White House to Cut Funds for Homeland Security Grants?

"WASHINGTON - The Bush administration intends to slash counterterrorism funding for police, firefighters and rescue departments across the country by more than half next year, according to budget documents obtained by The Associated Press. ... Some grants criticized as wasteful".

Both sides of this debate are included in the complete article which can be found at: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22046131/

In The Event Of An Emergency - Emergency Alert Systems

Do you know about XM Channel 214 - Washington? The XM Weather and Traffic Station for the Washington DC area.

Through an agreement between XM and several local counties, Emergency Alerts will also be broadcast on this channel.

XM Channel 247 is also worth checking out as well, as a way to find out about larger scale emergencies and emergency messages from across the country. Additional information on that channel can be found here: http://www.xmradio.com/onxm/channelpage.xmc?ch=247

Did you ever wonder what other jurisdictions across the United States are doing? Check out this website: http://www.cybertelecom.org/security/eas.htm

Fairfax County - Best Practices In Your Own Backyard - A Look Back

Fairfax County Citizen Corps Takes Home The Award

Congratulations to Andrew Levy, 2007 Citizen Corps Leader of the Year as presented at the 2007 Virginia Public Safety Outreach Conference.

The Citizen Corps Leader of the Year is a "manager, coordinator or council member whether volunteer or career who exemplifies the Citizen Corps mission".


Pictured (from left to right) are:

- Brock Bierman. Director, DHS/FEMA Community Preparedness Division. Small State and Rural Advocate;

- Sharon Woo, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Citizen Corps & CERT Training and Outreach Coordinator;

- Suzanne Simmons, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Volunteer Coordination Program Manager; and

- Andrew Levy, Fairfax County Citizen Corps Council Chairman receiving the award.

Fairfax County Attends Virginia Public Safey Outreach Conference

On November 14-15, Members of the Fairfax County Citizen Corps Council, including representatives from the Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) attended the 2007 Virginia Public Safety Outreach Conference: Ready Virginia.

They also attended 2007 Virginia Citizen Corps Tidewater Training Day.

Best practices learned from other Citizen Corps Councils will be shared in the next few weeks on this blog.

Fairfax County in Emergency Management Update - TWICE

Fairfax County CERT trains area Boy Scouts

Members of the Fairfax County Emergency Response Team trained Boy Scouts at the George Mason District BSA "Camporee," Oct. 13-14 at the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy. The event focused on methods of effective disaster preparedness and mitigation, with a simulated hurricane recovery center that helped scouts earn emergency preparedness merit badges. CERT subject matter experts led scouts through various training and response scenarios and served as command and control staff, moulage technicians and logistical preparation staff.

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School emergency preparedness resources

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez released a set of guidelines to help educators and parents interpret federal privacy laws in an initiative prompted by the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. The Department of Education also released three brochures on privacy laws: one for K-12 educators, one for colleges and one for parents. They will be sent to schools, school boards and education associations.

A press conference for the initiative "Creating a Culture of Preparedness Among Schools" took place at Mt. Vernon High School in Alexandria, Va., with student representatives from the Fairfax County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Science program and the Fairfax County Citizen Corps Council.

A complete DHS list of emergency preparedness resources for schools is available at http://www.dhs.gov/schoolpreparedness.

Supporter of Citizen Corps Re-elected.

Congratulations to Gerry Connolly for being re-elected as Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. We look forward to your continued support and help to secure funding to maintain our programs.

From http://www.gerryconnolly.com/issues

Public Safety

Gerry Connolly knows that the first step in fighting crime is to prevent it. Last year, the crime rate in Fairfax County hit a 32-year low and, among the 50 largest jurisdictions, was the lowest in the nation. Our violent crime rate is half that of our neighboring jurisdictions.

- Put more police officers on the street and a police resource officer at every school
- Fought gangs by involving police, schools and the community in an anti-gang initiative that has reduced gang membership by half in our schools
- Initiated the Park Watch program
- Started the Safe Teen Driving initiative
- Strengthened Neighborhood Watch and Citizen Corps programs
- Chairs the Emergency Preparedness Committee for metropolitan Washington