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FEMA is committed to improving the nation’s ability to manage all
threats and hazards. As such, FEMA’s National Integration Center released a
suite
of draft National Incident Management System (NIMS) Resource Management
guidance documents that enhance the interoperability and effectiveness of mutual aid between jurisdictions and agencies. FEMA is holding a
National Engagement period to solicit feedback.
The drafts include the NIMS Guideline for the National Qualification
System (NQS), NIMS Job Titles/Position Qualifications and accompanying Position
Task Books (PTB), Resource Types, the NIMS Guideline for Mutual Aid, and an
updated NIMS Guideline for the Credentialing of Personnel. Documents are
available for review and comment through Friday, June 9, 2017.
In addition, FEMA
is hosting a series of 60-minute webinars to describe the draft documents and
answer participants’ questions about providing feedback. To review the drafts
of the NIMS Resource Management supplemental guidance and tools, and to obtain
additional webinar information, visit www.fema.gov/national-incident-management-system/national-engagement. To provide
comments on the draft, complete the feedback form found on the webpage above
and submit it to FEMA-NIMS@fema.dhs.gov.
FEMA encourages
our partners to join us in supporting 2017 Building Safety Month this May. Building Safety Month is a
public safety awareness campaign coordinated by the International
Code Council (ICC) and their 63,000 plus members worldwide who are dedicated to protecting people by
creating safe buildings and communities.
In keeping with this week’s theme,
"Manage the Damage," partners should encourage their stakeholders to:
- Prepare Your Family: by reviewing your plan regularly. If you make changes that
affect the information in your disaster plan, update it immediately.
- Protect Your Home: While
you can't necessarily stop natural disasters from happening, there are steps
you can take to increase your home's chance of survival, even in the face of
the worst disasters.
- Build To Code: The
development and widespread adoption of building codes creates a uniform
regulatory environment in which design professionals and contractors are held
to a uniform set of standards. Building codes provide you, your family, and
your community protection in the event of a natural disaster.
Learn more about building codes, visit FEMA’s Building Codes Toolkit. FEMA’s Building Science Branch develops and
produces multi-hazard mitigation guidance, provides training on this guidance
and works closely with the ICC and other partners to develop disaster-resilient
building codes and standards to reduce loss of life and property. Find out how your organization can participate in Building Safety
Month by visiting ICC’s 2017 Building Safety Month page for more information.
The Building Science
Branch is hosting a one-hour webinar on Monday, May 22 at 2 p.m. EDT to
provide consumer and construction guidance for residential and small business
safe rooms. Participants will use the 2014 publication, “FEMA
P-320 Taking Shelter from the Storm: Building a Safe Room for Your Home or
Small Business,” as resource to learn about background on FEMA safe rooms,
new guidance, and revised construction plans.
Those interested in participating in the webinar can register online. The following topics will be
addressed: assessing the need for safe rooms; planning for safe rooms; consumer
guidance; how to use the FEMA P-320 construction plans; and safe room tools
and resources. Webinar participants will receive a Certificate of
Completion indicating one Professional Development Hour for those who wish to
self-report for professional licensure.
FEMA’s Emergency
Management Institute (EMI) recently hosted the Integrating Emergency Management
Education into Your Institution (E390) course on April 19-20, 2017. The two-day
course targets department chairs of emergency management-related disciplines
from minority-serving institutions including Historically Black Colleges and
Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-Serving
Institutions, and Asian American and Pacific Islander Institutions. The program
was established in 2009 with the desired outcome of a more diverse population
of EM professionals who reflect the communities in which they live and work.
A total of 15
faculty and staff representing ten HBCUs attended, as well as one state
representative and one from the private sector, with the purpose of discussing
and exploring ways to lead within their institutions in initiating an emergency
management or homeland security course or launching an emergency
management/homeland security certificate or degree program in their school.
Four participants represented HBCUs with existing programs in their schools, provided lessons learned, and served as mentors to those without programs.
The April agenda
included an orientation to emergency management, discussions on careers in the
field, planning the curriculum, marketing the program, and overviews of FEMA’s
Emergency Management Higher Education Program and Continuing Training Grant
Program. During the class, participants created an action plan and received a
toolkit of additional resources that they can use to further emergency
management/homeland security-related opportunities at their schools.
The E390 course is
offered three times per year at EMI for all minority institutions of higher
education, and serves as a forum for networking, an opportunity to discuss issues
specific to minority-serving institutions of higher education and to identify
and overcome institutional roadblocks to increasing their schools’ emergency
management/homeland security-related offerings.
For
more information on EMI’s training programs, please visit http://training.fema.gov/.
FEMA’s EMI is now accepting application packages for the 2018 National Emergency Management Executive Academy. This Academy provides
a comprehensive and cutting-edge curriculum to enhance strategic leadership and
critical thinking for emergency management senior executives from all levels of
government, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector. Ideally,
candidates will have experience as senior executives of major emergency
management organizations, have served on major commissions and task forces, or be
responsible for decisions that have a significant effect on homeland security
and emergency management policies.
The objectives of the
Executive Academy are 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, 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.
The four resident
sessions, to be conducted by EMI at the National Emergency Training Center in
Emmitsburg, Maryland, will include:
- Systems Thinking and Research Methods for Executives: February 26 – March 1, 2018
- Executive Emergency
Management Leader Core Competencies I: April 23 – 26, 2018
- Executive Emergency Management Leader Core Competencies II: June 18– 21, 2018
- Executive Emergency
Management Leaders Core Competencies III: August 27 – 30, 2018
Applications will be
accepted through August 15, 2017. 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.
Notice of Funding Opportunity: Fiscal Year 2016 Fire Prevention & Safety Grants Application Period
FEMA’s annual funding
opportunity for the Fire Prevention and Safety (FP&S) grants is now open. FP&S grants support projects that enhance the safety of the public and firefighters
from fire and related hazards.
The application period for the Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 FP&S grants will close on Friday, May 19, 2017, at 5 p.m. EDT. A total of $34.5 million is available.
The primary
goal of these grants is to reduce injury and prevent fire-related deaths among
high-risk populations. In 2005, Congress reauthorized funding for FP&S, and
expanded the eligible uses of funds to include Firefighter Safety Research and
Development. For more information on fire prevention grants, visit www.fema.gov/fire-prevention-safety-grants.
Individual and Community Preparedness Awards Application Period
The
application period for the 2017 FEMA Individual and Community
Preparedness Awards is now open. The awards highlight innovative local
practices and achievements by
honoring individuals, organizations, and jurisdictions that have made
outstanding contributions toward strengthening their community to
prepare for,
respond to, recover from, and mitigate a disaster.
Emergency management is
most effective when the entire community is engaged and involved. Everyone,
including faith-based organizations, voluntary agencies, the private sector,
tribal organizations, youth, people with disabilities and others with access
and functional needs, and older adults make a difference in their
communities before, during, and after disasters.
To be considered for this year’s awards, all submissions must be received by
May 30, 2017, at 11:59 p.m. EDT, and must feature program
activities taking place between January 1, 2016, and May 30, 2017. Applications
are accessed online and should be submitted to fema-icp-awards@fema.dhs.gov. More information about the awards is available at www.ready.gov/preparedness-awards.
National Emergency Management Advanced Academy Applications
EMI is accepting
applications for the National
Emergency Management Advanced Academy. 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.
The Advanced Academy
Program consists of four resident courses and is five days in length.
Classes begin in October, November, or December 2017 and are ideally taken
sequentially through September 2018. Applications
will be accepted until May 31, 2017, with selections in June and
announcements in July.
For more information,
contact fema-empp-advanced-academy@fema.dhs.gov.
FEMA Seeks Comments on Nationwide Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement on the National Flood Insurance Program
On April 7, FEMA published a Federal
Register notice to seek public comment on a draft Nationwide
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (NPEIS) about the
National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). As required by the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), FEMA developed this draft NPEIS to
examine the impacts of proposed improvements and modifications to the NFIP.
This draft NPEIS includes an evaluation of the potential impacts to the natural
and human environment associated with the NFIP at a programmatic level, as well
as an evaluation of impacts of alternative proposals to modify the NFIP.
The public comment
period is open for 60 days until June 6, 2017. Download a
copy of the draft NPEIS and provide
comments directly to FEMA via www.regulations.gov. Search for Docket ID FEMA-2012-0012.
In addition, public meetings
and webinars are scheduled by FEMA to allow the public an opportunity to
learn
more about the project and to provide comments on the NFIP draft NPEIS.
For a list of locations and webinar dates and times, visit www.fema.gov/programmatic-environmental-impact-statement.
Emergency Management Institute Offers Advanced Public Information Officer Training
EMI is offering the Advanced Public Information Officer
(PIO) course, July 24-28, at the National Emergency Training Center in
Emmitsburg, Maryland. The course provides public information officers the
opportunity to increase their knowledge and skills for establishing, managing
and working in a joint information center (JIC). The training fosters an
environment where participants can apply advanced skills during a multi-day
functional exercise designed to test and enhance their ability
to analyze, coordinate, process, and create information in a fast-paced,
realistic environment. Using interactive lectures
from subject matter experts and an intense functional exercise, the Advanced
PIO course teaches participants skills for use during escalating incidents,
including strategic communications and incident action planning, as it relates
to JIC operations.
Interested individuals should contact Phil Politano at Philip.Politano@fema.dhs.gov by June
9, 2017, to register for the course. For information on prerequisites and
course schedules go to http://training.femac.gov/programs/pio/.
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