FEMA’s Higher Education Program Bits and Pieces
National Emergency Training Center, Emmitsburg, MD
15 August 2014
Higher Education Program News:
v Hi Ed Symposium:
Mark your calendars for the 17th Annual Emergency Management Higher Education Symposium scheduled for June 1- 4, 2015 at the Emergency Management Institute, Emmitsburg, MD. Information will be posted to the website in the next few months.
College and University News and Updates:
v The University of Alaska Fairbanks Homeland Security and Emergency Management Program Introduces the Center for the Study of Security, Hazards, Response and Preparedness (C-SSHRP)
C-SSHRP sits within the School of Management in partnership with the College of Natural Science and Mathematics (CNSM), the Geophysical Institute (GI) and the International Arctic Research Center (IARC). This center brings together the best available lines of academic instruction, scientific expertise, emergency and security practitioners, university and high school educators, and local community stakeholders as partners to create novel technologies, operational procedures, and curricula to better prepare, respond to and mitigate global disasters. C-SSHRP is a world leader in training, academic instruction and research which integrates risk assessment into domain awareness and simultaneously cross-cut with the other physical, environmental, and social science disciplines addressing response capabilities. The Center serves as a collaborative entity to provide for the synergistic activities of our participants (practitioners, academics and researchers) to create new knowledge that reduces uncertainty in decision making to improve resilience in advance of, during and in recovery from local, state, national and international disasters.
C-SSHRP aims to:
• Create new knowledge that reduces uncertainty in decision making
• Provide world leading education and research opportunities
• Train the next generation of emergency managers, responders and policy makers
• Improve resilience should a disaster occur
Focus areas of expertise for the Center are:
Education
• Build on established programs & classes in HSEM in SOM
• Development & delivery of cross college classes is built upon interdisciplinary collaboration
• Use strong and growing Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Activities Program
• Engage many students in security, emergency management and hazard-related research
Research
• UAF has world leading expertise across its Institutes, Colleges and Schools
• The research enterprise attracts $150M - $170M per year in external funding
• UAF is the Land, Sea and Space Grant University in state of Alaska and one of few in the US
• Build research and outreach to meet State needs
Connect/Engage
• Build upon established outreach programs serving local communities
• Make use of High School Summer Research Academy
• DHS and FEMA education and professional development programs
• Link to Fairbanks based state/federal agencies, Alaska Division of Geological and Geophysical Surveys, Bureau of Land Management, Alaska Fire Service, and National Weather Service WFO Fairbanks (one of three in the state)
Points of Contact
Cameron Carlson
Director of C-SSHRP
School of Management,
UAF, Fairbanks, Alaska. 99775
Peter Webley
Deputy Director of C-SSHRP
Geophysical Institute,
UAF, Fairbanks, Alaska. 99775
Emergency Management/Homeland Security News:
v 2014 National Preparedness Month
The Ready Campaign established four universal building blocks of emergency preparedness: Be informed, Make a Plan, Build a Kit and Get Involved. America’s PrepareAthon! builds on this foundation by encouraging millions of Americans to focus on a simple, specific activity that will increase preparedness.
America’s PrepareAthon! a new national community-based campaign for action focuses on increasing emergency preparedness through hazards-specific drills, group discussions and exercises. National PrepareAthon! Days are held every spring and fall. During National Preparedness Month FEMA as you, your family, community and workplace to take action by planning a National PrepareAthon! Day on or around September 30th. We recommend using digital media tools as a way to promote National Preparedness Month, September 1st-30th.
For more information and to register your National Preparedness Day: http://www.ready.gov/september
v Disaster Information Outreach by Librarians, NLM/NIH – July 15, 2014
Information and News: White House Innovation for Disaster Response and Recovery Demo Day
*** Overviews of the Day
*White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Blog Post: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2014/08/04/more-1500-people-participate-white-house-innovation-disaster-response-and-recovery-d
*“White House Innovation Day Highlights Disaster Response, Recovery” by Elaine Pittman, posted on Government Technology: http://www.govtech.com/federal/GTWhite-House-Innovation-Day-Highlights-Disaster-Response-Recovery.html
***Sessions on Survivor Support/Sharing Economy (peer-to-peer sharing of resources):
*Microsoft provided Boston Public Health Service free access to YAMMER http://yammer.com to set up a private social media networking service for survivors and families of victims of the Boston Marathon. A speaker at the event told how he and others have located doctors using that forum, found support with each other, and in general made use of the tool to improve their lives. Microsoft will continue to provide YAMMER at no cost to emergency managers during similar events.
*Task Rabbit https://www.taskrabbit.com/ is a tool that connects people to commercial assistants (taskers) like handymen, gardeners, and movers. Taskers are put through a vetting process before being added to Task Rabbit. During a disaster, Task Rabbit will set up a section on their website to be used for people in the disaster area to find things like shovels (gardeners), backhoes, etc. at low or no cost.
*GetAround allows people to locate and rent cars in their neighborhood. http://www.getaround.com/ During disasters, Get Around will send messages to local customers to ask them to share their vehicles, and will waive the GetAround commission. This can be especially useful when looking for large trucks, or fleets of vehicles needed to move large groups of people.
*Airbnb announced memorandums of understanding with emergency management officials in Portland and San Francisco: http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/techflash/2014/07/airbnb-to-aid-disaster-response-in-san-francisco.html
The national Disaster Distress Helpline (DDH) provides 24/7 crisis counseling and support for disaster survivors, loved ones of victims, and first responders, rescue & recovery workers. Currently the DDH has a special “Press 1” option on its toll-free hotline (1-800-985-5990) and SMS (text “TalkWithUs” to 66746) that connects those struggling with distress related to Hurricane Sandy to crisis centers that specialize in Sandy long term recovery. Visit the DDH website at http://disasterdistress.samhsa.gov/article/stories-from-sandy-survivors.aspx to view two Public Service Announcements videos highlighting the ongoing emotional impacts of Sandy and please help promote this important resource by sharing these videos within your organizations’ websites and social media networks! For more information contact Lauri Benblatt at or Padmini Mangunta at .
Recording of the presentations: http://youtu.be/X8eiXjbhfOc
***Sessions about resources that rely on the general public’s contributions:
*National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency has placed code on GitHub called GeoQ: https://github.com/ngageoint/geoq. Emergency managers can use this code to build customized maps of a disaster area, and allow citizens to upload photos of damaged areas in the community. In this way, the people experiencing the issues are directly alerting their local government to problems that require attention.
*Lantern Live app, Department of Energy: This downloadable mobile application is still in testing. Once it is live it will allow the public to share information related to natural disasters and utility availability. If you have a .gov email you can ask to join the expanded beta testing. Email
*SeeClickFix http://en.seeclickfix.com/ is an app that allows the public to report infrastructure problems, such as potholes, to their local government agencies. Now any Emergency Manager can request access to SeeClickFix to set it up for a specific disaster event.
* Environmental Protection Agency Incident Waste Decision Support Tool (I-Waste) helps communities manage waste resulting from disasters http://www2.ergweb.com/bdrtool/login.asp. View a video explaining the tool: http://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/homeland/clean-up.htm
***Representatives from the US Department of Homeland Security spoke about several current projects:
*Data.gov is “home to the U.S. Government’s open data”. Homeland Security is working on creating a website specific to open data for disasters (disaster.data.gov).
*Next-Generation Incident Command System (NICS) initiative https://public.nics.ll.mit.edu/nicshelp/articles/frontpage.php is an online mapping tool for first responders.
*AgCONNECT is a group of tools that analyze data to enhance situational awareness surrounding outbreaks of infectious animal diseases http://iiad.tamu.edu/tools/agconnect-a-suite-of-customizable-data-sharing-tools/.
***Google Crisis Response Team https://www.google.org/crisisresponse/ has been active since Katrina in 2005. They provide access to data and tools for first responders to make use of in order for them to reach the public efficiently and speedily.
***USAID personnel spoke on several open data projects:
*Open Street Map http://www.openstreetmap.org/ allows those with local knowledge to build maps which are posted for anyone to use.
*Mapgive http://mapgive.state.gov/ teaches people why crisis mapping is important and how they can get involved. Instructions are also provided at http://mapgive.state.gov/learn-to-map/ (video and written instructions)
*UN’s Humanitarian Data Exchange http://docs.hdx.rwlabs.org/ is a repository where data providers can upload raw data for use by others; it also includes a database of analytics and visualization tools.
***Appallicious launched Disaster Assistance Data Dashboard http://www.appallicious.com/daad/ ; through this dashboard, emergency managers and others can list resources/personnel available or needed during a disaster.
***Twilio.org http://www.twilio.org/ allows users to add contact information for individuals, set up groups of contacts, and provides the ability call in volunteers with just one click. Preparing and responding to a disaster is made simpler with the ability to use one tool to send out a blanket phone or text message.
***U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) representative Dr. Karen DeSalvo spoke on several current HHS projects:
*Now Trending http://nowtrending.hhs.gov/ is a web-based application which tracks more than 200 health terms on Twitter and displays the data in a variety of manners, including by geography and time-frame.
*Resilient Cities: The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (http://www.phe.gov/ ) works to ensure that communities reach and maintain health resilience in the face of disasters through a number of projects.
*MedMap incorporates data from many sources to enhance situational awareness, management of resources, etc. https://medmap.hhs.gov/medmap/index.html
*HHS is developing the At-Risk Resiliency Interactive Map, an open data interactive map for citizens requiring durable medical equipment. This map will allow individuals to enter their personal information about reliance on electricity, oxygen, etc., so that first responders will be aware of their needs.
***Nipper One: National Public Radio provides an emergency alerting system for deaf and hearing-impaired individuals that makes use of a telecommunications device that translates messages into onscreen text and flashes alert lights: http://www.nprlabs.org/node/67
***SF72 http://www.sf72.org/home, a hub for local community preparedness,was developed in San Francisco as a way to improve citizen involvement in personal preparedness. After the success of SF72, a toolkit was developed to allow other cities to copy this model: http://toolkit.sf72.org/. Johnson County, KS is currently developing JOCO72.
There was a lot of information presented at this event, and I feel fortunate to have had the opportunity to listen to so many talented and creative individuals share their ideas on disaster preparation and response. For additional information on these tools, see the White House publications:
· Demo Day Fact Sheet: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/white_house_innovation_for_disaster_response_-_2014-july29.pdf
· Recording of the presentations: http://youtu.be/X8eiXjbhfOc
*Selections from over 100 e-sources*
*Follow NLM_DIMRC on Twitter: http://twitter.com/NLM_DIMRC *
***National Protection Framework Released***
The National Planning Frameworks consists of five separate documents that describe how the whole community works together in preparedness, response and recovery to become a secure and resilient nation. They are the cornerstone for the implementation of Presidential Policy Directive / PPD-8: National Preparedness. The National Protection Framework was the last to be released; it describes what the whole community should do to safeguard against acts of terrorism, natural disasters, and other threats or hazards. It describes the core capabilities; roles and responsibilities; and coordinating structures that facilitate the protection of individuals, communities, and the Nation.
National Protection Framework http://www.fema.gov/media-library/assets/documents/97350
National Planning Frameworks: http://www.fema.gov/national-planning-frameworks
***Catalog of Courses with Public Health Preparedness and Response Core Competencies and Public Health Preparedness Capabilities ***
The Public Health Foundation (PHF) has compiled a list of courses that are integrated into their Learning Management System, TRAIN, that map to the Public Health Preparedness and Response Core Competencies and/or Public Health Preparedness Capabilities. This allows learners to search TRAIN by core competency or capability to find courses that meet their educational requirements in those areas.
Catalog of Courses:
http://www.phf.org/resourcestools/Pages/Annual_Catalog_of_TRAIN_Courses_with_Public_Health_Preparedness_and_Response_Core_Competencies_and_or_Public_Health_Capabil.aspx
***NIOSH Approved N95 Day***
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) celebrates September 5th (9/5) as N95 Day, a time to recognize the importance of respiratory protection in the workplace. Emergency Responders and First Receivers rely on their personal protective equipment (PPE), including their N95 masks, to keep them safe during and after disasters. You can find information and resources about N95 masks and PPE in Disaster Lit: Resource Guide for Disaster Medicine and Public Health.
DisasterLit: http://go.usa.gov/QhnJ
NIOSH-Approved Holiday: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/n95day.html
*N95 Day Webinar: Respirator Preparedness in Healthcare: Where Technology Meets Good Practices*
Friday, September 5, 2014
12:00 - 1:00 p.m. ET
This webinar focuses on the role of N95 respirators in protecting healthcare workers, including a review of use and stockpiling of respirators during influenza pandemics or other wide-spread outbreaks of infectious respiratory illnesses.
http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/resources/pressrel/letters/lttr-09052014.html
Required registration: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/npptl/Webinars/2014N95Day/
*** On the Lighter Side***
Pillowcase Project - Preparing Students for Disasters
The American Red Cross and the Global Disaster Preparedness Center are partnering to prepare school-age children at home and abroad for the next disaster. Using pillowcases and other culturally appropriate containers to hold emergency items like flashlights and bottled water, Red Cross staff and volunteers will teach life-saving preparedness lessons to students around the world.
http://preparecenter.org/activities/pillowcase-project-preparing-students-disasters
***New in DisasterLit***
http://disasterlit.nlm.nih.gov/latest/?pg=&pgSize=100&PubYear=&PubTypeID=&AuID=&SourceID=&ResearchDocument=&period=14