Individual Project 1

State A Strategic Planning Scenario Document

Your plan will be developed in accordance with the most recent guidance documents issued by DHS to the states, which are the 2005 State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy: Guidance on Aligning Strategies with the National Preparedness Goal; the 2007 National Preparedness Guidelines; the Homeland Security Institute’s Homeland Security Strategic Planning: Mission Area Analysis; and other federal guidelines, as well as any widely accepted best practices.

Project Steps

To complete this project, follow the steps below:

Step 1

Develop a strategy for completing the project as a group. It is extremely important that everyone in the group know their roles and responsibilities. You may want to consider assigning roles, such as group leader, researcher, editor, and writer. Most if not all group members will have to perform more than one role for the group to complete the assignment on time.

Step 2

Using the library, conduct a literature search for articles and other relevant information to this assignment. In preparing this assignment, you must incorporate a minimum of 3 scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources.

Step 3

Using the Internet, search for relevant information, including existing SHSSPs. Be careful to weigh both the timeliness and accuracy of this information before incorporating it into your project.

Step 4

Using the steps above, the results of your literature and Internet search, and course textbooks, prepare a draft plan of 4-5 pages entitled State A Homeland Security Strategic Plan in accordance with the following criteria:

• Apply best practices wherever possible in the plan development process.
• Align the strategic objectives that support state goals to the 7 identified national priorities:
  • Regional Collaboration
  • National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Framework (NRF)
  • National Infrastructure Protection Plan
  • Information Sharing and Collaboration
  • Interoperable Communications
  • Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) capabilities
  • Medical Surge and Mass Prophylaxis Capabilities
• Describe the strategies, goals, and objectives within the framework of the 4 identified mission areas:
  • Prevent
  • Protect
  • Respond
  • Recover
• Ensure the strategic planning process sufficiently takes the following into account:
  • Allowing local jurisdictions to participate in the planning process
  • Citizen preparedness and volunteer efforts
  • Regionalization and mutual aid

Step 5

Quality Control Questions: Use the following questions to check the quality of your work:

• Is the format of the SHSSP consistent with the guidance in the State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy: Guidance on Aligning Strategies with the National Preparedness Goal?
• Does the current SHSSP meet the update requirements found on page 7 of the State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy:Guidance on Aligning Strategies with the National Preparedness Goal?
• Does the SHSSP effectively incorporate the national priorities? More specifically, do the SHSSP’s goals and objectives align with the National Priorities? Make sure to use the most up-to-date guidance in the 2007 National Preparedness Guidelines and Homeland Security Strategic Planning: Mission Area Analysis.
• Does the SHSSP effectively incorporate the mission areas of prevention, protection, response, and recovery? Make sure to use the most up-to-date guidance in the 2007 National Preparedness Guidelines.

Individual Project 2

*The document I uploaded is for to assist with the assignment.*

You are a research analyst for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The department has received credible intelligence from the NSA, FBI, and Department of Defense that Al Qaeda is planning a biological attack using smallpox against Los Angeles, CA. Although the dispersal method is unknown, it is believed the most likely method will be airborne, through a populated shopping mall’s ventilation system. The lax security at these locations, coupled with a wide social and economic population sampling, will make identifying victims and stopping the spread of the disease difficult. The intelligence indicates that the attack is scheduled to occur within 7–10 days.

Your department has been tasked with reviewing historical incidents of smallpox, including academic assessments of its use as a biological agent for terrorism. Use the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s smallpox Web site as a guide to available resources and current planning (CDC Smallpox Information). With these tools, develop a communication plan that addresses the following:

Assignment Guidelines

• Revise and amend your Week 4 Key Assignment by adding what you learned in the Discussion Board posts following the task, as well as taking into consideration your instructor’s comments.
• Address the following with regard to the above information, and add your responses to your Key Assignment final draft:
  • Provide an overview of the threat (disease characteristics).
  • How can mass hysteria be prevented within the population?
  • What should the federal government share with the state, and can this information be controlled?
  • What should the federal government share with the city, and how can this information be controlled?
  • What should the federal government share with the nation?
  • When should information be disseminated to each recipient (state, city, and nation)?
  • What should be the characteristics of this information’s release to the public (consider medium, frequency, and timeliness)?
• Be sure to reference all sources using APA style