Reposted from PAR

The Performing Arts Readiness (PAR) project is offering the free emergency preparedness webinars listed below that are tailored to the needs of performing arts organizations. The better prepared an organization is, the more quickly and effectively it can respond to emergencies and crises, re-open for performances and programs, and return to normal operations. Webinars:

Fire Safety and Preparedness for Performing Arts Organizations, Tuesday, March 4, 2025, 3:00-4:30ET
Description: Fire Safety is an essential element in the day to day preparedness of any organization, especially in the unique environment of the performing arts. In addition to sound emergency management principles, the application of National Fire Protection Association Standards (NFPA) will ensure that a comprehensive protection plan is developed in cooperation with appropriate emergency response partners. This free webinar will provide fire safety considerations and introduce best practices from the fire protection industry, which offers a road map to achieve fire safety benchmarks. Participants will learn how the Life Safety Code and the Code for Protection of Cultural Resource Properties can help you protect your patrons, staff, and facility.
Instructor: Chris Soliz

Fire and Emergency Protection Plan Development, Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 3:00-4:30ET
Description: Participants in this webinar will be presented with the components of a Protection Plan and the process to follow for the development of a plan following guidelines provided by the National Fire Protection Association’s Code for Protection of Cultural Resource Properties. Grounded in a vulnerability assessment, the planning process covers fire safety, security, construction considerations, prevention, special events, and recovery strategies. At the completion of this webinar, participants will have the tools needed to begin developing is a significant step towards a resilient organization.
Instructor: Chris Soliz

Event Preparedness: Active Shooters and Hostile Activity at Your Venues, Tuesday, March 18, 2025, 2:00-3:30ET
Description: In recent years we have seen an increase in hostile attacks across all sectors, including events. These attacks have come in a variety of methods. Performing Arts and Cultural Heritage organizations must be prepared for all scenarios and need to be able to react to all emergencies. This webinar will cover the types of attacks to prepare for, as well as the training you should consider for your venues and staff. Our instructor, Emma Stuart, also presents the “Safety and Security for Performing Arts,” “Road to Recovery: Performing Arts During COVID,” and the “Pandemic Response for Performing Arts Organizations” webinars for the PAR project.
Instructor: Emma Stuart

Risk Assessment for Performing Arts Organizations, Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 2:00-3:30ET
Description: Natural disasters, local emergencies, and other disruptive events can have devastating effects on all sizes of performing arts organizations. This webinar will focus on mitigating risks at institutions, to prevent disasters from happening and to reduce the impact of unavoidable disasters. The session will clarify the need for risk assessment as a part of an organization’s disaster preparedness strategy, provide basic information on risk assessment tools and practices, and address how risk assessment can benefit performing arts organizations. The instructors will also present case studies as a part of the session, so participants can learn from actual disasters in performing arts organizations.
Instructor: Tom Clareson

Networking for Disaster Management in the Performing Arts, Thursday, March 20, 2025, 2:00-4:00ET
Description: Emergency response and preparedness for performing arts organizations can be a difficult task for individual organizations. This free 2-hour webinar will demonstrate how working with multiple organizations in a network for disaster management can be accomplished. The history of networking for improved emergency preparedness in the cultural heritage, arts, and government sectors will be examined, with an exploration of existing networks. Case studies of the Pennsylvania Cultural Resilience Network and CultureAID in New York City will be presented to help guide you on how to start your own, or join an existing, cooperative disaster network. You will learn how to use the Cultural Placekeeping Guide to direct your networking efforts.
Instructors: Tom Clareson and Amy Schwartzman

Health and Safety in the Performing Arts, Tuesday, March 25, 2025, 2:00-3:30ET
Description: Safety in the theater extends to crews, casts, and audience members as well as the venue. This includes performance and rehearsal spaces, shops, and other work spaces. It requires awareness, common sense, and perseverance to eliminate hazards and guard against carelessness. The goal of this free webinar is to ensure that a safe, healthy environment is maintained at all times. This includes the control and minimization of all known and potential hazards associated within creative, artistic, and performance development. These risks can be minimized and controlled through proper training, equipment, and use of appropriate precautions, restrictions, and established safe-work practices.
Instructor: Ellen Korpar

Community Recovery Through Arts and Culture, Thursday, April 3, 2025, 2:00-4:00ET
Description: Arts and culture—through the artists and organizations that bring them to life in communities -- have a vital role to play in recovery from disasters. Whether connecting people through music, dance, theater or other experiences; providing moments of respite, joy and humor; allowing people to tell their personal stories of the disaster through visual, verbal or other means; or even just providing a place to congregate, gather information or grab a cup of coffee, arts and culture and the organizations that produce them enable us to move from victimhood to personhood, even if only for a moment, and help us rebuild the social infrastructure of our individual and community lives.
In this webinar, we will focus on how artists and arts organizations can engage in this work. We will provide background in basic disaster management principles, share good practices, give guiding principles and brief how-tos, leave you with resources for further study, and answer any questions you may have. Rebuilding social infrastructure strengthens communities’ abilities to move forward after disasters. Learn how to be part of the process and gain a seat at the table in your community’s recovery.
Instructors: Mary Eileen Fouratt, Amy Schwartzman, Mollie Quinlan-Hayes

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Reposted from EMR-ISAC

LiDAR has been around since the 1960s and uses laser pulses to measure distance with great accuracy. The new study, led by Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University with scientists drawn from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, MIT, and the University of Glasgow, added something that could obtain highly detailed 3D data from up to one kilometer away.

As reported in Popular Mechanics, the creation uses an ultra-sensitive sensor called the superconducting nanowire single-photon detector (SNSPD). The system, co-developed by NASA and MIT, can trace a single photon to an accuracy of 13 picoseconds (13 trillionths of a second). It can also see through fog and smoke and could have many applications including security, monitoring and remote sensing.

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Reposted from EMR-ISAC

On Jan. 15, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) released new National Behavioral Health Crisis Care Guidance (National Guidance).

The launch of the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in 2022 catalyzed a rapid expansion of crisis services around the country. SAMHSA identified the need for ongoing guidance for states, tribes, territories, and other local partners to provide the needed oversight, integration, and sustainability to care for people throughout and after a crisis episode.

SAMHSA identifies three essential elements of a behavioral health crisis system: crisis call lines, mobile crisis response, and emergency and crisis stabilization services. These elements work together to improve outcomes for individuals and families while reducing reliance on emergency departments and law enforcement for the care of those with urgent or emergent behavioral health needs.

The National Guidance consists of three documents:

• 2025 National Guidelines for a Behavioral Health Coordinated System of Crisis Care.
• Model Definitions for Behavioral Health Emergency, Crisis, and Crisis-Related Services.
• Mobile Crisis Team Services: An Implementation Toolkit (draft open for public comment through March 21, 2025).

Emergency medical services (EMS), 911 telecommunications, and law enforcement have roles in a crisis care system. Communities aiming to implement or improve their behavioral crisis care systems will benefit from this guidance.

On Jan. 17, SAMHSA released a Community Opioid Overdose Reversal Medications (OORMs) Planning Toolkit. The toolkit provides guidance for community leaders, public health professionals, first responders (including EMS and law enforcement), to create effective overdose prevention and response strategies to improve local overdose reduction outcomes. 

Access the National Guidance, OORMS Toolkit and learn more about how to submit written comments on the draft Mobile Crisis Toolkit at SAMHSA.gov. Comments are due by Friday, March 21, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET.

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Reposted from EMR-ISAC

The Wildland Fire Lessons Learned Center (LLC) has released its Annual Incident Review Summary and Year End Infographic for 2024.

The Annual Incident Review Summary is based on more than 196 wildland fire incident reports and lessons shared with the LLC in 2024. The Year End Infographic is a 2-page snapshot of the 2024 fire year. It highlights selected lessons learned and provides summary statistics on reported fatalities, near miss incidents, and injuries.

The information in these two documents may be used to inform wildland fire training and discussion and prepare for the 2025 fire year.

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Reposted from EMR-ISAC

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will host a series of weekly Lunch and Learn webinars every Thursday, beginning February 20 and concluding on March 6.

These sessions will focus on FEMA's updated Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program Manual, which provides planning and assessment guidance for state, local, Tribal Nations and territorial partners located near commercial nuclear power plants.

Each webinar will cover a different topic:

• Overview of the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program Manual, Thursday, Feb. 20, 1-2 p.m. EST.
• Flexibilities in the Protective Action Guides Manual, Thursday, Feb. 27, 1-2 p.m. EST.
• Hurricane Florence Impacts and the Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program, Thursday, March 6, 1-2 p.m. EST.
• An Overview of the FEMA Technological Hazards Division's Radiological Emergency Preparedness Program, Thursday, March 13, 1-2 p.m. EST.

Visit FEMA’s Radiological Emergency Preparedness page to learn more about the program, including training opportunities, the standard operating guide, reference library, after-action reports and the national public information map.

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Reposted from EMR-ISAC 

On Feb. 4, the Center for Internet Security (CIS) released Episode 121 of its “Cybersecurity Where You Are” podcast. The episode, The Economics of Cybersecurity Decision-Making, discusses the role of economics in cyber risk quantification and cybersecurity decision-making.

Highlights include:

• How incentives, market failures, and other economic principles intersect with cybersecurity.
• A model of translating shared information as a way to capture complexity in cybersecurity decision-making.
• Pressing issues when making decisions about cybersecurity.
• How to have enough confidence and a cyber risk quantification model that's useful.
• How rigorous recommendations can help to match modeling and techniques like minimization.
• The role of the Board in making cybersecurity decisions and how to speak its language.

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Reposted from AAM

The MAP application deadline is February 15, 2025.

1. Confirm your museum is eligible to participate.
2. Review MAP costs, process and schedule and ensure your museum has the time, resources, capacity, and buy-in to undertake an assessment.
3. Choose your Assessment Type and verify that you meet any special additional eligibility requirements.
4. Read the Application FAQs and use the links included to download the Sample Application to use for planning and drafting your response to application questions.
5. The Application FAQs also include access to the online application form. You will enter your contact information and then receive a link to the full online application via email. You will then be able to complete sections of the application, save them, and then return to the application later by clicking the “Save” button available at the bottom of each page. By clicking this button, you will be able to save your information and receive a unique link to return to that page in the application later to finish it. After submitting a completed application, you will receive a confirmation email. If you have any difficulties completing the application, please contact MAP staff at map@aam-us.org or 202-289-9118. 
6. Applications will be accepted until February 15, 2025. 
7. Look for an email notification of acceptance status 30-45 days after the application deadline. 

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Reposted from EMR-ISAC

With the rise of advanced tools that enable the rapid creation, alteration, and distribution of images, videos, and other digital content, there are many ways to manipulate what people see and believe. Content provenance solutions aim to establish the lineage of media, including its source and editing history over time.

Of these solutions, Content Credentials™ are a provenance solution that uses cryptographically signed metadata describing the provenance of media. This metadata can be attached to the media content during export from software or even at creation on hardware.

This cybersecurity information sheet, Content Credentials: Strengthening Multimedia Integrity in the Generative AI Era, authored by the National Security Agency (NSA), Australian Signals Directorate’s Australian Cyber Security Centre (ASD’s ACSC), Canadian Centre for Cyber Security (CCCS), and United Kingdom National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC-UK), discusses how Content Credentials can provide transparency for the provenance of media, raises awareness of the state of this solution, introduces recommended practices to preserve provenance information, and emphasizes the importance of widespread adoption across the information ecosystem.

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Reposted from EMR-ISAC

FEMA is hosting two sessions of a 1-hour webinar on the Response Inventory System (RIS), National Resource Hub: From Chaos to Coordination: The RIS Advantage in Disaster Preparedness

Resource management is the cornerstone of preparing for and responding to incidents that require mutual aid among agencies and jurisdictions.

The webinar will cover the basic capabilities and functions of RIS. Participants will learn:

• The benefits of using RIS before, during, and after a disaster.
• RIS’s role in the resource management process.
• How to use RIS to type, inventory, and prepare resources ahead of a disaster.
• How to use RIS when responding to a disaster.

There will be a live demonstration of how to use RIS, and participants will be able to ask questions at the end of the presentation.

Please register in advance to attend either of the following offerings of this webinar. Each session will cover the same information:

• Tuesday, Feb. 4, from 1-2 p.m. EST 
• Thursday, Feb. 6, from 1-2 p.m. EST 

Reposted from EMR-ISAC

For more than a decade, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been reporting on the state of national preparedness to identify the risks and opportunities that inform emergency management decision-making.

FEMA’s 2024 National Preparedness Report provides a data-driven picture of national preparedness and emergency management trends. It offers all levels of government, tribes, the private and nonprofit sectors, and the public practical insights to inform decisions about program priorities, resource allocations and actions that can create more resilient communities.

This year, the report places particular emphasis on four core capabilities: Mass Care Services, Public Information and Warning, Infrastructure Systems, and Cybersecurity. These areas continue to present significant challenges, but also opportunities for enhancing national resilience.

The analysis presented in the report identified several key takeaways:

• Disasters are becoming costlier and deadlier.
• Sophisticated data analysis tools are essential to develop effective, place-based recovery strategies.
• Individuals and households are taking disaster preparedness more seriously and improving their risk literacy.
• Decaying legacy infrastructure and outdated building codes continue to pose a significant vulnerability nationwide for the foreseeable future.
• The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology allows determined adversaries to strike harder and with less warning.
• Risk and resilience across the nation is evolving, but not uniformly. National assessments enhance our understanding of evolving risk and resilience challenges for disadvantaged communities.

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