Emergency Support Function 15

In response to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina, there were a number of shortfalls that surfaced in interagency coordination and jurisdictional boundaries such as poor information sharing, confused relationships, unclear understanding of roles and responsibilities and leadership challenges. The Emergency Support Function (ESF) 15 Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) incorporates the following five components: Public Affairs, Joint Information Center (JIC), Congressional Affairs, Public Information Plans and Products, Intergovernmental Affairs, and the private sector aspects of external affairs. The purpose of the ESF 15 Communication Synchronization program evaluation phenomenological study is to understand the lived experiences of federal (to include military), state, and local interagency public affairs officers the FEMA VII U.S. Midwestern Region area of responsibility and to explore the effect of the ESF 15 communication synchronization during Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) operations. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION * Problem Background * Problem Statement * Purpose of the Study * Research Questions * Significance of the Research * Significance to Leadership * Limitations * Delimitations * Theoretical Framework * Operational Definitions * Summary * CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW * Communication Synchronization * National Response Framework * National Incident Management System * Public Information * Emergency Support Function 15: External Affairs * U.S. Army National Guard Dual Status Commander * DOD Critical Planning Factors to Support Domestic Law Enforcement Agencies * Crisis-Communication Strategy * Emergency Response and Business Continuity: The Next Generation in Planning * Information Intermediaries for Emergency Preparedness and Response: A Case Study from Public Health * Effective Emergency Management: A Closer Look at the Incident Command System * Hurricane Sandy Communication Synchronization Analysis * Theoretical Framework * Rational Choice Theory * Institutional Theory * Interagency Coordination Concepts * Whole-of-Government Approach * Inter-Organizational Collaboration Approach * Summary * CHAPTER 3 METHODOLGY * Research Questions * Research Design * Population, Sample, and Sampling Procedure * Population * Sample * Sampling Procedure * USARNORTH PAO * Fort Hood Public Affairs Detachment * FEMA Region VII PAO * Missouri National Guard PAO * State of Nebraska PAO * Douglas County PAO * City of Lawrence PAO * Location * Consent * Instrumentation * Procedures and Measures * Data Analysis * Methodological Assumptions, Limitation, and Delimitations * Methodological Assumptions * Limitations * Delimitations * Summary * CHAPTER 4 PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA * Purpose of the Study * Research Questions * Review of the Data Collection Procedures * Program-Related Documents * Open-ended Interviews with ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Stakeholders * ATLAS Software * Findings * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Stakeholder Impressions * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Stakeholder Personal Experiences * Supporting Question Results * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Understanding . * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Experience. * Summary * CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS * Purpose of the Study * Summary of Findings. * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Stakeholder Impressions. * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Stakeholder Personal Experiences * Supporting Question Results * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Understanding * ESF 15 Communication Synchronization Experience * Discussion * Ethical Concerns * Implications * Conclusions * Recommendations for ESF 15 SOP Stakeholder Leadership and Policy Makers * Recommendation for Future Study * Limitations * Summary * GLOSSARY * APPENDIX A STRUCTURED QUESTIONNAIRE * APPENDIX B INFORMED CONSENT

Course Overview The goal of this course is to provide basic training on the concept and practical application of the ESF 15 Standard Operating Procedures to all FEMA External Affairs staff, regardless of duty station, as well as to staff in all other agency divisions and federal, tribal, state, local, private sector, military and Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) partners. This course is offered as an Independent Study course, with an optional conference call session available to students who have additional questions. Students view videos online in conjunction with using the IS-250 course materials and web-based resources to complete the final exam online. Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, the participant will be able to have a better understanding of how ESF 15 is activated and how the External Affairs concept helps make incident communication more integrated, comprehensive and empowered. Primary Audience The course is intended for use by FEMA External Affairs staff and all federal agencies that are signatories of the National Response Plan (NRP). Additionally, state and locals partners that may adopt the External Affairs/ESF 15 concept may find this course helpful in its implementation.

This document was developed expressly for emergency management practitioners as an overview of the process, roles, and responsibilities for requesting and providing all forms of Federal assistance. This overview also presents a summary of each of the 15 Emergency Support Function Annexes and 8 Support Annexes including their purpose, capabilities, membership, and concept of operations. The complete annexes are contained in the online NRF Resource Center. For further information on how the Nation conducts incident response, refer to the National Response Framework.

This SOP establishes procedures and protocols for Emergency Support Function #15 External Affairs to support Federal domestic incident management during an incident requiring a coordinated Federal response. Emergency Support Function #15 integrates Public Affairs and the Joint Information Center (JIC), Congressional Affairs, Intergovernmental Affairs (State, Local, Tribal and Territorial), Planning and Products and the Private Sector under the coordinating auspices of external affairs. The JIC ensures the coordinated release of information. The Planning and Products component of external affairs develops all external and internal communications strategies and products for the ESF #15 organization. As of April 2013, the Community Relations function, formerly a component of ESF #15, is now executed by Disaster Survivor Assistance Teams (DSAT) in FEMA's Recovery Directorate. This version reflects the change and includes information on internal coordination with DSAT.

Meant to aid State & local emergency managers in their efforts to develop & maintain a viable all-hazard emergency operations plan. This guide clarifies the preparedness, response, & short-term recovery planning elements that warrant inclusion in emergency operations plans. It offers the best judgment & recommendations on how to deal with the entire planning process -- from forming a planning team to writing the plan. Specific topics of discussion include: preliminary considerations, the planning process, emergency operations plan format, basic plan content, functional annex content, hazard-unique planning, & linking Federal & State operations.

Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101 provides guidelines on developing emergency operations plans (EOP). It promotes a common understanding of the fundamentals of risk-informed planning and decision making to help planners examine a hazard or threat and produce integrated, coordinated, and synchronized plans. The goal of CPG 101 is to make the planning process routine across all phases of emergency management and for all homeland security mission areas. This Guide helps planners at all levels of government in their efforts to develop and maintain viable all-hazards, all-threats EOPs. Accomplished properly, planning provides a methodical way to engage the whole community in thinking through the life cycle of a potential crisis, determining required capabilities, and establishing a framework for roles and responsibilities. It shapes how a community envisions and shares a desired outcome, selects effective ways to achieve it, and communicates expected results. Each jurisdiction's plans must reflect what that community will do to address its specific risks with the unique resources it has or can obtain.

The Metropolitan Medical Response System (MMRS) program of the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) provides funds to major U. S. cities to help them develop plans for coping with the health and medical consequences of a terrorist attack with chemical, biological, or radiological (CBR) agents. DHHS asked the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to assist in assessing the effectiveness of the MMRS program by developing appropriate evaluation methods, tools, and processes to assess both its own management of the program and local preparedness in the cities that have participated in the program. This book provides the managers of the MMRS program and others concerned about local capabilities to cope with CBR terrorism with three evaluation tools and a three-part assessment method. The tools are a questionnaire survey eliciting feedback about the management of the MMRS program, a table of preparedness indicators for 23 essential response capabilities, and a set of three scenarios and related questions for group discussion. The assessment method described integrates document inspection, a site visit by a team of expert peer reviewers, and observations at community exercises and drills.

Assessment of Federal Emergency Management Agency's Emergency Support Function Roles and Responsibilities