newsletter via email. If you no longer wish to be on this list, please reply to this email.

Disclaimer
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security or Michigan State University.

Source
Michigan State University (MSU).  (2007).  Campus-Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).  Retrieved on April 20, 2007 from website: www.c-cert.msu.edu

Weber, Brit.  (June 09, 2006).  'CIP Update' newsletter.  The Protective Security Advisor - U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) article.

National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).  (2007).  NFPA1600 - Standard on Disaster / Emergency Management and Business Continuity Programs, 2007 Edition

Please note my new email address of weberbr@msu.edu

Brit Weber
School of Criminal Justice
Michigan State University
1407 S. Harrison Rd., 335 Nisbet Bldg.
East Lansing, MI 48823
Work:  (517)  355-2227      Cell:  (517) 206-1640
weberbr@msu.edu
Visit our website:  http://www.cip.msu.edu