May 9, 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.
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 37 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: Arlington County, Richmond
Washington: Redmond
Wisconsin: Brown County, Dane County, Eau Claire County, Milwaukee, Racine County
CIP Program Activities
May 28, 2008: Superior, WI (Initiating
the CIP Program)
May 29, 2008: Palm Springs, CA (CA Homeland Security Conference)
June 4, 2008: Phoenix, AZ (EEI, Business Continuity Conference)
June 5, 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)
July 9, 2008: Winnebago County, WI (Initiating the CIP Program)
July 10, 2008: Outagamie County, WI (Initiating the CIP Program)
Train-the-Trainer Workshop on Public/Private Partnerships
Michigan State University is offering a ‘free’ train-the-trainer workshop for public and private sector stakeholders who are interested in developing or enhancing public/private partnerships for joint crisis management. This workshop is based upon the CIP Program and focuses on a community-wide partnership; however, public agencies, businesses, and non-profit organizations will find the material applicable to other types of partnership building.
The workshop will be held on Thursday, June 19, 2008, from 8am to 5pm at the Madison Area Technical College, Rm. D322, Downtown Education Center, 211 N. Carroll St., Madison, WI. This workshop will include the concepts and practices used in the CIP Program.
For more information or to RSVP by June 16, 2008, please contact Brit Weber at weberbr@msu.edu or (517) 355-2227.
Live Response Television Broadcast on CIP Program
The National Terrorism Preparedness Institute at St. Petersburg College, Florida presents Live Response, a 60-minute interactive satellite television broadcast that features dynamic panel discussions of experts who share their knowledge and experiences about terrorism awareness, prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery.
On April 23, 2008, the Live Response show profiled Michigan State University’s CIP Program, which may be viewed on the Internet at:
http://terrorism.spcollege.edu/new/anonbroadcastspage.aspx.
Panel participants included Daniel Alexander, Homeland Security Director, City of Milwaukee; James Joseph, Vice President and Senior Area Manager, Security and Fraud Risk, HSBC Corporation; and, Brit Weber, Director, CIP-Community Facilitation Program, Michigan State University. The panel experts discussed how public agencies and the busienss community can collaborate to prepare for, respond to, and recover from the impact of man-made and natural disasters, critical incidents, and other hazards.
Inquiry on Public/Private Partnerships – Healthcare Profession
The Center for Biosecurity, University of Pittsburg Medical Center, Baltimore, Maryland, is addressing healthcare policy issues related to public and private sector preparedness, among several other initiatives. The goal of the Center is to affect policy and practices to decrease the potential for illness, injury or death, and civil disruption that may result from large-scale epidemics, including the use of biological weapons. For more information on the Center for Biosecurity, please go to http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org.
The staff is researching how private sector organizations can help improve their communities’ ability to prepare for and respond to public health emergencies. MSU shared with the Center’s staff some of the trends, challenges, and opportunities learned through partnership building. While the CIP program does not specifically focus on the healthcare profession, it advocates a community-wide public and private sector partnership.
The Center for Biosecurity is interested in discussing how partnerships are formed, how they involve community-wide emergency planning and response, and whether partnerships may present any policy and/or legal barriers to organizations and management.
Please feel free to contact Jennifer Nuzzo, Senior Analyst, Center for Biosecurity at jnuzzo@upmc-biosecurity.org or (443) 573-3315.
Collaboration in Times of Crisis
The Partnership for Public Service, a non-profit organization seeks to revitalize the federal government by inspiring a new generation of workers to serve and transform government. The fundamental goals of the organization include building self-sustaining communities, securing the right talent, and fueling innovation.
Recently, this organization published the Collaboration in Times of Crisis. The document discusses collaboration between federal agencies, between federal, state and local governments, and across private sectors. The publication contains the expertise of key public and private sector leaders and features lessons learned and best practices. Important lessons discussed in the document include:
Lesson 1: Recognize the Need for Collaboration - While there are different roles for each sector when preparing for and responding to disasters, it is only by working together that public, private and nonprofit organizations can save lives and property during any disaster (Partnership for Public Service, 2008, pg. 5).
Lesson 2: Build Relationships at the Local Level – There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to collaboration, we just allow for flexibility at the local level (Partnership for Public Service, 2008, pg. 5).
Lesson 3: Ensure Clear Communication – Clear methods of communication between public, private and nonprofit organizations need to be established before a crisis (Partnership for Public Service, 2008, pg 5).
To read the report, you can either download it from the CIP Information Exchange or go to: http://www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/publications/viewcontentdetails.php?id=127
Tabletop Exercising – Lessons Learned
When the CIP staff conducts a tabletop exercise, participants learn how to validate and/or improve their current emergency plans. It is also a time for both the public and private sectors to discuss how they would jointly respond to an actual incident through a simulated scenario. Some observations recently made during various exercises are listed below:
1. In a major metropolitan area, a simulated emergency evacuation of several downtown businesses illustrated the need for a business liaison to be present in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC). This liaison could disseminate information to the business community during emergencies and identify other business resources that may be used to mitigate the impact of the crisis.
2. Several other tabletop exercises have demonstrated a need for a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to be developed between local businesses. An MOU would allow the business critical incident management team to use a neighboring facility as they respond to the critical incident. Additionally, the CIP staff recommends that public agencies and businesses develop MOU’s or similar types of agreement for joint crisis management.
3. In all tabletop exercises, face-to-face contact between the public and private sectors results in better collaboration, improved efficiency, identifying shortfalls and gaps, strengthened relationships, affirmation of proper plans and procedures, mutual understanding of the other sector’s assets and limitations, and enhanced emergency preparedness for the next critical incident.
Food Safety and Defense
Recently, the CIP staff participated in a state-wide food and agriculture protection and defense meeting. Given the diverse background of public and private sector participants within the communities who are working with Michigan State University through the CIP Program, we monitor trends within the various sectors, as well as within the critical infrastructure sectors. The food and agriculture industry is broad in scope, as it covers production, processing, manufacturing, and retailing components which range from the small farmer to the international corporation. It has been stated that the protection and defense of this important but complicated industry is crucial.
Several discussions on the successes, challenges, accountability processes, training, and other aspects of protecting the nation’s food and agriculture industry emerged during the meeting. Best practices on several “key components” of a crisis management plan included:
Lastly, more organizations are embracing the Safe Quality Food (SQF) Program, a leading, global food safety and quality certification program and management system. For more information on the SQF Program, go to: http://www.sqfi.com/sqf_program.htm.
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 click on Angel Guest Account from the drop-down menu. Click on proceed and in the next webpage box, enter “msu.msu@angel” and “partnership” (both without quotation marks) as the password. On the next page, click on Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) – Community Facilitation, which launches the main menu.
Located in the folder "Bulletin Board - Information for all Communities" are a variety of recent postings, including:
o Citizen and Community Preparedness Act of 2008
o The Community Toolbox (Extensive Website for Building Community Resiliency)
o Community Preparedness – City Managers and Emergency Planning (EMR-ISAC)
o Business ‘Emergency Preparedness’ Certification Standards
o Commercial Equipment Direct Assistance Program (CEDAP)
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.
Source
Partnership for Public Service. (April 2008). Collaboration in Times of Crisis. Retrieved on specific date from: http://www.ourpublicservice.org/OPS/publications/viewcontentdetails.php?id=127
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