Exercises play a vital role in national preparedness by
enabling whole community stakeholders to test and validate plans and
capabilities, and identify both capability gaps and areas for improvement. A
well-designed exercise provides a low-risk environment to test capabilities,
familiarize personnel with roles and responsibilities, and foster meaningful
interaction and communication across organizations. Exercises bring together
and strengthen the whole community in its efforts to prevent, protect against,
mitigate, respond to and recover from all hazards. Overall, exercises are
cost-effective and useful tools that help the nation practice and refine our
collective capacity to achieve the core capabilities in the National
Preparedness Goal.
The exercise program in Oregon follows the federal Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program (HSEEP)
model and is intended to provide a solid base for state, local, and tribal
partners to evaluate their policies, plans, and procedures, as well as meet the
requirements of the Emergency Management Performance Grant (EMPG) and the
Homeland Security Grant Program (HSGP).
Your Exercise Program should be tightly linked to your Training Program. For information about training, please see our
State Training Program.
OEM Contact
Amanda Mathis, State Exercise Officer
Cascadia Rising
See our Cascadia Rising page for details on the June 2016 exercise.
Exercise Reporting
Exercise reporting requirements within the State of Oregon
are specified in the following documents. In addition, most actual occurrences
and events can fulfill exercises requirements under the EMPG program.
Actual
Occurrences and EMPG exercises can be reported using the EMPG Exercise-Actual
Occurrence Report form.
Exercises conducted to fulfill HSGP requirements
require a full After Action Report and Improvement Plan (AAR/IP). A template
for the AAR/IP can be found in the Forms and Templates section.
FEMA Virtual Tabletop Exercises (VTTX)
The Emergency
Management Institute (EMI) conducts a monthly series of Virtual Table Top
Exercises (VTTX) using a video teleconference platform to reach community based
training audiences around the country and provide a virtual forum for disaster
training. The VTTX process involves key personnel from the emergency management
community of practice reviewing a pre-packaged set of exercise materials then
convening for a four hour table top exercise discussing a simulated disaster
scenario. The event allows the connected sites to assess current plans,
policies and procedures while learning from the other connected sites as they provide
their perspective and practices facing a similar situation. A standard VTC
system is required for participation.
National Exercise
Program
The National Exercise Program (NEP) serves as the principal mechanism for examining the preparedness and readiness of the United States across the entire homeland security and management enterprise. The purpose of the NEP is to design, coordinate, conduct, and evaluate exercises that rigorously test the Nation’s ability to perform missions and functions that prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards. As a component of the National Preparedness System, the NEP provides a consistent method to examine and validate federal and whole community partner core capabilities, which in turn indicate the Nation’s progress in reaching the National Preparedness Goal (Goal).
Each Program cycle consists of a two-year, progressive schedule of exercises that are selected based on their support to the Goal, and the Program’s Principals’ Objectives. The types of exercises selected into the program may include facilitated policy discussions, seminars and workshops, tabletop exercises, modeling and simulation, drills, functional exercises, and full-scale exercises. All of which may be sponsored by organizations from any level of government, non-governmental and private sector, and the whole community.
The National Exercise Program also provides contractor support, free of charge, to assist in development, conduct, and documentation your exercise. It does not provide additional funding to cover other exercise expenses.
2019-2020 Principal Strategic Priorities
Forms and Templates