Hello NCA Members,
(please share this with your network as appropriate)
As you may have heard, FEMA released their 2022-2026 strategic plan earlier this year. This plan highlights three priority goals:
· Goal 1: Instill equity as a foundation of emergency management
· Goal 2: Lead whole of community in climate resilience
· Goal 3: Promote and sustain a ready FEMA and prepared nation
You can read the full strategic plan here: https://www.fema.gov/about/strategic-plan
On April 4, FEMA released their Fiscal Year 2022 Fact Sheet for Homeland Security Grant Programs (HSGP). There is over 1 billion dollars in this grant program (keep this in mind, this number is important).
FEMA has outlined 6 National Priority Area Projects (NPAs) which include:
- Enhancing the protection of soft targets/crowded places
- Enhancing information and intelligence sharing and cooperation with federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security
- Combating domestic violent extremism
- NEW: Enhancing community preparedness and resilience
- Enhancing cybersecurity
- NEW: Enhancing election security
NPA #4 – Enhancing community preparedness and resilience. This is the important one for CERT.
There is a requirement that at least 12% has to be spent in the first 4 NPAs, with a minimum of 3% for each and a minimum of 30% across all 6 NPAs.
That means that community preparedness and resilience projects, like CERT programs, will have a minimum of 3% dedicated funding. 3% of 1 billion dollars is $30 million dollars! FEMA ICPD has said that they plan to highlight funding for CERT teams, specifically building and sustaining new teams in historically underserved communities, as a great example of how to fulfil this priority area.
You can view the fact sheet here: https://www.fema.gov/fact-sheet/fiscal-year-2022-homeland-security-grant-program-frequently-asked-questions.
The Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) will be released sometime in May. There will be more information coming out soon about this and I will provide an update once I learn more.
Lastly, during the 2022 National CERT Conference (August 18-20, 2022) this year, there will be two FEMA speakers. One of them will be Aaron Levy, Director of the Individual and Community Preparedness Division (ICPD) at FEMA Headquarters. ICPD is the division where CERT lives. On Friday, August 19, Director Levy will be giving a presentation titled: Supporting and Growing CERT in the 2020s: FEMA’s commitment to the CERT Community.
The other speaker from FEMA will be giving the Keynote address on Thursday, August 18th, 2022. Unfortunately, I am unable to say who it is yet. This will be a great opportunity to hear about FEMA’s thoughts and commitments to CERT and community preparedness live.
A lengthy update on the National CERT Conference will be released next week and should include the full pre-conference (7 training opportunities) and main conference agenda. You can learn more about the conference here: https://web.cvent.com/event/8c1d2e07-8447-4ce6-8a93-e57ec4cd3ca2/.
Thanks
-Suu-Va
MOCERTA 