Federal & Private Agencies

FEMA: Federal Emergency Management Agency  (Home page) Beginning here, you can gain access to many other government agencies and their programs.

FEMA: Mission Statement:

According to the 2002 report by the agency, FEMA's mission is to "prepare for, mitigate against, respond to, and help individuals and communities recover from natural and man-made disasters."  Director Allbaugh's highest priority "was to assess how the Agency was accomplishing its mission and to chart a course for the future."  To accommodate its transition into the Department of Homeland Security, it set out to "achieve its new vision of a 'nation prepared' and promised to "work to prepare the nation for disasters by encouraging individuals, governmental entities, and public and private groups at all levels to become informed of the risks they face, to make decisions that help keep people, property, and institutions out of harm's way, and to posses the capability and knowledge needed to act when disasters occur."

US Fire Administration  Their mission is "to reduce life and economic losses due to fire and related emergencies through leadership, advocacy, coordination, and support."  This site will lead you to the many ways you can receive emergency preparedness training, prepare your home to reduce fire hazards, and recover from a crisis you have endured.

DHS: Department of Homeland Security  This website will keep you up-to-date on the latest security threats, point you in the direction of volunteering for your community to help them become prepared, and help you learn what our government is doing to protect us.  On February 10, 2004, Secretary Tom Ridge testified before Congress that DHS has "... strengthened airline security, increased vigilance at our borders and ports, forged unprecedented partnerships across the private sector and state and local governments, improved information sharing, launched robust efforts to engage citizens in preparedness efforts, and distributed funds and resources for our dedicated first responders."

CERT: Community Emergency Response Team  Your first step in the process of preparing your community to respond to a disaster, this FEMA-backed program started in California in 1988 and is already working in hundreds of communities in America and around the world.  On May 29, 2003, Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness and Response sent a press release telling us about the availability of "$19 million in grant money to train citizens to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities through local Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT)."

Citizen Corps  Another program backed by FEMA which asks you "to help your family and your community be safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to any kind of disaster."  This site links to several other sites/programs which will help you decide the volunteer program that will best work for you.

American Red Cross  A private organization with a long history of helping communities in times of need and disaster.  They offer excellent training in various aspects of First Aid, CPR, and AED (Automated External Defibrillator).  Their "Community Services" division includes "home delivered meals, food pantries, rides to medical appointments, homeless shelters, transitional housing, caregiver education and support groups, friendly visitors, Lifeline®, hospital/nursing home volunteers, fuel assistance, HeadStart, latchkey programs, language banks and many more."  In addition to the community services they offer, the website is a "knowledge encyclopedia" of emergency preparedness information.

Boy Scouts of America  & Girl Scouts of the USA  "The purpose of the Boy Scouts of America, incorporated on February 8, 1910, and chartered by Congress in 1916, is to provide an educational program for boys and young adults to build character, to train in the responsibilities of participating citizenship, and to develop personal fitness."  A great place to learn about training your children to be calm, prepared, and trained to handle emergencies as well as the responsibility of being a citizen in our communities.