The purpose of this page is to provide an overview of the National Preparedness Goal. The intended audience for this page is the whole community–individuals, families, communities, the private and nonprofit sectors, faith-based organizations, and state, local, tribal, territorial, insular area and Federal governments.

  https://www.fema.gov/national-preparedness-goal 

The National Preparedness Goal defines what it means for the whole community to be prepared for all types of disasters and emergencies. The goal itself is succinct:

“A secure and resilient nation with the capabilities required across the whole community to prevent, protect against, mitigate, respond to, and recover from the threats and hazards that pose the greatest risk.”

These risks include events such as natural disasters, disease pandemics, chemical spills and other man-made hazards, terrorist attacks and cyber attacks.

 In addition to stating the goal, the National Preparedness Goal describes 32 activities, called core capabilities that address the greatest risks to the nation. 

Each of these core capabilities is tied to a capability target. These targets recognize that everyone needs the flexibility to determine how they apply their resources, based on the threats that are most relevant to them and their communities. A Midwestern city, for example, may determine it is at high risk for a catastrophic tornado. As a result, the city could set a target to have a certain number of shelters in place. The same applies across all potential risks, understanding that each risk is different; therefore, each target is different.

To see a full list of the core capabilities, including details about each one, visit the Core Capabilities Page -  https://www.fema.gov/core-capabilities 

 The National Preparedness Goal organizes the core capabilities into the five mission areas    

• Prevention. Prevent, avoid or stop an imminent, threatened or actual act of terrorism.
• Protection. Protect our citizens, residents, visitors and assets against the greatest threats and hazards in a manner that allows our interests, aspirations and way of life to thrive.
• Mitigation. Reduce the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of future disasters.
• Response. Respond quickly to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident.
• Recovery. Recover through a focus on the timely restoration, strengthening and revitalization of infrastructure, housing and a sustainable economy, as well as the health, social, cultural, historic and environmental fabric of communities affected by a catastrophic incident.

The five mission areas can be seen at  https://www.fema.gov/mission-areas 

The two mission areas (mitigation and response) shown above in the navigation bar list tasks that our volunteers might accomplish and suggested training available for those tasks.

 FEMA Student Identification (SID) number is a unique number generated and assigned to anyone who needs or is required to take training provided by a FEMA organization. Your FEMA SID uniquely identifies you throughout the FEMA organization and all of its agencies. The goal is for your FEMA SID to serve as your personal identification number instead of your Social Security Number (SSN) in support of FEMA’s effort to decrease/cease the use of SSN for identifying and tracking individuals. Go here to get your FEMA SID.  https://cdp.dhs.gov/femasid  

 FEMA IS online courses are available free of charge. You study the material at home and then complete a test and receive a certificate of completion. The FEMA SID is used to identify youself when taking the test.  A list of courses is available at:    https://training.fema.gov/is/crslist.aspx