DHS/FEMA: Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program 2023 (Region 5)

The Department of Homeland Security – FEMA is seeking applications for its 2023 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program to encourage innovative regional solutions to issues related to catastrophic incidents, and builds on existing regional preparedness efforts.

Donor Name: Department of Homeland Security – FEMA

State: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin

County: All Counties

Type of Grant: Grant

Deadline: 07/24/2023

Size of the Grant: $3,000,000

Grant Duration: 36 months

Details:

The 2023 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP), as appropriated by the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2023 (Pub. L. No. 117-328), provides funding to close known capability gaps, encourages innovative regional solutions to issues related to catastrophic incidents, and builds on existing regional preparedness efforts. The purpose of the RCPGP is to build regional capacity to manage catastrophic incidents by improving and expanding collaboration for catastrophic incident preparedness. The National Preparedness System is the instrument the nation employs to build, sustain, and deliver core capabilities needed to achieve the goal of a more secure and resilient nation. Each community contributes to achieving the Goal by addressing the risks that are most relevant and urgent for them individually, which in turn strengthens the collective security and resilience of the nation. They do this through the National Preparedness System components of:

Identifying and Assessing Risk;
Estimating Capability Requirements;
Building and Sustaining Capabilities;
Planning to Deliver Capabilities;
Validating Capabilities; and
Reviewing and Updating.

Program Goals

The 2023 RCPGP also complements the 2022-2026 FEMA Strategic Plan which outlines a bold vision and three ambitious goals designed to address key challenges the agency faces during a pivotal moment in the field of emergency management. Wide-ranging and long-term, the goals defined in the plan respond to the changing landscape in which they find themselves. The goals to meet this challenge are:

Goal 1 – Promote and Instill Equity as a Foundation of Emergency Management;
Goal 2 – Lead Whole of Community in Climate Resilience; and
Goal 3 – Promote and Sustain a Ready FEMA and Prepared Nation.

In support of the above goals, the strategic priorities for the 2023 RCPGP are equity, climate resilience, and readiness. The 2023 RCPGP will promote and instill the goal of equity by helping members of particularly disadvantaged groups who might be at special risk as a result of current hazards, including those associated with climate change. By addressing the needs of underserved, at-risk communities, the 2023 RCPGP aims to ensure consistent and systematic fair, just, and impartial treatment of all individuals before, during, and after a disaster.

Objectives

The primary objective of the RCPGP is to build state and local capacity to manage catastrophic incidents by improving and expanding regional collaboration among emergency managers and other preparedness stakeholders. The National Response Framework (4^th Edition or superseding edition) defines a catastrophic incident as any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, or government functions. The regional interdependencies of effective prevention, protection, mitigation, response, and recovery activities require a cohesive regional approach to catastrophic planning, to include community-level stakeholder involvement to maximize both regional and community-level resilience.

Grant Priorities

In support of the 2022–2026 FEMA Strategic Plan, Equity, Climate Resilience, and Readiness continue to be the strategic priorities of the RCPGP. Also, in addition to being a required focus area, Housing is added as a priority. These priorities can also be viewed as strategic outcomes for RCPGP-funded projects. When developing their RCPGP project proposals, applicants should consider how the proposed project can address these priorities and produce meaningful results, using the 2022–2026 FEMA Strategic Plan as a guide.

Because the purpose of the RCPGP is to build state and local capacity to manage catastrophic incidents by improving and expanding regional collaboration across the whole community for catastrophic incident preparedness, this requires focusing RCPGP-funded projects on developing core capabilities that present persistent preparedness challenges, with specific focus on community-level resilience, and an emphasis on addressing the needs of disadvantaged communities and long-term vulnerability reduction within those communities. Additionally, consistent with previous years, housing remains a key focus area, especially through the lenses of equity, climate resilience, and readiness. Housing is also included as a strategic priority to emphasize its vital importance to the disaster recovery mission.

Focus Areas

Community Resilience
- Examples of Allowable Activities:
  - Partner with local community leaders, emergency managers, advocacy groups, and other key stakeholders to develop localized, risk-informed mitigation plans. Identify potential funding sources for essential mitigation activities. Develop unified, regional mitigation plan that addresses the needs of disadvantaged communities and other socially vulnerable populations and supports the local community mitigation plans.
  - Develop a plan to provide necessary outreach and training to leaders and other key stakeholders representing disadvantaged communities to enable and empower individuals and communities to make informed decisions to facilitate actions necessary to adapt to, withstand, and quickly recover from disasters.
  - Conduct outreach and training with local community leaders and partners to identify at-risk, disadvantaged communities, analyze their risks, capabilities, and needs, and address those needs as part of a broader planning project that aims to improve community-level resilience.
  - Partner with local community leaders, emergency managers, and other key stakeholders to exercise emergency operations plans to identify gaps in preparedness capabilities that affect the resilience of disadvantaged communities.
Long-Term Vulnerability Reduction
- Examples of Allowable Activities:
  - Conduct a comprehensive regional vulnerability assessment aimed at understanding the needs of disadvantaged communities and other socially vulnerable populations relative to identified capability gaps.
  - In coordination with local community leaders and other key stakeholders, analyze long-term vulnerabilities, including the predicted effects of ongoing climate change, affecting disadvantaged communities across the region and develop a plan for mitigating those vulnerabilities.
  - Conduct outreach and training with local community leaders and partners to identify at-risk, disadvantaged communities, analyze their long-term vulnerabilities, current capabilities, and long-term needs, and address those needs as part of a broader project that includes developing a plan for reducing vulnerabilities in affected communities.
Housing
- Examples of Allowable Activities:
  - Establish a resilient and sustainable housing market that meets the needs of the community, including the need for accessible and affordable housing in coordination with community development/housing entities and other key stakeholders.
  - Partner with local community leaders, community development officials, emergency managers, and other key stakeholders to integrate efforts and review applicable state and local housing assessments, like the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Consolidated Plans and Action Plans, which are designed to assess affordable housing and community development needs and market conditions, and to make data-driven, place-based investment decisions.
  - Conduct assessments of affordable housing stock to determine investment strategies to make existing housing more resilient to all hazards.
  - Develop a unified, regional housing plan that addresses the needs of disadvantaged communities and other socially vulnerable populations and supports the local community planning goals.
  - Develop a unified regional plan for upgrading existing housing stock to be more resilient to climate change and all hazards.
  - Develop a regional housing plan that addresses housing instability caused by changes in the climate and includes solutions to increase communities’ climate resilience.
  - Design new programs that incentivize and enable investment in resilient and affordable housing.
  - Develop a regional resilient housing committee that includes subject matter experts on vulnerable populations to support assessment and planning.
  - Identify and address gaps in resilient housing for communities with disabilities and/or access and functional needs as well as pet/animal sheltering.
  - Conduct trainings with regional partners on topics related to affordable housing and climate resilience.
  - Develop a unified regional plan for long-term housing after a catastrophic event that identifies and takes steps to rectify capability gaps related to increasing the number of people able to find and secure affordable and resilient long-term housing after a disaster focusing on populations more impacted by disasters.
  - In coordination with local community leaders and other key stakeholders, review existing disaster housing plans and update as needed to ensure compliance with the latest planning and disaster housing guidance with a focus on the needs of disadvantaged communities.