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You are here: Home Winter 2012 - Volume 25, Issue 1 Winter 2009 Editorial Advisory Board: A Successful Model for Private-Public Partnerships

Editorial Advisory Board: A Successful Model for Private-Public Partnerships

Written by  PETER R. LAZ, MCBP Tuesday, 06 January 2009 13:19

The concept of private/public partnerships for emergency preparedness has received increased attention over the last decade or so. The first large-scale, methodical approach to formalize and structure such work between the two sectors at the community-wide level was “Project Impact,” which was established by FEMA, in the late 1990s. Since then, several useful models have been developed and applied to real-world emergency planning partnerships between public sector agencies and private sector businesses.

One such program is the “Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) Community Facilitation Program,” developed by Michigan State University and funded by the Training & Exercise Integration Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The program was developed at the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University (MSU) based on a study they conducted.

MSU wanted to collect and study best practices from private/public partnerships to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from critical incidents. MSU’s research was published as “Critical Incident Protocol: A Public and Private Partnership.” This document defines a model for collaboration between public and private sector leaders in planning for emergencies from an all-hazards perspective. A tenet of the model is that a community’s collective resources must unite to resolve the incident, whether it is a minor event or a major terrorist activity.

The publication’s success led to the development of the CIP Community Facilitation Program, which guides the partnership development necessary for successful joint critical incident management. Any city, county, or region in the United States can participate. Throughout the program, each sector exchanges information regarding the effectiveness of risk and threat assessment, as well as levels of preparedness and response. Sectors also maximize the sharing of available resources when responding to man-made or natural disasters. The ultimate goals of these partnerships are to establish an integrated and sustainable approach to emergency planning; initiate mitigation activities to prevent or reduce the degree of risk; and develop preparedness activities to increase response and recovery capabilities.



"Appeared in DRJ's Winter 2009 Issue"

Through the CIP program, MSU specialists travel to a community and lead two to four workshops over a period of 6 to 18 months, including:

1.    Overview of the CIP program (It helps communities decide to participate and is optional.)
2.    Orientation/planning workshop (Think of this as the partnership kickoff event.)
3.    Status workshop (This ensures progress and leads a risk assessment and is optional.)
4.    Tabletop exercise (Scenario-based, this interactive exercise requires public and private sectors to work together to address the situation. The tabletop exercise generates an after-action report that includes an improvement plan.)

Both sectors benefit from participating in the CIP facilitation program. Governmental agencies can improve their level of preparedness and response when they better understand private sector capabilities and needs. Businesses and non-profit entities are able to enhance their strategic planning, emergency planning, and business continuity plans once they are aware of the public sector’s priorities and capabilities. The direct benefits of enhanced planning are open communication and collaboration, which lead to smoother interaction during an event, which in turn enables a faster return to normalcy than would be realized without the partnership established “in peacetime.” Ultimately, the quality of life in the community increases through these partnerships because both sectors contribute to improving overall preparedness, mitigation, response, and recovery capabilities.

Participation in a Critical Incident Protocol (CIP) Community Facilitation Program is an excellent way to improve preparedness for your organization and community, regardless of which side of the public-private fence you are on. There is no cost to participating communities. The program is funded by the Training & Exercise Integration Division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security through a grant to Michigan State University. More information on this program is available at www.cip.msu.edu.

Peter R. Laz, MBCP, is a senior consultant with Forsythe Solutions Group and has more than 20 years experience designing and implementing disaster recovery, business continuity, and incident management programs. He is a member of the DRJ Editorial Advisory Board, Board of Director of PPBI, and program director of the New York Capital Region Chapter ACP. He can be reached at plaz@forsythe.com.

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