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NLC Offers Emergency Management Training to Local Officials
02/24/09
Washington, DC – In the wake of recent disasters, such as Hurricanes Rita and Katrina and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, the National League of Cities (NLC) has created the NLC-Emergency Management Training Program, to provide in-depth emergency management training to local officials. The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) is collaborating with NLC on the project, with support from the Department of Homeland Security.
A series of pilot seminars will begin March 14-15 in Washington, DC, in conjunction with NLC’s annual Congressional City Conference. Subsequent pilot seminars are scheduled for May 8-9 in Chicago; July 13-14 in Mobile, Ala.; and September 21-22 in Bismarck, ND. The program is expected to offer several more seminars in 2010, focusing on metropolitan, rural and collaborative leadership.
Local leaders will learn their roles in emergency management and will receive an overview in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from any type of emergency, disaster or terrorist event.
Participants will learn to identify hazards unique to their community, analyze their community’s emergency management structure, find available resources to support the local official’s responsibilities before, during and after an emergency or crisis.
Each day-and-a-half seminar will address the four missions of emergency management: prevention, protection, response and recovery.
The program supports the Department of Homeland Security’s National Preparedness Goals of meeting specific national priorities of expanded regional collaboration, strengthening information sharing and collaboration and interoperability communications.
Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano recently issued an action directive requiring the Department of Homeland Security to work more closely with state, local and tribal governments. The Department will solicit input on critical infrastructure, grant making, interoperability, intelligence collection and dissemination and emergency services.
The National League of Cities is the nation’s oldest and largest organization devoted to strengthening and promoting cities as centers of opportunity, leadership and governance. NLC is a resource and advocate for 19,000 cities, towns and villages, representing more than 218 million Americans. www.nlc.org.
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