March 28, 2008
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 Division, 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.
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 36 communities in 22 states with over 2,900
participants establishing 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
Indiana – Evansville
Kansas – Douglas County
Maryland – Annapolis,
Carroll County, Rockville
Michigan – Marquette
County, Monroe, Oakland County
Missouri / Illinois – Gateway Citizen
Corps Coalition, St. Louis
Montana – Lewis & Clark
County
Nevada – Clark
County
North Carolina –
Buncombe County, Greensboro
Ohio – Brooklyn
Pennsylvania – Allentown,
Bethlehem, Northampton County, Perkiomen Valley
Texas – Dallas
Utah – Layton, Sandy City
Virginia – Richmond
Washington – Redmond
Wisconsin – Brown
County, Dane County, Eau Claire County, Milwaukee, Racine County
CIP Program Activities
April 1, 2008 – Arlington County, VA
(Initiating the CIP Program)
April 10, 2008 – Brown County, WI
(Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
April 16, 2008 – Dallas, TX (Facilitating
Tabletop Exercise)
April 24, 2008 – Martin County, FL
(Initiating the CIP Program)
May 7, 2008 – Hamilton County, OH (Overview of the
CIP Program)
May 8, 2008 – Douglas County, KS
(Facilitating Tabletop Exercise)
May 22, 2008 – Naperville, IL (Initiating the CIP
Program)
May 28, 2008 – Superior,
WI (Initiating CIP Program)
June 12, 2008 – Eau Claire County (Risk Assessment
Workshop)
June 11, 2008 – Horry County, SC
(Initiating the CIP Program)
June 19, 2008 – Madison, WI (Train-the-trainer on CIP
Program)
Welcome Eau Claire County, WI to the CIP Program
Please welcome
the businesses, agencies, and non-governmental organizations from Eau Claire
County who have recently initiated a public/private partnership for joint
crisis management through the CIP Program.
This county is located less than one hour east of Minneapolis in Central
Wisconsin.
From the public
and private sectors, there was a diverse group of community leadership that
discussed the challenges and benefits of partnering. These 72 stakeholders jointly collaborated on
assessing risks using the Incident Command System/Unified Command, and
identifying resources, issues, and opportunities.
When first
working with new communities, we seek public and private sector sponsoring
organizations to endorse the CIP Program to help promote the workshops. In this community, the Eau Claire County
Office of Emergency Management, West Central Wisconsin Regional Planning
Commission, Royal Credit Union, Xcel Energy, Indianhead Foodservice
Distributor, Hutchinson Technology, Chippewa Valley Technical College, Eau
Claire Energy Cooperative, and the United Way of Greater Eau Claire
co-championed the event.
At the end of the day, the
participants had developed a list of ‘Next Steps’ for future meetings.
Welcome Western Panhandle, Fl to the CIP Program
Please welcome
the Western Panhandle, Florida, including Santa Rosa, Escambia, and Okaloosa
Counties, that sent 68 public and private sector community leaders to the CIP
Program workshop. This picturesque area
is located on the Gulf of Mexico and borders with the State of Alabama.
This regional
public/private partnership was built upon a number of existing programs,
initiatives, and collaborations. Due to
the number of natural disasters (hurricanes), man-made disasters and critical
incidents inherent to this densely populated area, the three counties elected
to create a two-tier system of county and regional partnership.
The sponsoring
organizations included the Santa Rosa County Office of Emergency Management,
Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce, with support from the Escambia and Okaloosa
County’s Offices of Emergency Management, and the workshop facility provided by
the Naval Air Station Whiting Field, the busiest naval air station in the
world.
At the end of
the workshop day, the Western Panhandle group drafted a large number of suggestions
for the counties and region to work on in preparing for, responding to, and
recovering from disasters and critical incidents.
Dallas Expands Their Public/Private Partnership Model
In early 2001,
the Dallas Police, Fire Rescue, Emergency Management Departments and other city
officials and private sector representatives joined to form the Downtown
Emergency Response Team (DERT). This
program targeted the downtown area to create a formalized public/private
partnership in preparing for, mitigating, responding to, and recovering from
critical incidents. When the Dallas
group created this unique program, they utilized some concepts from our
publication, ‘Critical Incident Protocol – A Public and Private Partnership’ as
a resource. The publication is available
on our website.
In early 2007,
Michigan State University worked with Dallas focusing on the northwest portion
of the city to develop a public/private partnership group. Recently, the Dallas Office of Emergency
Management, Police, and Fire-Rescue partnered with the DowntownDallas
organization to host their first city-wide Dallas Emergency Response Team
conference. According to Kenny Shaw,
Director of the Office of Emergency Management, “There is a national trend
toward public-private partnerships in public safety and emergency preparedness
(Pegasus News Wire, 2008)”. Dallas
continues to expand their commitment to working with the business community,
non-governmental organizations, and other public agencies for joint crisis
management.
To learn more about the
partnership is a website with information and resources, which is at http://dallasalert.org.
University Course for Public/Private
Partnerships in Emergency Preparedness
For those of
you who want to further explore the concept and practical applications of
public/private partnerships, Michigan State University offers an online course
for both degree-seeking candidates and non-degree candidates. This course is taught by Rad Jones, who founded
the partnership concept at MSU, developed white papers, published the ‘Critical
Incident Protocol – A Public and Private Partnership’ and developed the
Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) – Community Facilitation Program. Rad offers his experience and expertise as a
former Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Secret Service, Security & Fire
Protection Manager, Ford Motor Company, and as an academic specialist at MSU.
This course explores the interdependence
between the public and private sectors in protecting communities for national
security. Students will be exposed to specific guidelines and lessons learned
for effective public and private partnerships, with emphasis on critical
infrastructure protection, risk management, contingency planning, and
supply-chain security. This course begins
May 2008.
Additionally, a
student can use the partnership course in the Homeland Security Certificate
Studies Program, a three-course program which includes classes in Terrorism and
Homeland Security. For more information,
please go to http://homelandsecurity.msu.edu.
Mega-Communities / Cross Sector Collaboration for
Preparedness
Booze Allan
Hamilton (BAH) Corporation has been researching the powerful effects of
cross-collaboration that incorporates multi-communication systems based on a
commitment of cooperation to mitigate man-made and natural disasters. Recently, one of their white papers, ‘When
There is No Cavalry’, has drawn national attention by those in the emergency
management, business continuity, and disaster-recovery professions.
For example, the Virtual
EIIP (Emergency Information Infrastructure Project) Forum (http://www.emforum.org) held an online web-based
chat with BAH representatives about this topic.
They define a mega-community as a public sphere in which public, private,
and civil organizations join together to address compelling issues of mutual
importance. The mega-community concept
is based on preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters. They have identified the following five core
elements of a mega-community:
o
Tri-sector
involvement, which includes public, private, and civil sector collaboration.
o
Overlapping
vital interests on identifying mutual concerns by diverse participants.
o
Building an
alliance through a framework with identifiable goals.
o
Designing a
social network structure of cross-collaboration, collective participation, and
problem solving activities.
o Encompassing sustainability and adaptability through
an institutional philosophy (Himberger, Sulek, & Krill, 2007).
The BAH
researchers also identified six guideposts that are used to build a
mega-community:
o Identify and
empower stakeholders
o Be an initiator
o Embrace
interdependence
o Allow for ambiguity
o Reward
collaboration
o Strengthen your
social networks (Himberger, Sulek, & Krill, 2007).
The research is
based on a variety of disasters, including hurricanes crossing Florida, and the
effects from Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina.
In addition, the paper discusses the U.S. Northern Command, along with
other federal agencies, multi-state coalitions,
and various other organizations and disasters.
For more information on mega-communities, please go to: http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/07309?gko=8b1fa.
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 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 the main menu.
Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are a variety of recent postings, including:
o
Water and
Wastewater Agency Response Networks (EMR-ISAC)
o
Rules and
Regulations for Business Continuity (DRJ)
o
Public Health
Preparedness: Mobilizing State by State (CDC Report)
o
National
Response Framework (Jan. 2008).
There are numerous other resources located on the website. To locate a specific topic, utilize the "search" function.
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
Pegasus News Wire. (March 3, 2008). Dallas Emergency Response Team holds first
conference. Pegasus News. Retrieved on
March 26, 2008 from: http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/mar/03/dallas-emergency-response-team-holds-first-confere/.
Himberger,
Douglas, Sulek, David and Krill, Stephen.
(2007). When There Is No
Cavalry. Booze Allan Hamilton. Retrieved on March 26, 2008 from http://www.strategy-business.com/press/article/07309?gko=8b1fa.
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