The Mid-Atlantic Center for Emergency Management & Public Safety (MACEM&PS) at Frederick Community College (FCC) has been awarded a $1 million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to develop and deliver innovative national-level training programs that play an important role in the implementation of the National Preparedness System.

The FEMA Continuing Training Grant will allow FCC to develop a three-year training program for emergency management personnel that will be delivered nationwide.

"FCC is grateful for this federal funding which will support the important work of our Center for emergency management and public safety. Our communities nationwide will benefit from the training of emergency personnel through this grant," said FCC President Elizabeth Burmaster.

The FCC program focuses on developing the necessary planning and operation knowledge and skills to support all members of a community affected by a disaster, ensuring that both the government and private industry plan and implement systems that provide a sufficient supply chain to deliver food and water and arrange shelter for all disaster victims.

“This award will allow the MACEM&PS at FCC to continue to develop specialty programming and train emergency management personnel nationwide on the critical tasks necessary to promote safe and resilient communities and by extension, a safe and resilient nation,” said Kathy Francis, MACEM&PS  Executive Director.

This is the third training initiative grant awarded to the MACEM&PS at FCC, which offers academic programs in criminal justice, emergency management, fire service administration, geographic information systems, and police science.

Terry Pruitt, Chief of the National Training and Education Division Training Partners Program, said receiving grant funding from this very competitive program demonstrates the understanding the MACEM&PS has of the “training spectrum, specifically related to logistics and the need to address existing training gaps for our state, local, tribal, and territorial first responders.”

Previous training projects provided to FEMA by the MACEM&PS at FCC included national training initiatives in responding to Complex Terrorist Attacks and in developing Public-Private Partnerships support community resilience. 

For more information on this training program and others available through MACEM&PS, contact Executive Director Kathy Francis at [email protected] or visit the MACEM&PS website by clicking here.