CIP Update

February 27, 2009

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

 

Michigan State University (MSU) produces the newsletter through the Critical Incident Protocol (CIP)-Community Facilitation Program under a grant awarded by the Training & Exercise Integration/Training Operations, Federal Emergency Management Agency, 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.

 

Michigan State University through the CIP Program will “enhance cities, counties, and region’s capabilities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from man-made and natural disasters through public and private sector collaboration, communication, and cooperation.”  MSU facilitates public-private partnerships and the CIP Program is free of charge to participating communities.

 

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 initiated in 45 communities in 23 states with over 3,700 participants establishing community 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 developing a public-private partnership? If so, please let us know.

 

Currently, we are working with the following communities:
Alabama:  Hoover
Arizona:  Casa Grande
California:  Mountain View
Colorado:  Littleton
Connecticut:  Norwalk

Florida:  Western Panhandle
Illinois:  Lake-Cook Regional, Libertyville, Naperville
Indiana:  Evansville
Kansas:  Douglas County
Maryland:  Annapolis, Carroll County, Rockville
Michigan:  Detroit, Marquette County, Monroe, Oakland County
Missouri/Illinois:  Gateway Citizen Corps Coalition, St. Louis
Montana:  Lewis & Clark County
Nevada:  Clark County, Northern Nevada
North Carolina:  Buncombe County, Greensboro
Ohio:  Brooklyn
Pennsylvania:  Allentown, Bethlehem, Northampton County, Perkiomen Valley

South Carolina:  Columbia, Horry County
Texas:  Dallas
Utah:  Layton, Sandy City
Virginia:  Arlington County, Richmond
Washington:  Redmond
Wisconsin:  Brown County, Dane County, Eau Claire County, Milwaukee, Outagamie County, Racine County, Superior, Winnebago County


Welcome Northern Nevada - #45 to Participate in the CIP Program!

Recently, we initiated our public/private partnership in Northern Nevada, the 45th location to host the CIP Program.  This group consists of several counties in the northern and western parts of the state and centers around Washoe County, which is home to Reno.  A total of 77 public and private stakeholders representing diverse organizations collaborated to establish this public-private partnership.

 

The co-sponsoring organizations, the Washoe County Office of Emergency Management, Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada and the Reno-Sparks Chamber of Commerce provided the leadership and logistics for the workshop and CIP Program.  Listed below are some of the comments from participants about what was most valuable to them, which are:

  1. Realizing the amount of resources that already exist in our area
  2. Process for assessing risks
  3. How the Incident Command System/Unified Command functions relate to the private sector
  4. Enhancing the partnership
  5. Networking (stated repeatedly by the participants)

 

Participants also shared the following suggestions for public/private partnering:

  1. Sharing phone trees
  2. Creating local agreements between organizations
  3. Partnering between professional associations and government agencies
  4. Providing joint training between public and private entities
  5. Identifying businesses that could serve as evacuation/sheltering centers
  6. Evaluating and critiquing each other’s processes
  7. Working toward a sustainable community
  8. Improving communication between the EOC (Emergency Operations Center) and the business community

 

The above lists contain only “some” of the comments/suggestions and when supported by the additional recommendations these can provide a framework for developing a partnership for joint crisis management.

 

Our thanks and support to the Northern Nevada Partnership for joining a national initiative that creates collaboration and cooperation through communication.

 

Profiling Public/Private Partnership – Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience

The CIP staff profiles other partnership organizations in the newsletter as a possible resource for our readers and stakeholders.  According to the website, “The Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience (OPDR) is a coalition of public, private, and professional organizations working collectively toward the mission of creating a disaster resilient and sustainable state.  The Partnership is recognized by the Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) as a Showcase State for Disaster Resilience.  Developed and coordinated by the Community Service Center (CSC) at the University of Oregon, the Partnership employs a service learning model to increase community capacity and enhance disaster safety and resilience statewide (OPDR, 2009, p. 1, para. 1).”

 

The OPDR focuses on pre-disaster mitigation and post-disaster recovery through various initiatives and projects, in addition to providing resources.  For more information, please go to: http://www.oregonshowcase.org.

 

Best Practice – Arlington County, VA

In early 2008, we initiated the CIP Program in Arlington County, which has a lengthy history of partnering through joint project and program development.  A number of initiatives by Arlington County public and private sector organizations have been profiled nationally.  In their continued commitment to collaboration, the Arlington County Office of Emergency Management partnered with the Homeland Security Television Channel (HSTV).  Both organizations have joined to provide free training on “Establishing Emergency Preparedness Exercise & Evaluation Programs”, which is funded by the DHS Urban Area Security Initiative (UASI).

 

The participants will be provided with information based on DHS’s Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program that includes a workbook.  For readers of the newsletter located in the greater Washington, D.C. area who want to know more about the free workshop, please go to: http://www.hstvchannel.com  and click on the HSTV Announces Free Workshop Series.  The workshop will be held on April 6, 2009 from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm at the NRECA Conference Center, 4301 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA.

 

Many partnering communities are always looking for best practices and here is one where government is partnering with the media to reach out to a larger audience.  It has been our experience that generally the media wants to be involved on the “front end” rather than only reporting the effects of a disaster, crisis, or other related event after it has occurred.

 

Best Practice – Santa Rosa County, FL

In early 2008, we initiated the CIP Program for the Western Panhandle Partnership that included Santa Rosa County.  Florida experiences hurricanes repeatedly, in addition to other man-made and natural critical incidents.  Therefore, many counties have taken a proactive approach to crisis management.

 

Under the umbrella of Community Organizations Active in Disasters (COAD), local public and private sector organizations in Santa Rosa County created SAFER (Support Alliance for Emergency Readiness).  The SAFER Santa Rosa association is composed of public and private sector organizations.  Its mission is to foster efficient, streamlined service delivery to people affected by disasters, while eliminating unnecessary duplication of effort through cooperation in all phases of disasters: preparation, response, recovery, and mitigation.

 

One of the resources on their webpage is an excellent PowerPoint presentation that provides an overview of their organization.  It also provides a wealth of information (i.e., opportunities, issues, observations, resources, etc.) that other collaborative groups could use. 

 

For information on SAFER Santa Rosa or to download the PowerPoint presentation, please go to: http://www.santarosa.fl.gov/coad.  Also, when clicking on “COAD Members” on the main menu, it is easy to see the variety of public and private sector organizations that are committed to providing assistance in Santa Rosa County.

 

Free Webinar – The Experts Debate Business Continuity Standards (March 5, 2009)

A panel discussion on “The Experts Debate Business Continuity Standards” will feature Al Berman, DRII (The Institute for Continuity Management), Dr. Marc Siegel, ASIS (American Society for Industrial Security), and Don Schmidt, Preparedness LLC.

 

 According to the website, they state, “Want to know what's really going on when it comes to business continuity standards?  Attend this free panel discussion for a behind-the-scenes, straight-from-the-experts look at business continuity standards development.  The session will answer questions about ASIS proposed standard, DRII's position on standards development, and ANAB's role in the standards process. Come with questions, and leave with answers (Continuity Insights, 2009, p. 1, para. 1)”. 

 

The webinar will be hosted on March 5th/Thursday from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EST.  To register for this free webinar, please go to: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/231289160.

 

FEMA Seeking Public Comments on Four Capabilities for all Communities - Due March 20th.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Target Capabilities List (TCL), this is a DHS program that provides guidance to federal, state, tribal, and local entities describing the capabilities that all communities should be bench-marked against relating to prevention, protection, response, and recovery.  Currently, there are 37 capabilities, including economic and community recovery, structural damage and mitigation assessment, fatality management, critical infrastructure protection, and more.

 

The FEMA National Preparedness Directorate is seeking public comments from federal, state, territorial, tribal, and local partners on four updated capability “drafts”:

  1. Mass Transit Protection
  2. Multi-Agency Coordination System/Emergency Operations Center Management
  3. On-Site Incident Management
  4. Weapons of Mass Destruction/Hazardous Materials Rescue. 

 

Two additional capability drafts: Intelligence and Animal Disease Emergencies will soon follow.

 

FEMA is seeking expert guidance in striking the right balance between making the capability updates measurable without being overly prescriptive, as well as identifying reasonable national preparedness goals for large-scale, non-routine events.

 

Those of you who are already a member of the FEMA Lessons Learned Information Sharing (LLIS) website can access the information at www.llis.dhs.gov and post your comments.  You may also send an email to Vincent Parisi at Vincent.parisi@dhs.gov requesting that the information be forwarded to you.  Or, you can access any of the documents and the comment form in the “CIP Information Exchange”.  The directions to enter this website are listed below.  The documents/comment forms are located in a folder that you access through the main menu at “Bulletin Board – Information for all Communities”.  Please look for the folder “Target Capabilities List – Seeking Comments on Four Drafts (Feb. 2009)”. 

 

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 publications, government documents, news items, and more.

 

To enter the ‘CIP Information Exchange’ database, please go to https://angel.msu.edu and using the drop-down menu, select Angel Guest Account.  Click on ‘proceed’, and on the next webpage, enter “msu.msu” in the Angel Guest User box and “partnership” (both without quotation marks) as the password to log on.  On the next page, click on Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) – Community Facilitation, which launches to the main menu.

 

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

·         Target Capabilities List – Seeking Comments on Four Drafts (Feb. 2009)

·         National Infrastructure Protection Plan (Jan. 2009)

·         National Gang Threat Assessment 2009 (NGIC & NDIC)

·         Ready Your Business: 12 Point Program for Success, Business Continuity Planning

 

There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, utilize the "search" function on the left side.  On top left side click on “guide” and when the sidebar box opens, go to the bottom in the box and click on “search” and follow the directions. 

 

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.

 

Sources

Oregon Partnership for Disaster Resilience (OPDR).  (2009).  Website, home webpage.  Retrieved on February 25, 2009 from http://www.oregonshowcase.org/index.cfm.

 

Continuity Insights.  (2009).  Website, registration webpage.  Retrieved on February 23, 2009 from https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/231289160.

 

 

Brit Weber
Program Director
CIP-Community Facilitation Program
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
Please visit our website:  http://www.cip.msu.edu