Public Relations

ICPS crisis training session in Bella Vista on Tuesday, Aug. 28

            BELLA VISTA (Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2007) – NWACC’s ICPS will hold a crisis training session for Bella Vista Tuesday, Aug. 28, at NWACC’s College At The Crossings.

            NWACC ICPS expects 35 participants representing the POA, the BVPD, the BVFD and members of the general public (clubs and other organizations) interested in disaster/crisis training.

            The training is divided into three parts. Lecture takes place 9 a.m. to noon and 1-2.

            A table-top simulated crisis takes place from 2-3.

            A debriefing is 3-3:30 p.m., when the training session ends.

            Response to the training from the Bella Vista community was so strong that NWACC ICPS had to schedule a second training session, which will be held Nov. 15.

            This is the course that NWACC ICPS presented to the Greater San Antonio, Texas, Chamber of Commerce, which is referenced below and which NWACC ICPS is presenting across the country.

            The Director of the NWACC ICPS program (http://icps.nwacc.edu/index.php) is Dr. Ricky Tompkins (http://icps.nwacc.edu/contacts.php)

BACKGROUND ON ICPS

NWACC Institute for Corporate and Public Safety

A federally funded initiative

            The NWACC Institute for Corporate and Public Safety (ICPS) is a national education, training, and research institute tasked with preparing both the public and private sectors regarding methodologies and best practices for a crisis event.

• ICPS has been serving hundreds of emergency responders nationally since 2004 through the design and implementation of three U.S. Department of Homeland Security courses.
• All ICPS courses are national in scope and free to all participants.
• Courses have been taught in 28 states, two U.S. territories and to the U.S. Armed Forces.
• 400-500 emergency responders have participated online since January.
• Another 500 have participated in instructor-led courses.

            Current course offerings: a 30 minute online Terrorism and WMD in the Workplace and two one-day instructor-led courses Emergency Response and Business Continuity Planning.

• Classes are free to all participants including meals for the one-day instructor-led courses.
• Costs are covered by a 2004 federal grant awarded NWACC through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

            “ICPS is continuing to expand course and is beginning the process of moving into the emergency preparedness consulting arena,” ICPS Director Ricky Tompkins said.

            “We’re getting more requests to do consulting,” Tompkins said. “ICPS’ work with the business sector will continue to expand and grow, particularly with our relationships with our corporate partners Wal-Mart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt.”

            Expanding its national reach: ICPS has expanded its national reach as a charter academic partner of the Rural Domestic Preparedness Consortium (RDPC). This is a consortium of five higher education institutions charged with designing and implementing emergency preparedness courses for rural America. This opportunity firmly places ICPS and NWACC at the forefront of emergency preparedness nationally.

Greater San Antonio (Texas) Chamber of Commerce

            ICPS recently presented at an emergency preparedness conference hosted by the Greater San Antonio (Texas) Chamber of Commerce.

• Tompkins said 164 participants registered and 240 showed up in one day.
• “No one’s putting up those kinds of numbers,” he said. “We continue to grow.”
• Print and electronic media covered the conference.
• “San Antonio was a huge success,” he said.

Future Plans: ICPS plans to conduct training courses across the United States including Alabama, New York, and South Carolina. ICPS has been invited to submit a proposal to host a 4-hour pre-conference workshop at the 2008 American Association of Community Colleges Annual Conference.

            A crisis event covers the entire gambit of mass casualty events such as an act of terrorism, a natural disaster, or a biological pandemic. It is the belief of ICPS that it is essential for communities to pre-plan for crisis events to mitigate the effects, lessening the long-term effects on the community. This can only be done through collaboration of both the public and private sectors, utilizing all available resources.

For questions/comments on this content, please contact Jim Hall jhall@nwacc.edu (479) 619-4182