Festival Safety Assessments from the PAR project

The Performing Arts Readiness (PAR) project, supported by The Mellon Foundation, provides free emergency preparedness assessments for festivals and outdoor events featuring performing arts. At least five of these assessments are available between May 2023 and October 2025 at no cost to the recipient. These consultations, initially developed in partnership with Majestic Collaborations, are a part of the national PAR team’s work to raise awareness, increase resources, and provide training that addresses the unique needs of the performing arts community.

As part of this initiative, expert PAR consultants are available to conduct emergency preparedness assessments of festivals that cover topics including:

• Life safety, health, and public welfare
• Event waste reduction and management
• Cultural placekeeping
• Climate change resilience
• Legal concerns and emergency plans
• Mental and physical health first aid
• Crowd management
• Enhancing accessibility – physical and other
• Transportation issues
• Harm reduction, gender safety, and trauma-informed practices
• Emergency planning for non-traditional venues and immersive events

More information about the Festival Safety Assessments and a downloadable interest form are here on the PAR website.

Risk Sharing in humanitarian action: Discussing scope and partnerships Webinar, Apr 18

Thursday, 18 April 2024, 12 (noon)- 1pm CEST

Risk in humanitarian action encompasses various dimensions, including safety, security, fiduciary concerns, compliance, operational hurdles, data security, and ethical and reputational challenges. While many humanitarian actors are increasingly assessing and addressing these risks systematically, this is often centered around individual interests. Individual risk management may, however, inadvertently impact the whole humanitarian delivery chain and worsen or even create new risks for humanitarian partners. To address this concern, the Risk Sharing Platform developed a framework, suggesting a collective approach to risk in humanitarian action.

Register at: https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/w8h0i8

CHDS Recruitment Webinar, Apr 1

April 1, 2024, 09:00 AM Pacific/12:00 PM Eastern

On Monday, April 1, CHDS will conduct a national webinar that highlights the Master’s Degree, Executive Leaders, and Emergence graduate education programs. These programs are sponsored by FEMA and are created to increase the critical thinking and collaboration skills of local, state, tribal, territorial, military, federal, DHS, and relevant private sector officials.

When you can’t give your work force a raise or promotion, providing them with quality education programs is a tremendous way to attract and retain your talent.

Please share this with your networks and associations!

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Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82001149470?pwd=M2JhVnVkcWJ3Z0tCQ1Znc2d1bG11Zz09
Meeting ID: 820 0114 9470
Passcode: 712431

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Archiving Site Visits for performing arts organizations from the PAR project

The Performing Arts Readiness (PAR) project announces the availability of free Archival Site Visits to assist performing arts organizations with the care of their of historical programmatic materials, business records, and other important object and ephemera collections.  This service is supported by funding from The Mellon Foundation.
 
Six of these Archiving Site Visits are available between April 2024 and October 2025 at no cost to the recipient organization.  The Site Visit includes an onsite visit by a Consultant, development of a brief report, and the Consultant’s travel free of charge to the organization requesting the survey. These consultations are part of the national PAR team’s efforts to provide information and resources to address the preservation and disaster preparedness needs of the performing arts community.  Preserving organizational history allows researchers, patrons, and the public to access information about your organization’s unique stories.
 
The visits consist of a review of topics including: 

• Collection Condition Assessment
• Collection Storage Practices
• Building Condition
• Collection Security
• Policies and Procedures for Preservation
• Disaster Preparedness and Recovery

More information about this service and a downloadable interest form can be found here on the PAR website.

Please let us know if you have any questions about this new service,
Your friends at the Performing Arts Readiness project
PAR@Lyrasis.org
www.PerformingArtsReadiness.org

Updates to FEMAs Individual Assistance Program Webinar, March 26

FEMA’s Office of Business, Industry, and Infrastructure Integration is hosting the March Business and Industry call to March 26 from 3 – 4 p.m. ET. to showcase updates being made to FEMA’s Individual Assistance (IA) Program.

The updates are a significant step toward improving:

• The disaster survivor experience by simplifying processes.
• Removing barriers to services.
• Increasing eligibility for certain types of IA assistance. 

This virtual call is part of FEMA’s monthly business and industry calls, which are held on the fourth Tuesday of each month. These meetings update National Business Emergency Operations Center members, business and industry organizations and FEMA partners on available tools during all stages of the disaster lifecycle. Each month features different topics presented by experts from FEMA, interagency partners and business and industry organizations. 

Organizations interested in joining the Emergency Operations Center can visit the National Business Emergency Operations Center | FEMA.gov to learn more.

Details of the event are below: 

• Topic: FEMA’s Office of Business, Industry and Infrastructure Integration March Business and Industry Call
• Date: Tuesday, March 26
• Time: 3 – 4 p.m. ET
• Location: Virtual
• Registration Link: https://bit.ly/3V3ygOe

FEMA Public Assistance grant management system Webinar, March 20

FEMA is hosting a webinar and in-depth training to provide information and guidance and answer questions on its official system of record for Public Assistance grant activities on its Grants Manager and Grants Portal.

The webinar will be held virtually on March 20, from 12:30-4:30 p.m. EDT. The informational webinar will provide an overview and timeline of the decommissioning process of the agency’s Emergency Management Mission Integrated Environment (EMMIE) system.

The training will help enhance user experience with the system as the agency replaces EMMIE with the more modern, transparent, and accessible Grants Manager and Grants Portal systems. Join the March 20 training via this Zoom link with the passcode, EMMIE.

Ken Rudnicki, CEM passed away on March 8

With sadness, we announce the death of Retired Master Seargent Ken Rudnicki, CEM, who passed away on March 8, 2024. Following his twenty-four-year career in the Air Force, he continued serving the public as an emergency manager at the federal, state, and local levels in Virginia. Ken is survived by his wife, Lourdes Rudnicki; daughter, Annaliza; and son, Blain. A Mass was held on Tuesday, March 12, 2024, at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Gainesville, Virginia. The family request no flowers. If you want to make a memorial donation, the family suggests you consider the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation. Read the obituary.

Factors Impacting Hurricane Emergency Preparedness among Low-Income and Other Vulnerable Populations of Orleans and Jefferson Parishes Research Project

UNITY of Greater New Orleans (UNITY) and the Institute of Women & Ethnic Studies (IWES) are hoping to engage service providers, Southeast Louisiana residents, and weather, climate, disaster preparedness, experts to inform an important local research project to understand Factors Impacting Hurricane Emergency Preparedness among Low-Income and Other Vulnerable Populations of Orleans and Jefferson Parishes. We believe the results of this research will be an important advocacy tool for bringing about much needed disaster preparedness funding, resources, and support for vulnerable populations of Greater New Orleans. 

Purpose of the Study:
We seek to understand the natural disaster-related experiences of particularly vulnerable populations, including but not limited to unstably housed and economically disadvantaged individuals living in metro-New Orleans (Orleans and Jefferson parishes) and their emergency evacuation, sheltering, resource, and service needs in the event and immediate aftermath of hurricanes and storm-related impacts. In addition to speaking with local residents, we would like to speak with climate experts, emergency preparedness specialists, and those working in community resilience to understand the vulnerabilities of the Gulf Coast region, the weather-related implications of climate change, and resource and recovery needs of the region.

If you have any questions or concerns you would like to talk through, feel free to contact me, Jakevia Wheeler, IWES Director of Programs, at 504-599-7712 or 678-674-7814.

FEMA Technical Mapping Advisory Council Membership

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is looking for new members to serve a three-year term on the Technical Mapping Advisory Council (TMAC).  Members of the TMAC can make policy, mapping standards, and guidance recommendations to the Risk Mappings, Assessment, and Planning program (Risk MAP).

If you are interested, please contact Brian Koper at FEMA-TMAC@fema.dhs.gov

For more details, including how to apply and the open positions, please visit: https://lnkd.in/ePZvMYgN. 

IAEM-USA seeks nominations for Top 40 under 40 in emergency management

IAEM-USA is recognizing the Top 40 under 40 in emergency management who have demonstrated exceptional talent, leadership, and achievements. Any IAEM member who is under 40 years old may be nominated to be recognized for their career achievements and emergency management community involvement. Nominations close at close at 5:00 p.m. EDT on March 22. Visit the 40 under 40 web page for more information. If you have any questions, email IAEM Award Committee Staff Liaison Carol Tagliaferri at carol@iaem.com.