The American Preparedness Security Initiative (APSI) is at the heart of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security initiative and has been presented and endorsed by the Chairman Emeritus of the U.S. Homeland Security Advisory Council (HSAC). This initiative also validates that America’s private sector is America’s change agent – the foundation of innovation, homeland security, and preparedness.
It is our goal to inspire a culture change where preparedness is the social norm. This goal produces the desired vision of comprehensively resilient and prepared American communities to ensure the safety, security, quality, and future of national life. By building and sustaining human intellectual capacities, combined with operationally proven and objectively measurable mindsets, metrics, and technologies, the APSI vision can be achieved.
The purpose of APSI is to:
- Operationalize the HSAC Critical Infrastructure and Community Resilience Task Forces.
- Identify the major preparedness challenges facing communities across the nation.
- Empower the private sectors’ (our citizens’) voices – those who know their communities best to leverage community college preparedness education and expertise to close preparedness skills gaps.
- Create and sustain a new culture of community preparedness by implementing operationally proven and objectively measurable resilient mindsets, metrics, methodologies, and technologies.
- Establish Private-Public Preparedness Partnerships (P4) by bringing together preparedness professionals (educators, innovators, infrastructure providers, local governments, and key asset/high-consequence consumers) to continuously assess community preparedness; create and accelerate implementation of preparedness innovations; and exchange (not just share) timely, relevant, accurate, and actionable information to and from communities and the federal government nationwide.
America’s foundation is its people and the communities in which they live, work, and grow. You’ve heard it before: All emergencies and consequences are (at least initially) local. While known yet not comprehensively leveraged, I would add that the best knowledge of community realities and preparedness requirements are found in those communities. Logic, therefore, dictates that the national center of gravity for preparedness is in American communities – specifically in the passion of their citizens who have a life-and-death stake in the comprehensive preparedness of their communities.
APSI will formalize communities as the center of American preparedness. The creation of P4 focuses on the way things actually work (from private to public – the people to their governments). P4 thus distinguishes community preparedness from traditional Public-Private Partnerships (P3).
Beyond “Information Sharing,” APSI will pioneer a disciplined, question and answer-based exchange of information that is relevant to community preparedness requirements: timely, accurate, and actionable.
Because community members know their preparedness requirements best, APSI will leverage community colleges nationwide to continuously educate and institutionalize a process of continuous preparedness assessments based upon objectively measurable and operationally proven resilient mindsets, metrics, and methodologies.
