Important Dates & Deadlines DHS Countering Violent Extremism Grant Webinar Region III Public-Private Sector Tabletop Exercise DHS Countering Violent Extremism Grant Webinar  Draft Individuals and Households Program Unified Guidance Comment Period Ends Application Deadline for National Emergency Management Executive Academy Virtual Tabletop Exercise Application Deadline Draft Interagency Concept for Community Resilience Indicators and National-Level Progress Measures Comment Period Ends FEMA National Training Program Continuing Grant Application Deadline

DHS Countering Violent Extremism Grant Webinars

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will host two webinars on the 2016 Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) grant program. The webinars will be offered from 2:00 to 3:00 p.m. EDT on both, Wednesday, July 20 and Monday, July 25.

For the first time, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will be eligible for DHS funding in order to promote community resilience against the threat of violent extremism.

The scheduled webinars will provide assistance to NGOs and higher education institutions in understanding the grant program’s goals. Additionally, the webinars will present the opportunity to ask questions about the information presented.

Register for either webinar through the following links and complete the registration prior to the start of the sessions.

Sign up for July 20 webinar

Sign up for July 25 webinar

In addition, participants may listen to the webinars by dialing 1-800-320-4330, pin 265976#.

For more information on the CVE Grant Program, visit https://www.dhs.gov/cvegrants.

FEMA National Training Program Continuing Grants

FEMA announced funding opportunities for the Fiscal Year 2016 Continuing Training Grants program. The Homeland Security National Training Program’s Continuing Training Grants will provide $11.5 million to qualified applicants to help improve the nation’s ability to respond to and recover from all-hazard events.

The grants are administered by FEMA’s National Training and Education Division and will be available for awards in four focus areas:

• Cybersecurity

• Hazardous Materials

• Economic Recovery

• Rural Preparedness

This highly competitive program attracts applicants from state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, eligible non-profit organizations, and higher education institutions. Funding is provided as cooperative agreements and awarded directly to the selected applicants. 

For more information and to download the application package, visit www.grants.gov and submit applications no later than August 22.

EMI Offers Course Simulating Emergency Operation Centers

FEMA congratulates Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin, for completing their Integrated Emergency Management Course (IEMC). Fond du Lac’s course was designed specifically for their jurisdiction, providing both lecture and exercised-based training focused on response operations for a train derailment resulting in a hazardous materials incident and an ecological disaster that affects a large recreational lake. 

IEMC courses simulate realistic crisis situations that emergency operations center personnel and community leadership/elected officials may encounter during disasters or other events. Also, the course helps enhance the skills of participating officials, and provide a forum to evaluate the effectiveness of their specific emergency policies, plans, and procedures that protect life and property. The course’s target audience includes state, local, tribal, and territorial government personnel; their elected and appointed officials; supervisory, operations, and emergency support personnel; nonprofit organizations; the private sector; law enforcement personnel; firefighters; attorneys; public information officers; planners; and more. 

IEMC classes are principally delivered at FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Maryland; however delivery may occur in the community. Questions should be directed to FEMA-EMI-IEMB@fema.dhs.gov. If your jurisdiction is interested in applying for the program and obtaining information on the application process and its timeline, please visit http://training.fema.gov/iemc/.

EMI Virtual Tabletop Exercise for Mass Casualty Incident

FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI) is offering a virtual tabletop exercise (VTTX) focusing on Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) on August 23-25 from 12:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT. This VTTX addresses MCI awareness and information sharing during response efforts to assist affected communities. 

This VTTX allows participating communities to share details and best practices regarding mass casualty awareness, integration into all-hazard preparedness, information sharing, incident management, and resource management processes. The goals of the VTTX are to enhance the participants’ knowledge, skills, and abilities to effectively conduct all-hazards emergency response and recovery. The VTTX also enables coordination of response operations with counterparts from federal agencies, state and local governments, private sector organizations, non-governmental agencies, and other whole community partners.

EMI conducts a monthly series of a VTTX using a Video Teleconference (VTC) platform to reach community-based training audiences around the country providing a virtual forum for disaster training. The VTTX is designed for a group of ten or more representatives from state, local, tribal, and territorial emergency communities of practice. Participants will need to connect through a site that is equipped with appropriate VTC capability, but alternate ways to participate are also available upon request.  Session content is the same each day and participants only need to attend one session.

Interested individuals should email Doug Kahn at douglas.kahn@fema.dhs.gov or call 301-447-7645. Additionally, it is requested that individuals send a courtesy copy email to the Integrated Emergency Management Branch at FEMA-EMI-IEMB@fema.dhs.gov or call 301-447-1381. The deadline for VTTX applications is August 5 and additional information can be found by visiting https://training.fema.gov/programs/emivttx.aspx.

Reminder of Upcoming Deadlines

FEMA Region III Hosts Public-Private Sector Tabletop Exercise

This Thursday, July 21, 2016, FEMA Region III is hosting the third annual Public-Private Sector Tabletop Exercise in Philadelphia, PA, which will focus on cyber as the threat scenario. This full-day event will bring together members of the public and private sectors to educate and inform participants on contemporary cyber threats. Throughout the course of the day’s events, participants will be invited to share best practices, information sharing methods, capabilities, resources, and incident response plans for cyber attacks. For more information on this event or to register, click here.

FEMA Posts Draft Individuals and Households Program Unified Guidance for Public Comment

On June 15, 2016, FEMA posted the draft Individuals and Households Program Unified Guidance (IHPUG) to the Federal Register for public comment. FEMA strongly encourages the public and emergency management community to submit comments. The Individuals and Households Program (IHP) is the most publicly recognizable FEMA program and this is an excellent opportunity for the public to provide their input.The draft guidance is posted to the Federal Register, and will be available for comment until August 1, 2016.

Apply for the 2017 National Emergency Management Executive Academy 

The objective of the Executive Academy is to engage, challenge and enhance the talents of emergency management executives through critical thinking, visionary strategic planning, and negotiation and conflict resolution when applied to complex real-world problems. The Executive Academy consists of four resident sessions, webinars, distance learning, and literature reviews. Executives will explore how they can leverage science, technology, engineering, and data analysis to impact critical decisions and guide informed policy development.  Executives will have the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects, share smart practices, and participate in exercises on cascading and catastrophic events.

Applications will be accepted through August 5, 2016. There are a limited number of seats and enrollment is competitive. For more information on the Executive Academy and the application and selection process, visit www.training.fema.gov/EMPP/executive.asp.

The Executive Academy is the pinnacle of a three-level Academy series in the Emergency Management Professional Program (EMPP) which includes Basic, Advanced, and Executive Academies. Emergency management professionals should visit the EMPP page for more information about which academy best suits their needs.

Draft Disaster Resilience Indicators Concept Released By Mitigation Federal Leadership Group Subcommittee

FEMA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and their federal partners in the Mitigation Federal Leadership Group (MitFLG) Disaster Resilience Indicators Subcommittee released a “Draft Interagency Concept for Community Resilience Indicators and National-Level Progress Measures."

This concept is the result of a year-long effort to identify potential indicators of community resilience capacity building that align with the Mitigation and Recovery Core Capabilities under the National Preparedness Goal. Learn more details about this joint FEMA/NOAA initiative here www.fema.gov/community-resilience-indicators.

The document, compiled in response to broad public interest in identifying key factors of community resilience nationwide in order to promote better-informed capacity building strategies, is intended to start a broad conversation among public- and private-sector stakeholders on how best to define and track improvements in community resilience capacity across 28 key indicator categories.

Interested stakeholders seeking to add their input can submit comments and feedback to the Disaster Resilience Indicators Subcommittee of the MitFLG at FEMA-CommunityResilience@fema.dhs.gov by August 15, 2016.

The MitFLG subcommittee was led by representatives of FEMA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and includes significant contributions from federal partners such as the National Institute of Standards and Technology, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Geological Survey.