Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) is one of the FEMA entities. It is situated in Anniston, Alabama. It provides training facilities for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) under its federally controlled training center by the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) <https://training.fema.gov/>. The CDP is dedicated to the cause of preparing and enabling residents to respond to all risky occurrences. The primary job of CDP is to shortlist, educate, evaluate, and provide practical training to responders for handling emergency situations. Responders can belong to local, state or tribal communities <https://cdp.dhs.gov/about/>.
The number of emergency responders has reached 11 million in America, as risks to its people from terrorism, man-made and natural calamities have increased. Quality response training is given to the respondents via CDP, which is a critical part of the Department of Homeland Security’s, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Incidentally, CDP reports to the director of the National Integration Center of the National Preparedness. Various courses run by the CDP are interdisciplinary for resident and non-residents, and are customized to sync with the requirements of healthcare response communities. This is accomplished by encouraging a higher understanding between 10 different emergency response subjects. The cost of training is funded by the Department of Homeland Security, which covers among others, training expenditure, providing of pick & drop via air and ground, besides offering boarding and lodging with meals. CDP takes extra effort in ensuring that training is provided by highly qualified experts who are the backbone of CDP. These instructors are resourced from major emergency response institutions of the nation. Quality of instructional training is ensured by keeping the student-instructor ratio low, also ensuring individualized training. Some courses are high-profile, as they finish on the note of providing actual and practical exercise, which is held at the center’s COBRA training location. It is a very critical facility of the nation, as emergency responders from non-military background are provided training in a very risky environment because of the use of toxic chemical agents there. The CDP also boasts of Noble Training Facility, the nation’s only medical care facility, reserved to instruct healthcare fraternity in disaster readiness and response. The area of the Noble Training Facility is 170,000 sq. ft., which is quite sufficient in offering and creating an actual scenario for attending to the healthcare needs of a huge number of affected people from contamination, for providing treatment as well as hospital management training (CPD Transcription 1).
Other than the training provided at Anniston, the CDP also offers training to non-residents through experts of the trade to responders’ local agencies without taking any charge from their jurisdiction. Learning is transferred to many other students by those who have got training at the CDP by benefitting through its Train-the-Trainer programs. These are local instructors who deliver their skills to their local populations after reaching home, as they have the sanction of the CPD to run its approved courses. As a training institute, the CDP has been efficiently fulfilling its responsibility given to it by FEMA to train graduates to hold, discourage, respond, and regain from the occurrences of terrorism and natural catastrophes at different levels. The federal government’s Domestic Preparedness provides an opportunity to the responders to attain the life-saving skills and behave confidentially to face the challenges that come in the way of emergency responders (CDP Transcription 1).
Emergency Management Institute
Emergency Management Institute (EMI) is yet another initiative of the DHS and FEMA to better empower the U.S. officials in managing critical situations, emerging from various catastrophes and emergency situations at different levels of the government to make the trained personnel ready to safeguard against, react to, heal from, and reduce the possibilities of any kind of misfortune and criticality on the American citizens. It is also the mission of EMI. These are the various functions and roles played by EMI:
EMI is a training institute, run by DHS and FEMA to control critical situations. EMI is stated to be the community’s leading training institution. It offers training at all government levels, including federal, state, local, as well as to tribal people, to volunteers, to public sector, and people in individual capacity, to prepare officers who can help in strengthening basic critical situation controls, thus, creating professionals by providing them durable training.
EMI provides direct support for enforcing the National Incident Management System (NIMS), the National Response Framework (NRF), the National Disaster Recovery Framework (NDRF), and the National Preparedness Goal (NPG) by transferring required knowledge and expertise and strengthen the nation’s capability.
The training programs run by EMI equip more than 2 million students each year. Training is provided onsite to residents as well as offsite in collaboration with emergency control training systems, colleges, universities. The training mediums are based on high-end technology to organize personal training courses for emergency control personnel, covering the whole nation.
EMI shares the campus location of the National Emergency Training Center (NETC), at Emmetsburg, Maryland <https://training.fema.gov/mission.aspx>.
EMI is an integral part of the hierarchical structure of FEMA. Any news bulletin regarding EMI activities is sent for release by FEMA. For example, FEMA informed about EMI’s Hazmat Rail Transportation Virtual Tabletop Exercise. FEMA informed about the features of EMI’s Virtual Tabletop Exercise (VTTX) program, informing that the scenario would be based on shifting of crude oil, to be held on specific dates in the month of May in 2016. The bulletin gives a glimpse of programs such as VTTX to assist people particularly to observe how a rail accident happened, as based on the happenings in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec; and the train tragedy in Montgomery, West Virginia. Such programs help in appraising plans, making policies, providing necessary training, and following procedures (FEMA Bulletin Week 1).
Especial about EMI training programs is that they provide robust training and expertise to the emergency personnel to confront challenges bravely. Developing a robust task force needs vigorous participation of the people who are given professional training to face emergency situations. These training programs are all-inclusive, as the instructors take their tasks seriously by designing, tutoring, and examining a number of such programs that provide primary-level and advanced-level technical learning skills. These programs are open for admission to the training professionals who organize instructional tutoring; create syllabus, and run these programs, to fulfill the need to create a professional workforce (https://training.fema.gov/tp/>.
The aim of the trainer program is to offer the training professionals a medium to get essential insight and expertise in different fields of the training profession. Certificates are also awarded after completion of the programs; one for the Basic Instructor Certificate and the other for the Basic Instructional Design Certificate (ibid).
National Training and Education Division (NTED)
The mission of NTED is also somewhat similar to the mission of CPD and EMI, to prepare first responders with class training by polishing their skills for managing after-reactions to disasters efficiently <https://www.firstrespondertraining.gov/content.do>.
Various more than 150 training courses are offered to first responders to develop life saving skills in the time of mass tragedies. Primary partners of these training programs, run by NTED, are regional, local and tribal people, enrolled in 10 professional courses. NTED has increased the learning horizon by admitting other stakeholder, such as private sector and residents in appreciation of the important part they played in showing domestic readiness (ibid).
Visitors to the page of NTED are greeted by FEMA, DHS, and NPD, which clearly indicate that whether it is NTPD, EMI or CDP, all these institutions are run and managed by FEMA; FEMA has decentralized its powers to manage the training needs of all stakeholders against natural and man-made threats (ibid).
Training methods at NTED are structured keeping an eye on course syllabus, coving issues such as weapons of mass destruction (WMD) terrorism, natural disasters, cyber-security, and agro-terrorism to make the residents ready for the challenges. Provision of training is versatile, as training methods used are distinct to learning needs, such as instructor guided, train-the-trainers, tailor-made and web-centric (ibid).
Works Cited
FEMA Bulletin Week of April 11, 2016. Emergency Management Institute Offers Hazmat Rail Transportation Virtual Tabletop Exercise. 2016. Accessed 14 April 2016 at
<http://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USDHSFEMA/bulletins/142b725#link_1460147722037>.
FEMA. Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP). Accessed 14 April 2016 at <https://training.fema.gov/>.
FEMA. Emergency Management Institute Mission. 2014. Accessed 14 April 2016 at <https://training.fema.gov/mission.aspx>.
FEMA. The Emergency Management Institute (EMI) Trainer Program 9/8/2015. Accessed 14 April 2016 at <https://training.fema.gov/tp/>.
DHS. CPD Transcription. Accessed 14 April 2016 at
<https://cdp.dhs.gov/pdf/transcripts/training-at-the-center-for-domestic-preparedness.pdf>.
DHS. The Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP) is committed to having an Emergency Response Community Prepared for and Capable of Responding to All-Hazards Events. 2015. Accessed 14 April 2016 at <https://cdp.dhs.gov/about/>.
NTED. National Training and Education Division (NTED). 16 March 2016. Accessed 14 April 2016 at <https://www.firstrespondertraining.gov/content.do>.
