HSEEP. If you’ve never heard of it, the acronym stands for the Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program. It’s essentially FEMA’s set of guiding principles for emergency management’s exercise programs. And, it’s based on six fundamental concepts for the management and execution of exercise programs. These concepts are/have:
- Guided by Elected and Appointed Officials – Provides overarching guidance and direction for the exercise and evaluation program, as well as specific intent for individual exercises.
- Capability-based and Objective-Driven – Means exercises focus on assessing participant’s knowledge of plans, processes and procedures against the 32 core capabilities.
- A Progressive Planning Approach – Aligns with a common set of exercise program priorities and objectives with an increasing level of complexity over time.
- Whole Community Integration – Encourages exercise planners, where appropriate, to engage the whole community throughout exercise program management, design and development, conduct, evaluation, and improvement planning.
- Informed by Risk – Associates all-hazards impacts, helping organizations identify priorities, objectives, and core capabilities to be evaluated through exercises.
- A Common Methodology – Enables organizations of divergent sizes, geographies, and capabilities to have a shared understanding of exercises from start to finish; also fosters exercise-related interoperability and collaboration.
As expected, FEMA believes exercises are a key component of overall national preparedness. The Agency’s website says, “they [exercises] provide elected and appointed officials and stakeholders from across the whole community with the opportunity to shape planning, assess and validate capabilities, and address areas for improvement.”
In other words, HSEEP will benefit everyone, whether you’re from the public or private sector, conducting activities on a small or large scale, or participating in discussion- or operations-based exercises like the following: