1. Orange County Citizen Corps
Exercises
Presentation by:
Brenda Emrick
Community Education Officer Volunteer
Coordinator
City of Costa Mesa
Mary Jo Flynn
Emergency Management Assistant Director
City of Anaheim
3. What Sparked the Momentum
• Established the CERT
Mutual Aid Program
(CMAP) in 2006
• Conducted the County’s
first Volunteer Mutual Aid
Drill (VMAD)
• A few months later, the
program was activated for
the 2007 Santiago Fires
4. Our Next Steps
• Finalized a mutual aid
agreement with the
County
• Garnered the interest of
California Volunteers who
used our program as a
model for Disaster Corps
• Developed a training
program to address
lessons learned
5. The 3-Year Exercise Strategy
• First exercise was a
morning seminar and
afternoon tabletop
• Goal of the exercise
was to provide an
overview of each
program’s capabilities
and discussion based
TTX that identified the
capabilities of citizen
responders
6. 2010 Exercise Background
Planning
• Work with HSEEP guidelines
• Vendor Selection
• Citizen Corp Partners Planning Team
• TTX Scenario:
– Identify CC partners and their capabilities in a
simulated earthquake response
– Short and Long Term goals for response
– Training and outreach post response
7. Exercise Outcomes &
Challenges
• Costs & Logistics
• Planning Team Commitment
• Working with a Contractor
• Discussion vs. Action Oriented Event
• Lessons Learned
9. In Review:
A Building Block Approach
• Started with a small coalition of partners
within one of the Citizen Corps programs,
CERT
• Developed an agreement with the county
for volunteer mutual-aid
• Provided exercises and active experiences
and reviewed Lessons Learned
10. How We Did it in Review
• Involved key stakeholders and first
responder partners in the planning ,
delivery of the exercise and long term
citizen preparedness goals
• Allowed the key first responder colleagues
to offer information colleague-to-colleague
to build buy-in and trust
• Worked within “their” system to
incorporate Federal exercise planning
strategies and guidance to increase buy-in
11. Questions & Contacts
Brenda Emrick Mary Jo Flynn
• (714) 327-7406 • (714) 765-6955
• BEMRICK@ci.costa- • maryjflynn@anaheim.net
mesa.ca.us
• Anaheim Fire Department
• Costa Mesa Fire Emergency Management
Department Division
• 77 Fair Drive • 500 E. Broadway
• Costa Mesa, CA 92626 • Anaheim, CA 92805