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AHC 2011 REGIONAL UASI AND PLANNING WORKSHOP FINDINGS REPORT ANNOUNCED

Report Provides Regional Stakeholders with Baseline Results from Coordinated Efforts Between Government and Private Sector

Frederick, Md., May 4, 2011 – The All Hazards Consortium (AHC) today announced its Summary Findings Report for the 2011 Regional Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) and Planning Workshop. The report provides regional stakeholders with baseline information and terms relating to key regional public/private initiatives. The report’s findings will promote awareness, education and integrated planning/systems to better coordinate research efforts and future projects. The 2nd Annual Regional UASI and Planning Workshop was the first AHC workshop to operate under the AHC’s new integrated planning and coordinated investment approach to integrate the private sector owners/operators into planning and project development efforts.

Held on March 21-22, the AHC states and urban areas from the Mid-Atlantic and North East Regions focused on coordinated planning and projects between government and private sector owners/operators. Specific attention was paid to catastrophic event planning, fusion centers/information sharing, infrastructure protection and regional collaboration. The workshop aimed to address longstanding issues in understanding the risks, needs, priorities and improving collaboration between public and private stakeholders.

Major themes within the workshop focused on Partnerships - beginning to define and develop a mutually beneficial relationship between the industry sectors, state/local government, and federal government partners; Projects – to focus on what projects organizations are currently spending their money/resources on instead of what they might do in the future; Dialogue – facilitate a two-way discussion on projects, gaps, opportunities for partnerships in planning and future projects; Coordinated Planning – beginning to form a regional framework that supports joint planning sessions and coordinated project support/investment and Sustainment – sustaining the conversation between all parties on the important issues year round.

“For any community, state and region to have an effective capability to respond to and recover from a major disaster, emergency or catastrophic event , it requires planning that includes not only the public sector, but private, too,” said Tom Moran, Executive Director, AHC. “This includes all areas of the private community, from small businesses necessary for community resiliency to large owners and operators of facilities and the systems necessary for overall long-term recovery.”

The released report captures project related information, gaps and recommendations, opportunities and next steps. Please visit www.ahcusa.org to download the full report, or contact the AHC at info@ahcusa.org for more information.

For more information, please visit: www.ahcusa.org.


About the AHC:
The All Hazards Consortium (AHC) is a 501c3 non-profit organization guided by the regional states of North Carolina, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. The AHC’s mission is to convene, facilitate and document a sustained process of interactions between states to help create new resources and funding opportunities for the states to address key and timely multi-state issues. Formed in 2005, the AHC continues to build a network of people and organizations from government, private sector, higher education and non-profit/volunteer organizations that work together on common problems facing the multi-state region. For more information about AHC activities and events, please visit www.ahcusa.org