June 1, 2020. Disaster Housing. Know before the crisis\disaster arises.

FEMA Releases Planning Considerations: Disaster Housing

FEMA released “Planning Considerations: Disaster Housing”. Housing recovery is the cornerstone of a community’s recovery and ultimate resilience. By helping survivors achieve sustainable housing after a disaster, state and local leaders move their communities toward stability and resiliency for future incidents.

The “Planning Considerations: Disaster Housing” document supplements “Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101: Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans” by providing guidance on national housing priorities, types of housing, key considerations and housing-specific planning recommendations that jurisdictions can apply when developing or improving housing plans. This planning document is a tool for use along with the Six-Step Planning Process described in CPG 101.

Although the document is not specific to any particular threat or hazard, many of the concepts, principles and resources contained in the guide can be applied to coronavirus (COVID-19) response and recovery efforts.

To view the guide, visit https://www.fema.gov/plan. Contact FEMA at NPD-Planning@Fema.dhs.gov for any questions or support on the document.

Virtual Town Hall. LULAC’s Together With Puerto Rico. June 2, 2020 7pm ET

View as web page

LULAC’s Together With Puerto Rico Virtual Town Hall With Special Guest, Senator Tim Kaine Tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2 7 p.m. EST / 6 p.m. CST / 4 p.m. PST Register Here! LULAC's Together With Puerto Rico Virtual Town Hall will focus on how Puerto Rico has been impacted by the novel coronavirus and why it is important to prioritize the needs of the island in the next stimulus package. Congress needs to act to address the needs of Puerto Rico during this health and economic crisis. Join us to learn how we can support Puerto Rico, and work with our members of Congress to ensure a fair COVID19 Stimulus Relief. Moderator: • David Cruz, LULAC Communications Director Panelists: • Domingo Garcia, LULAC National President • Sindy Benavides, LULAC CEO • Tim Kaine, U.S. Senator (D-VA) • María "Mayita" Meléndez, Mayor of Ponce, Puerto Rico • Denise L. Santos, President, Banco de Alimentos de Puerto Rico • Michelle M. Hernández De Fraley, PH.D. , Colonel (Retired) Juntos con Puerto Rico Asamblea Virtual Invitado Especial: Senador Tim Kaine Mañana martes 2 de junio 7 p.m. EST / 6 p.m. CST / 4 p.m. PST ¡Regístrese aqui! El evento virtual de LULAC Juntos con Puerto Rico se enfocará en como Puerto Rico ha sido impactado por el nuevo coronavirus y por qué es importante priorizar las necesidades de la isla en el próximo paquete de estímulo. El Congreso necesita actuar para enfrentar las necesidades de Puerto Rico durante esta crisis económica y de salud pública. Acompáñenos para saber como podemos apoyar a Puerto Rico, trabajar con nuestros congresistas y asegurar un paquete de ayuda y estímulo justo. Moderador: • David Cruz, Director de Comunicaciones de LULAC Panelistas: • Domingo Garcia, Presidente Nacional de LULAC • Sindy Benavides, LULAC CEO • Tim Kaine, Senador (D-VA) • María "Mayita" Meléndez, Alcaldesa de Ponce, Puerto Rico • Denise L. Santos, Presidenta, Banco de Alimentos de Puerto Rico • Michelle M. Hernández De Fraley, PH.D. , Coronel (Retirado) # # # About LULAC The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) is the nation’s largest and oldest civil rights volunteer-based organization that empowers Hispanic Americans and builds strong Latino communities. Headquartered in Washington, DC, with 1,000 councils around the United States and Puerto Rico, LULAC’s programs, services and advocacy address the most important issues for Latinos, meeting critical needs of today and the future. For more information, visit www.LULAC.org.

Are you part of the solution or part of the problem? "...A nation that is healthy and equitable for all" June 1, 2020

In this week’s COVID-19 and Race Commentary, the fight for transformative justice, Black liberation, and a nation that is healthy and equitable for all. Issue No 8. June 1, 2020 We Hurt. We Mourn. We Fight For Transformative Justice. By Michael McAfee We hurt because this nation chooses to not value Black Lives. We mourn because George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, and too many others are victims of state-sanctioned murder. Too many of our revered leaders and their institutions have routinized the ceremony of mourning Black death in America. Their platitudes fall flat. There will be no peace or justice until our nation atones for founding a country on stolen land and human bondage — a nation that still steals from and binds millions of people in America to a government and economy that oppresses them. Since policing will always threaten our most fundamental right — the right to live — it must be abolished. To silence justifiable outrage, too many people selectively quote Dr. King’s messages of non-violence without comprehending the meaning behind quotes like “riots are the language of the unheard.” It’s time that we listen to those who are most burdened by structural racism and have the courage to do what must be done — abolish White supremacy, dismantle its institutions and systems, and build new, liberating institutions and systems. It is time to remove the knee of this nation’s oppressive laws, regulations, institutional practices, and cultural representations off of the necks of Black people. There can be no compromise. Even as we hurt and mourn, we fight for transformative justice from a nation that must come to grips with the fact that its fate is inextricably bound with Black America. It is time for a national effort to remake this nation into one that is equitable for all. If there is a silver lining to this moment, it is a growing acknowledgment that traditional police reform — like training and body cameras — does not increase community safety and directs too many resources to bloated law enforcement budgets. Across the country, more people are demanding that these valuable public funds be invested in community infrastructure, services, and programs that address the root causes of poverty and historical trauma. The nation is waking up to the fact that — by design — policing is and will always be violent and unaccountable to oppressed people, including Black, Indigenous, and Latinx people, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and Muslims and other religious groups.  The project of abolition involves more than eliminating the system — it means using our radical imagination to dream and create the world that we want to live in. But there are things we can do now. We must immediately defund from and reduce the harm of policing while we build the alternatives that can replace it, such as those that could be developed through the CRISES Act in California. This is a challenging mandate, but it is necessary and possible. Over the past four years, PolicyLink has partnered with a large and growing number of organizations, including those led by directly impacted communities, to design and build a new system that will keep all communities safe and healthy without criminalization, surveillance, or punishment.  Abolishing the structure of policing is but one liberating act. There are others. To win on equity, we must center the very people our systems and institutions have treated as expendable — Black people. Acting with a consciousness in which we see the interactive effects of discrimination, subjugation, and disempowerment on the lives of Black people and how they are baked into our policies, practices, and institutions. We must also stand in solidarity with those seeking Black liberation and act on the demands of coalitions of directly-impacted people, like the Movement for Black Lives. Be disgusted at what you see from the police. Be even more disgusted by the repeated, purposeful refusal of our country to respond to what Brother Howard Thurman describes as the demands of the disenfranchised, disinherited, and dispossessed. We have reason to be hopeful if we heed Dr. King’s exhortation to break free from the “intoxicating drugs of white supremacy mixed with gradualism” and usher in an era of Black Liberation. - Michael McAfee is President and CEO of PolicyLink Highlights from the News, Analysis, and Commentary “Racism is an ongoing public health crisis that needs our attention now,” Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association, says in a statement responding to the killing of George Floyd and a pandemic that has accelerated racial inequities in every realm of life.  “The convergence of these tragic events — a pandemic disproportionately killing Black people, the failure of the state to protect Black people and the preying on Black people by the police — has confirmed what most of us already know: If we and those who stand with us do not mobilize in our own defense, then no official entity ever will,”  Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor writes in a New York Times op-ed. More Curated News, Analysis, and Commentary >> Please share with your networks, send your ideas and feedback, and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram using hashtag #COVIDandRace. We hope you find the COVID-19 and Race Series an important tool for keeping up with news about the virus and its impact on communities we serve. As a nonprofit organization, PolicyLink is honored to provide resources to support the needs of our nation's 100 million economically insecure individuals. Generous partners like you make our work possible.

June 1, 2020 FEMA Advisory. Coronavirus Pandemic: Whole-of-America Response

FEMA ADVISORY – June 1, 2020

Coronavirus Pandemic: Whole-of-America Response

---

Attached you will find today’s FEMA Daily Briefing Points for the Whole-of-America response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. These briefing points include Topline Messages, as well as information By the Numbers; Supply Chain Task Force; FEMA and Department of Health and Human Services Response; and Guidance from Federal Agencies.

Topline messaging includes:

·       On June 1, HHS announced a task order with Emergent BioSolutions to advance manufacturing capabilities for a potential COVID-19 vaccine as well as therapeutics.

• The task order, worth approximately $628 million, falls under an existing contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.
• Under the order, Emergent will commit contract development and manufacturing organization drug substance and drug product manufacturing capacity valued at approximately $542.75 million for production of COVID-19 vaccine candidates through 2021.

·       On May 30, the FDA took steps to further support the development of COVID-19 tests for at-home self-collection by posting a voluntary emergency use authorization (EUA) template for at-home sample collection kits to its website. The template outlines the data and information that developers should submit to facilitate the EUA process.

·       As of May 31, FEMA has made 7,158 deliveries of medical supplies to nursing homes to all 53 states and territories. FEMA is coordinating two shipments totaling a 14-day supply of personal protective equipment to all 15,400 Medicaid and Medicare-certified nursing homes. The shipments are meant to supplement existing efforts to provide equipment to nursing homes.

·       As of May 31, FEMA, HHS, and the private sector combined have coordinated the delivery of or are currently shipping: 92.1 million N95 respirators, 146.1 million surgical masks, 12.8 million face shields, 35 million surgical gowns and over 1 billion gloves.

·       To support the Administration’s Testing Blueprint, FEMA is working to source and procure testing material – specifically, testing swabs and transport media.

• FEMA has procured and delivered 13.1 million swabs and 8 million units of media so far in the month of May.
• The FEMA-sourced material will be provided to states, territories and tribes for a limited duration to help increase testing capacity in support of their individualized plans.

·       As of May 31, CDC, state, and local public health labs and other laboratories have tested more than 16.7 million samples.

As of May 29, the FDA has issued 114 individual emergency use authorizations (EAU) for test kit manufacturers and laboratories, including 12 antibody tests and one antigen test. 

2014 to 2020. The plans were in place. U.S. National Response Team (NRT) Emergency Responders Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) system

Emergency Management Personnel,

We would like to introduce the U.S. National Response Team (NRT) Emergency Responders Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) system, coordinated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). We are sending this to you because we know you share our mission to protect American workers. The ERHMS system provides guidelines for protecting emergency responders involved in various types of emergencies and settings and can be used by anyone involved with the deployment and protection of emergency workers.

The attached Portable Document Format (PDF) flyer provides information pertaining to ERHMS and FREE training courses that are now available online. ERHMS training courses include the following:

·       Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) System

o   Provides the necessary tools for implementing health monitoring and surveillance of emergency response workers.

o   Outlines important procedures for pre-deployment, deployment, and post-deployment.

o   Offers continuing education credits for those who complete the course. Credits include: CEU/CE; CHES; CME; CNE Contact Hours; Pharmacist Contact Hours; and AAVSB/RACE.

o   All emergency response coordinators are encouraged to take this course.

·       Emergency Responder Health Monitoring and Surveillance (ERHMS) System: Leadership Training

o   Introduces the ERHMS system to leaders in organizations responsible for planning and executing incident response activities.

o   Optimizes the health and safety of response, remediation, recovery, and volunteer workers.

o   The intended audience includes local, regional, state, tribal, and federal personnel who are responsible for the occupational safety and health of responders.

o   Offers 0.1 continuing education units for completing the course. 

We hope that you take advantage of the valuable information provided and participate in the training course offerings. We encourage you to visit the ERHMS website at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/erhms/.

Please pass this information on to others you know aiding in emergency preparedness and response.

Funding Opportunities. Grants.gov and others. May 2020

Finding Grant Programs

If you are just entering the realm of grants and government funding, it can feel overwhelming trying to find the right program for you or your organization. When considering grants, these programs can be broadly categorized as those awarded by the federal government and those awarded by non-federal entities. Within these two categories are a variety of funding sources and program types.

Federal Grants, Funding & Benefit Programs

To sort through the federal grant programs, the authoritative source is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA). This catalog lists all of the available funding programs to all levels of government, nonprofit organizations, for-profit businesses, and other eligible entities. Search Grants within Grants.gov allows you to search, filter, and apply for specific opportunities to receive funding from one of these programs.

Non-Federal Grant Programs

There are a large number of nonprofit organizations and for-profit businesses that also provide grants or other types of funding assistance.

Note: The information below is not exhaustive, and Grants.gov is not affiliated with, nor endorsing, any of these resources. They are provided as a convenience to prospective grant applicants.

The Foundation Center  maintains a comprehensive database on U.S. and global grant-makers and their funding opportunities. It also operates research, education, and training programs designed to advance knowledge of philanthropy at every level.

The Funding Information Network  facilitates access to grant resources and publications to under-resourced entities and populations.

State and regional directories can also be found with some research. Try using the Community Foundation Locator  to find a grant-making foundation in your region. You may also use your preferred web search engine to find your state's grant or foundation directory. Local libraries may have access to subscription-based search engines or the Foundation Center Cooperating Collections, so visit your library to work with them for assistance.

https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/learn-grants/grant-programs.html

Systems Failure. Answer for Change in Law Enforcement, Monitoring, and Oversight. May 2020

Systems Failure:  The Failure of Law Enforcement to Serve and Protect

With the same fervor and expediency that created the organization and structure at the Federal level for the Department of Homeland Security. This fervor change must also be conducted with great expediency at the Federal, State, County, City, townships, and other jurisdictions for the establishment of a new law enforcement model in the the U.S.

Communities will continue to lose trust in law enforcement if changes across the board are not enacted.

Now is the time for Federal Elected Officials, Governors, Mayors, City Council members,, Law Enforcement officials, and community members to make the change. 

We must proceed with a change across the board, or members of the community.  Vulnerable members, the 'whole community' will foresee 'business as usual' in both the Courts, and Law Enforcement.

Why does BEMA International comprised of homeland security, emergency management, Fire\EMS, Law Enforcement members voice this concern for change? 

The profession of law enforcement plays a key role in all phases of emergency management (preparedness, planning, response, recovery, mitigation) within the incident command system (ICS).

             https://www.emergency-management-degree.org/faq/what-role-does-law-enforcement-play-in-emergency-management/

WHAT ROLE DOES LAW ENFORCEMENT PLAY IN EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT?

Without the trust, credibility, and transparency in our law enforcement profession and changes needed for 2020 and beyond.  A ‘business as usual’ approach will be the norm.

To our elected officials make the change.

Sincerely,


Charles D. Sharp

Charles D. Sharp                                                                                             Cornell University Climate Fellow                                                                  Chairman Emeritus\CEO                                                                              Black Emergency Managers Association International                                     1231-B Good Hope Road.  S.E.                                                                     Washington, D.C.  20020                                                                               Office:   202-618-909                                            bEMA International

“We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today.  We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.  In this unfolding conundrum of life and history there is such a thing as being too late.  Procrastination is still the thief of time.  Life often leaves us standing bare, naked and dejected with a lost opportunity.  This may well be mankind’s last chance to choose between chaos or community.”   Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., ‘Where Are We Going From Here:  Chaos or Community’. Cooperation, Collaboration, Communication, Coordination, Community engagement, and  Partnering (C5&P)             A 501 (c) 3 organization.

National Caribbean American Heritage Month - Massachusetts” on June 1, 2020 at 6pm

Massachusetts Celebrates National Caribbean Heritage Month. Since 2006, June has been designated as National Caribbean American Heritage Month by Presidential Proclamation. Caribbean American have contributed to the development of the United States in extraordinary ways. Millions of people in the United States are connected to our Caribbean Neighbors. Join us on a virtual launch “National Caribbean American Heritage Month - Massachusetts” on June 1, 2020 at 6pm.  Massachusetts State Governor Proclamation along with the following cities proclamation - Boston, Brockton, Cambridge. Guest Speakers: Massachusetts Governor Representative, Mayor Robert Sullivan City of Brockton, Councilor President Kim Janey City of Boston, Councilor Julia Mejia City of Boston, Councilor Quinton Zondervan City of Cambridge, Councilor Gerly Adrien City of Everett, Councilor Natacha Clerger Town of Randolph, Councilor Ken Clifton Town of Randolph and Dr. Claire Nelson of the Institute of Caribbean Studies.

LIVE PERFORMANCE BY BECKY BASS

Becky Bass, hailing from St.Croix, US Virgin Islands, is a renowned vocalist, steel drummer & actor.  A two-time New England Urban Music Award winner, Becky’s beautiful, angelic voice and skillful steel pan playing can now be heard while performing her Caribbean Soul music as a solo artist as well as with several bands all over the New England area.

Register

National Black Police Association. Taking a Stand. May 2020

BEMA International shall stand with the National Black Police Association (NBPA), and Black Fire Brigade (Chicago).

Charles D. Sharp
Chairman Emeritus\CEO
Cornell University Climate Fellow
Black Emergency Managers Association International
Washington, D.C.

Condemn, Condon, or Practice. Which are you? May 2020

Killing of Black Males, Females, LatinX, and others of color.

Is this prevalent throughout Law Enforcement in the U.S.?

Those within the Law Enforcement community MUST STAND UP and say 'No more'.

You either condemn, condon, or practice.

Which are you?

BEMA International

https://www.npr.org/2011/03/29/134956180/criminals-see-their-victims-as-less-than-human

'Less Than Human': The Psychology Of Cruelty

March 29, 20111:00 PM ET

Heard on Talk of the Nation