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FEMA is pleased to announce that the application period for the 2016 Individual and Community Preparedness Awards is open. The awards highlight innovative local practices and achievements by individuals and organizations that made outstanding contributions toward making their communities safer, better prepared, and more resilient.
This
is a great opportunity to recognize faith-based organizations, voluntary agencies, the private sector, tribal organizations, youth, people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs, and older adults who are making a difference in their communities before, during, and after disasters.
FEMA will review all entries and select the finalists. A distinguished panel of representatives from the emergency management community will then select winners in each of the following categories:
• Outstanding Citizen Corps Council
• Community Preparedness Champions
• Awareness to Action
• Technological Innovation
• Outstanding Achievement in Youth Preparedness
• Preparing the Whole Community
• Outstanding Inclusive Initiatives in Emergency Management (new category)
• Outstanding Private Sector Initiatives (new category)
• Outstanding Community Emergency Response Team Initiatives
• Outstanding Citizen Corps Partner Program
• America’s PrepareAthon! in Action (new category)
Over
the past several years, these awards have amplified the great work being done
in all parts of the nation. Through the month of March, the FEMA Bulletin
will showcase past winners. In 2015, the award recognized the collaborative work of three programs in the New York City Emergency Management’s Community Outreach Unit – Ready New York, NYC Citizen Corps, and the NYC Community Emergency Response Team. To help immigrant and limited English proficiency communities during disaster, the three programs worked together to provide customized tools and information to millions of New Yorkers with limited English proficiency. From distributing preparedness toolkits to producing a film for an Emmy award-winning series, the programs created a successful outreach model for individual emergency preparedness education that addresses the needs of communities that are often difficult to reach.
Share
your preparedness accomplishments. Winners will be announced in the fall of 2016 and will be invited as FEMA’s honored guests at a recognition ceremony. The winner of the Preparing the Whole Community category will receive the John D. Solomon Whole Community Preparedness Award.
To be considered for this year’s awards, all submissions must be received by March 28, 2016, at 11:59 p.m. EDT and must feature program activities taking place between January 1, 2015, and March 28, 2016. Submit applications to citizencorps@fema.dhs.gov.
Visit Ready.Gov for more information, to download the application, and to read the application guidance.
On January 28, 2016, FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate discussed the Agency’s recent accomplishments regarding disability-inclusive emergency management at a meeting of the Interagency Coordinating Council on Emergency Preparedness and Individuals with Disabilities (ICC).
The FEMA Administrator is the designated Chair of the ICC, which meets quarterly. The ICC was established in 2004 by Executive Order 13347 and brings together 25 federal departments and agencies to coordinate accessible, disability-inclusive efforts in planning and preparedness before, during, and after disasters.
Administrator Fugate emphasized whole community preparedness and highlighted the installation of accessible emergency evacuation chairs at FEMA headquarters on every floor. He also talked about FEMA’s new generation of accessible, temporary manufactured housing units equipped with residential fire sprinklers. These units have been designed for added safety and accessibility and the sprinklers provide additional precious emergency evacuation time for disaster survivors.
During the meeting, Caitlin McCarthy Clarke, Acting Branch Chief for Policy and Doctrine Coordination in FEMA’s National Preparedness Directorate, addressed updates to the National Preparedness System and how the system will continue to integrate the needs of people with disabilities and others with access and functional needs.
FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI) is accepting applications for the National Emergency Management Advanced Academy (NEMAA). This program addresses program management and oversight, effective communication, integrated collaboration, and strategic thinking skills. The target audience is mid-level managers who have a minimum of three years of experience in an emergency management position to include government, non-profit, voluntary organization, and private sector leaders who are responsible for emergency management or homeland security. For more information, visit EMI.
The NEMAA Program consists of four resident courses. Each course is five days in length. Classes begin during the 1st quarter of the Federal fiscal year 2017 (October, November, or December 2016) and must be taken sequentially through September 2017. Applications are accepted from March 1 - March 31 with selections in June and announcements in July.
FEMA's Director of Integrated Public Alert Warning System (IPAWS), Antwane Johnson, is hosting a webinar to discuss the policy of the United States to have an effective, integrated, and comprehensive system to alert and warn the American people facing immediate serious situations.
IPAWS is a National System for local alerting to radio and television as Emergency Alert System (EAS) broadcasts; cellular phones as Wireless Emergency Alerts (WES); NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards (NWR); Internet applications and websites. This policy is expanded to enable state and local officials to alert local populations during local emergencies and provide for better and more accurate handling of alert reception and rebroadcast.
When: Wednesday, March 2, 2016
Time: 2:00 PM - 3:00 PM, Eastern Standard Time (EST)
Connection Options for Webinar:
1) Webinar: Participants do not need to dial into audio conference. Webinar can be heard through computer speakers.
Click: https://share.dhs.gov/mar2016
2) Audio Conference: If a participant has trouble hearing the Webinar through computer speakers. Please Dial In Prior to the meeting start time.
While participating in the teleconference, please mute your phone.
• Dial-In Number: 1-800-320-4330
• Pin/Password: 769214
Due to numerous requests, the deadline for Youth Preparedness Council applications has been extended to Sunday, March 20, 11:59 p.m. PDT. In addition, FEMA will accept applications for students currently in 8th, 9th, or 10th grade that are engaged in individual and community preparedness or have experienced a disaster that motivated him or her to make a positive difference in their community.
Youth interested in applying to the Council must submit a completed application form, two letters of recommendation, and academic records. Information about completing and submitting the application and attachments can be found in the application instructions. All applications and supporting materials must be received no later than March 20, 2016, 11:59 p.m. PDT in order to be eligible. New Youth Preparedness Council members will be announced in May 2016.
For more information about the Youth Preparedness Council and to access the application materials, visit Ready.Gov.
The Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) application period will close Friday, March 25, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT).
SAFER intends to improve or restore local fire departments' staffing and deployment capabilities so they may more effectively and safely respond to emergencies. With enhanced or restored staffing levels, recipients should experience a reduction in response times and an increase in the number of trained personnel assembled at the incident scene.
The SAFER program is comprised of two activities, the Hiring Activity and the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters Activity. The objective of the Hiring Activity is to award grants directly to volunteer, combination, and career fire departments to help increase the number of frontline firefighters and to rehire firefighters who were laid-off due to the economy. The objective of the Recruitment and Retention of Volunteer Firefighters activity is to create a more favorable working environment for volunteer firefighters.
The SAFER program provides approximately $340 million in competitive grants to fire departments and national, state, local, tribal, and territorial organizations representing the interests of volunteer firefighters. Go to Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response Grants for more information and application materials.
FEMA announced the Notice of Funding Opportunities (NOFOs) for the FY 2016 Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM) and Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) grant programs. These two grant programs assist state, local, tribal and territorial governments in strengthening our nation's ability to reduce the potential cost of natural disasters to communities and their citizens. The NOFO for each program is posted on Grants.gov and contains the key program priorities and application requirements. Applications may be submitted beginning on March 15 and are due by 3:00 p.m. EDT on June 15, 2016.
Over the past several years, Members of Congress, the Government Accountability Office (GAO), and the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) have asked FEMA to look at how the federal government supports states following disasters and the associated costs. In response, FEMA is exploring the concept of a disaster deductible.
The agency believes that such an approach has the potential to incentivize mitigation strategies and promote risk-informed decision-making to build resilience, including to catastrophic events; reduce the costs of future events for both states and the federal government; and facilitate state and local government planning and budgeting for enhanced disaster response and recovery capability through greater transparency.
This concept would include the establishment of a predetermined level of state disaster funding or investment in resilience before FEMA would begin to provide additional assistance through the Public Assistance program following a disaster declaration. The deductible concept would include how to calculate the deductible, the scope of the deductible, how to satisfy the deductible, how this concept could influence change, implementation considerations and an estimated impact.
FEMA is seeking public comments on all aspects of this concept until March 21, 2016 which may be submitted through Regulations.gov under docket ID FEMA-2016-003. This would be a significant change, so FEMA is seeking early public feedback through an advance notice of proposed rulemaking.
FEMA's National Advisory Council (NAC) seeks individuals to submit an application by March 16, 2016, to be considered for appointment. For one of the four Administrator Selection positions, FEMA seeks to appoint an individual who is an emerging leader in emergency management. This individual may have academic experience in emergency management, served in the FEMA Corps program, is an alumni of FEMA’s Youth Preparedness Council, or has contributed to the field of emergency management as an emerging leader.
Other available positions include:
• Emergency Management (one representative appointment)
• Emergency Medical Providers (one Special Government Employee appointment)
• Access and Functional Needs (one representative appointment)
• Non-Elected Local Government Officials (one representative appointment)
• Non-Elected State Government Officials (one representative appointment)
• Public Health (one Special Government Employee appointment)
• Standards Setting and Accrediting (one Special Government Employee appointment)
• FEMA Administrator Selections (up to four Special Government Employee positions, including one emerging leader)
The NAC is a federal advisory committee established to ensure effective and ongoing coordination of federal preparedness, protection, response, recovery, and mitigation for natural disasters, acts of terrorism, and other man-made disasters. The NAC advises the FEMA Administrator on all aspects of emergency management frameworks, strategies, and plans while incorporating the whole community’s input through appointed council members.
Qualified individuals interested in serving on the NAC are invited to apply for appointment. All applicants will be considered through an intensive review process, including a panel of senior government officials. Visit FEMA.gov for Frequently Asked Questions and detailed instructions on how to apply for the NAC.
In early January, FEMA entered the next phase of tribal consultation for
the Stafford Act disaster declaration process for tribal governments. The draft
guidance is posted to the Federal Register
and will be available for comment until April 7, 2016. Additional
information regarding the consultation process may be found at Second Draft
Tribal Declaration Pilot Guidance.
Virtual Tabletop Exercise (VTTX): Hurricane; attend only one session either April 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14 from Noon-4:00 p.m. EDT. The registration deadline is Friday, March 11.
To participate in a VTTX, send an email request to Doug Kahn at douglas.kahn@fema.dhs.gov or call 301-447-7645. Please send a courtesy copy to FEMA-EMI-IEMB@fema.dhs.gov or call 301-447-1381.
National Training, Education, and Exercise Symposium: Requirements-Based Investments to Build National Capabilities, May 24-26. Registration deadline: April 12, 2016. On May 23, EMI will offer six courses during the Pre-Symposium Workshop facilitated by the members of the National Domestic Preparedness Consortium. The symposium and pre-symposium courses will be held at the National Emergency Training Center, 16825 South Seton Avenue Emmitsburg, Maryland 21727-8998. For more information, contact the EMI National Training Liaison, Dan Lubman, at daniel.lubman@fema.dhs.gov.
For additional information about upcoming trainings and courses, visit EMI resources about Emergency Management Training, Virtual Tabletop Exercises and Course Schedule.
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