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Team Resilience: A Year in Review (click above to view video)
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Thanks again for participating in the 7th Annual Resilience Chili Cookoff, and the first in-person FEMA holiday party since 2019! As a tradition in years past, offices across HQ opened their doors to staff from across FEMA for breakfast or lunch receptions, each offering a unique experience and the ability to mingle with colleagues from across the agency.
Congratulations to Flor Rueda and Tehmina Mall for winning the Resilience Chili Cookoff People’s Choice Award*; Cooper Hancock for winning the Administrator’s Award; and David Maurstad for winning the Deputy Administrator’s Award.
The real winners were your colleagues, for having the opportunity to enjoy all of the tasty contributions (and each other’s company, of course). What a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday season and a productive 2022!
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Stay Alert When Online Shopping
January 3, 2023:
First meeting and swearing in of the 118th United States Congress
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2023 Opportunities and Calls for Proposals
The following list includes just a few of the events and dates where our key stakeholders may be present. You are encouraged to use these opportunities (and others!) to help Resilience publicize its initiatives and programs to as a wide of an audience as possible. If you have interest in attending or submitting a speaker proposal, please visit the links for submission deadlines and more information!
Please note, FEMA and Resilience do not endorse any of these conferences or organizers, and this is a non-exclusive list of conferences. To submit additional events not included here, please reach out to FEMA-Resilience@fema.dhs.gov. All events must comply with Agency policy, including clearance through the FEMA Speakers Bureau.
January 18-20, 2023:
2023 U.S. Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C.
January 23-25, 2023:
2023 National Association of Regional Councils (NARC) Conference of Regions in Washington, D.C.
January 24-27, 2023:
National Advisory Council (NAC) meeting in Emmitsburg (tentative)
January 30-February 3, 2023:
2023 Florida Emergency Preparedness Association Annual Meeting in Orlando
February 11-14, 2023:
2023 National Association of Counties (NACo) Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C.
March 6-9, 2023:
Aspen Ideas: Climate in Miami Beach, FL
March 20-22, 2023:
The Funders Network (TFN) 2023 Annual Conference in New Orleans, LA
March 25-30, 2023:
2023 National Emergency Management Association (NEMA) Mid-Year Forum in Alexandria, VA
April 25-27, 2023:
ResCon 2023 is accepting presentation proposals through December 20, 2022.
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Join us for Weekly Coffee & Conversations! Look out for e-mail invites on a weekly basis from FEMA-Resilience.
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REMINDER: Wellness Wednesdays
Keep your days on the right foot by joining your colleagues to take steps toward better physical and mental health. If you’re located at HQ and in the office on Wednesdays (weather permitting), meet Victoria Salinas, the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Administrator for Resilience, outside of the lobby of 400 C Street at noon and depart by 12:05pm for a weekly stroll. When the weather isn't ideal for walking outdoors, we will visit nearby museums instead. We’ll return to the office by 12:25pm.
Not at HQ or in the office on Wednesdays? That’s okay! Join in the #WellnessWednesday spirit by taking a walk around your own neighborhood or office every Wednesday, and feel free to share your #WellnessWednesday photos here: https://www.kudoboard.com/boards/5ri4dwCX
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Resilience Leaders Meet with Regional Administrators and Deputy Regional Administrators
On December 13 and 14, Resilience Leadership had the opportunity to meet with FEMA Regional Administrators (RA) and Deputy Regional Administrators (DRA) to discuss CY23 priorities, focus areas, and resourcing. We also utilized this time to brief the RAs and DRAs on Road to Resilience’s progress to date and path forward, collecting Regional inputs on Resilience’s future state organizational design.
Together, we spent several hours discussing our customers, their top needs, opportunities to enhance collaboration and equitable service delivery, and ways to improve FEMA’s customer experience. We look forward to continuing to engage with our Regional partners on these key topics in the new year.
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Florida Coastal Resiliency Summit Focuses on Lasting Solutions
$10 Million Awarded to New Jersey for Climate Resilience Projects
On December 1, FEMA announced it has obligated $10 million for flood resilience projects in New Jersey through its Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA) Swift Current initiative, taking strides towards timely hazard mitigation by expediting money to communities working to become more resilient to floods. This is the first FEMA initiative to be funded through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, also known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and marks a significant milestone under Swift Current in obligating 20% of the available $60M in less than eight months from the application period opening.
Ten million will go toward acquiring and demolishing 31 properties -- 28 of which were substantially damaged by Hurricane Ida -- in the Borough of Manville, New Jersey. Somerset County lands near the Raritan and Millstone rivers will be converted to open space, conservation and flood storage.
Another $280,000 in this round of obligations will also be used to reconstruct two flood-prone structures in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana. The properties will be rebuilt to higher standards to reduce flood damage and potential NFIP claims payments.
In total, the Swift Current initiative allocates a total of $60 million to Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey and Pennsylvania -- all states affected by Hurricane Ida -- to equitably expedite mitigation grants to disaster survivors with repetitively flooded homes.
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Nonprofit Security Grant Program Webinars Reach Highest Single Event Participant Totals
The Grant Programs Directorate, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the DHS Center for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, jointly held informational webinars in November and early December for all interested 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations on the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP). This virtual event provided a look-back on the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 NSGP, and look-ahead for the prospective FY 2023 NSGP.
The NSGP provides funding for physical and cyber security enhancements and other security-related activities to nonprofit organizations that are at high risk of a terrorist attack. In addition, the NSGP seeks to integrate nonprofit preparedness activities with broader state and local preparedness efforts.
The webinars were designed to provide lessons learned from the FY 2022 NSGP cycle and, most importantly, share valuable information on what nonprofits should consider now in preparation for the FY 2023 NSGP application submission cycle. Each webinar included an opportunity for nonprofits to provide a platform to share NSGP investment accomplishments, feedback, and ask questions.
To date, the webinars have already reached 2,300 participants - the highest numbers of any NSGP webinar, and by far, the highest three-event total.
The next series of GPD-led NSGP outreach events will be post-appropriations, starting in late January and early February, running though most of the open application period. We will cap off the webinars with a State Administrative Agency (SAA) specific event, in anticipation of application submissions to FEMA that will allow us to highlight any key changes or policy implications adopted in the FY23 appropriations or differences that will be adopted in the FY23 Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO).
We are very proud of the team for continuing to adjust for the increased funding and focus for this program, and look forward to continuing the momentum in 2023!
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CDP contract employee recognized by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
A Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) contract employee has been recognized for administrative support she recently provided to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA’s) Office for Bombing Prevention (OBP).
Lofi Masaniai, who has been with the center a little more than three years, is the CDP’s external agency non-resident/indirect training coordinator. In that role, she oversees all non-resident and indirect training support the center provides to external agencies.
Masaniai was recognized for support she provided to the OBP when it delivered bombing prevention and other training to Canadian security professionals, including members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Canadian Football League, in Regina, Saskatchewan. In a letter, CISA officials said the assistance she provided in late October and early November was ‘instrumental to the success of the entire project.’
“The CDP has given me the opportunity to serve communities around the world by providing support to our instructors and stakeholders in the field,” said Masaniai.
“We (CDP employees) have the unique opportunity to provide the best disaster training across public and private sectors to help during what could be someone’s worst day,” she added.
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Wellsville Reservoir Dam Rehabilitation Project
Wellsville Reservoir Dam on Little Yellow Creek in Ohio is the first rehabilitation project to be completed with a combination of High-Hazard Potential Dams (HHPD) grant and state funds. The village worked with ODNR (Ohio Department of Natural Resources) Division of Water Resources, Dam Safety Program and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to complete the work on the dam, gatehouse and intake tower.
According to Wellsville Fiscal Officer Hoi Wah Yu, village administration was nervous about the project becoming too expensive for the village to afford. However, between the HHPD and an Ohio Public Works grant, the village was able to cover the entire cost of the project with no out-of-pocket expenses.
“Thanks to the mayor, the village administrator, ODNR, FEMA, OPWC, our contractor, the engineers and all the people that worked together with us, it was done on time,” Yu said. “They really worked hard to try to get it down. We are very grateful.”
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2022 National Household Survey on Disaster Preparedness Webinar
FEMA Tribal Consultation on Preparedness Grants
On December 8, FEMA hosted a virtual tribal consultation to discuss FEMA’s implementation of the Build America, Buy America Act (BABAA). Senior leadership from FEMA’s Grant Programs Directorate (GPD) led the consultation. GPD provides grants to prepare state, local, tribal, and territorial governments and first responders, as well as non-profit organizations and port and transit system owners/operators, to measurably improve capability and reduce the risks from manmade and natural disasters.
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From December 5-9, the Heritage Emergency National Task Force (HENTF) team, in conjunction with the Smithsonian Cultural Rescue Initiative (SCRI), hosted the 2022 Heritage Emergency and Response Training (HEART) at the Smithsonian Institution. The training was designed to better prepare cultural stewards and emergency managers to address emergencies and disasters that affect cultural institutions and historic sites. The five-day program included a roundtable discussion about resources for response and recovery featured HENTF member agencies: the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the Foundation for the Advancement in Conservation (FAIC) and the Craft Emergency Relief Fund (CERF+).
After launching in 2017, HEART has trained 75+ participants representing a wide variety of specialties and fields. HEART graduates hail from cultural heritage institutions who wish to improve their collections management plans and first responder groups who want a better understanding of how cultural heritage helps communities recover following a disaster. Though the main HEART program is based in D.C., it has travelled to disaster-affected regions such as Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands to help cultural stewards prepare for upcoming hurricane seasons.
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FEMA/MLB Exercise Hits a Home Run for Event Response and Preparedness
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Coors Field is the home of the Colorado Rockies and hosted the 2021 Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game. Recently the ballpark hosted MLB’s Security and Ballpark Operations Conference, including representation from all 30 Major League Baseball Clubs. The MLB asked FEMA Region 8 to facilitate a tabletop exercise covering critical incident scenarios that could occur during a ballgame.
Each Major League ballpark hosts hundreds of thousands of people at 81 home games per year – 2,430 regular season games with nearly 70 million fans in attendance! The goal of the exercise was to identify challenges in serving an always changing population of guests in the stands and to learn how each of the 30 teams work with law enforcement and other emergency services agencies to maintain the safety of spectators and the public in general.
MLB clubs already have vigorous response plans, but much like government response plans, those plans must evolve to address new challenges. The discussion was lively and allowed participants to share best practices that had worked in responding to events that happened in their respective facilities. The exercise also reinforced the importance of building relationships with partners at all levels of government prior to a response event.
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Episode 105: A new guide for continuous improvement in emergency management
In late October, FEMA released the National Continuous Improvement Guidance. The guidance provides an approach to conducting consistent and rigorous continuous improvement activities before, during, and after real world incidences. Emergency managers and other whole community partners can use this document to effectively strengthen their continuous improvement capabilities, regardless of the organization's level of experience or resources. In this episode, we're going to walk through that guidance and also some technical assistance that FEMA is working to provide throughout the nation.
Click here to download the audio and/or transcript, or search "FEMA," wherever you get your podcasts.
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Become a Changemaker by Volunteering through the CFC
For more than 60 years, the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) has provided an avenue for federal employees to easily contribute to their favorite causes and charities.FEMA’s donation goal this year is $250,000. It may seem high, but in 2020 we beat the goal by more than 9.6% - we can do this!
There are multiple convenient ways to give, including online or via the new CFC App. As the 2022 CFC continues, we want to pass along a reminder that you can also volunteer service hours to eligible CFC charities to make an even-greater impact.
Here are three steps to help you pledge volunteer hours through the CFC and track the time you spend volunteering over the course of the next year:
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Pledge volunteer hours as an individual: When searching for organizations, check the Volunteer Opportunities Available box with the raising hand icon to search for organizations accepting volunteers.
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Pledge group volunteer hours: Select the ‘Submit Group Volunteer Pledge” after you log-in to your CFC Online Giving System account to pledge volunteer time with your office/unit.
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Report volunteer hours completed: Select the “Report My Volunteer Hours” from the main menu or the “Track Group Volunteer Hours” once logged in to the CFC Online Giving System.
CFC charities can use your time and talent in addition to your monetary donations. Learn more about the fundraising campaign and how make a pledge at GiveCFC.org.
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Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey Results are Now Live on Dashboard
Results of the 2022 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) are available on the FEVS Dashboard. The data and insights provided by the FEVS gives you and our leadership the ability to build on strengths and improve challenge areas. Please take time to read the results for your region or program office and meet with your team to discuss opportunities for continuous improvement.
Overall, the 2022 FEVS results are positive. The survey results show that FEMA’s Employee Engagement Index, Global Satisfaction Index, Performance Confidence Index, and the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Index were all higher than the DHS average. Yet, we must continue to work together and address the bottom scoring areas so we can continue to improve our wonderful organization.
Employee feedback from the FEVS is analyzed and distributed in reports throughout the federal government, including DHS. FEVS also provides employee feedback results for FEMA lower- level offices (e.g., division, branches) as long as the office had more than 10 FEVS responses.
FEMA’s Office of Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO) lead team is available to support FEMA leadership to help interpret and discuss the results, so that the results may inform leadership managerial decision making, planning and direction.
For questions, please contact OCHCO Engagement Strategist Juan-Sebastian Chaquea.
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FEMA employees are driven by our core values of compassion, fairness, integrity and respect. |
A detail is a temporary position for FEMA employees explore other areas of the agency, gain new skills, and further professional development. You can apply for these positions with permission from your supervisor. Details may be used to complete emergency or short term projects; satisfy temporary unmet workload requirements; maintain office functions during a reorganization, reduction-in-force, or rightsizing; or to accomplish the mission requirements of FEMA.
Detail Announcement:
Have you ever answered a congressional request for information or Question for the Record (QFR) and wondered what happens to the response, who it’s for, what’s the context, etc.? We are excited to announce a new partnership with the Office of Chief Financial Officer (OCFO), which will provide an opportunity to embed with OCFO’s External Coordination Office (ExCo) and assist in liaising with congressional appropriators and the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on important matters impacting Resilience. This is an outstanding opportunity to create better awareness and understanding of congressional and WH/OMB interest and activities. Applications requested by Friday, December 30, 2022 but will be accepted until this position is filled.
Interested candidates should submit the following items via email to Wendy Noble Burns.
• Resume with relevant experience highlighted
• A brief statement of interest
• Supervisor’s approval of your participation (email is sufficient)
With Deadline
12/23/2022: Executive Director, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Program Office (HQ, Washington, DC)
12/31/2022: Chief of Staff, Resilience (HQ, Washington, DC)12/23/2022: Training Specialist, Emergency Management Institute/EMI (Emmitsburg, MD)
12/30/2022: Instructional Systems Specialist, Emergency Management Institute/CSIT (Emmitsburg, MD)
12/30/2022: Management and Program Analyst, NPD/National Integration Center (HQ, Washington, DC)
12/31/2022: Acting Deputy Division Director (HMA), Hazard Mitigation Assistance Division (HQ, Washington, DC)
12/31/2022: Disaster Regional Support Section Chief (HMA), Hazard Mitigation Assistance Division (FIMA), (HQ, Washington, DC)
1/9/2023: Program Analyst, Federal Insurance Directorate (HQ, Washington, DC)
1/9/2023: System Engineer, Federal Insurance Directorate (HQ, Washington, DC)
1/9/2023: Program Manager, Federal Insurance Directorate (HQ, Washington, DC)
1/9/2023: Business Manager / Product Owner, Federal Insurance Directorate (HQ, Washington, DC)
1/11/2023: Climate Adaptation Exercise Series Project Manager, National Exercise Division (HQ, Washington, DC)
1/11/2023: FEMA New Governor Orientation Exercise Project Manager, National Exercise Division (HQ, Washington, DC)
1/31/2023: STORM RLF Training Program Specialist/Program Analyst (HMA) (HQ, Washington, DC)
 View ALL FEMA Detail opportunities here.
Resilience
Resilience Action Office
Employee Health and Wellness Hub
FEMA Employee Assistance Program
FEMA's Employee Resource Groups (FERGs)
Return to the Workplace
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