FEMA has announced it will accept applications from state, local, tribal, and territorial government organizations seeking exercise support from January 4 to March 1, 2024. As WaterISAC has previously emphasized, exercises are an important part of a preparedness program, helping organizations build, improve, and validate their incident response and recovery capabilities.

Preparing for and conducting an exercise oftentimes requires a significant amount of time and resources, and FEMA can help by providing assistance with planning, design, scenario development, conduct, and evaluation, all of which is tailored to the needs of the organization. What’s more, this support will bring the expertise of FEMA’s National Exercise Division (NED) to bear on an exercise, ensuring important exercise principles and best practices are being adhered to. FEMA welcomes applications from all state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, adding that it urges new applicants, especially those from underserved jurisdictions. There is no associated cost share for selected jurisdictions for this exercise assistance. FEMA’s NED accepts exercise support requests once each year, for next year from January 4 to March 1. It will notify applicants regarding the status of their exercise support request by the end of June. Read more at FEMA.

In addition to visiting the webpage above, interested parties can attend a FEMA in webinar in January to learn more this program and the application process. FEMA will host webinars on January 9, 11, 16, 18, 22, and 24 – each webinar will cover the same content. Register at FEMA.