All Hands Consulting has been providing comprehensive consulting services under the Urban Areas Security Initiative (UASI) since the inception of the program in 2003. All Hands has directly supported 16 UASIs with various services and was responsible for the National Urban Areas Security Initiative Homeland Security Conference planning for the first six conferences and worked closely with FEMA Grant Programs Directorate. As a result, we are intimately familiar with the grant program requirements and guidelines.
All Hands provides UASIs with homeland security and emergency management planning, training and exercises as well as strategic planning and capability assessment services. Projects have also included: project management, technical assistance, development of Homeland Security Strategies, Threat and Hazard Identification and Risk Assessment (THIRA) and completion of the State Preparedness Report (SPR). All Hands supported the first THIRA using the SPR process for the Phoenix UASI and piloted the Capability Estimation process as part of a capability assessment and strategic planning process for the Baltimore UASI. We have completed THIRAs for the Baltimore and Dallas/Fort Worth/Arlington UASIs and in Saint Paul, MN and Albuquerque, NM. All Hands has supported the Baltimore UASI with strategic planning, risk assessment, and other services for the past four years.
These services complement our full array of training and exercises services which we provide to local, state, federal, and foreign government agencies, business and industry, and emergency response organizations.
Miami UASI Support
An excellent example of our ability and experience supporting UASIs is our work in South Florida. All Hands supported the City of Miami and the Southeast Florida Urban Area with comprehensive services from 2003-2011. Miami is responsible for administration of the Miami Urban Area Security Initiative and tasked All Hands Consulting to provide a wide array of services to Miami and the four-county South Florida region in support of Comprehensive Emergency Management planning, training, and exercises and Homeland Security programs for a period of over eight years.
All Hands operated a Program Management Office which supported the Southeast Florida Urban Area (a joint Miami-Fort Lauderdale UASI initiative in four counties) with project management, planning, training, and exercise services.
Projects included strategic planning, grants management, emergency management planning, emergency operations center review and design, hazard vulnerability assessments, threat and vulnerability assessments, catastrophic health incident response planning, mass care plans, tactical protocols, capabilities assessments, risk assessments, mitigation planning, tabletop, functional, and full-scale exercise design, conduct and evaluation, continuity of operations (COOP), continuity of government (COG), and domestic security planning.
The All Hands training services provided training to over 25,000 first responders in incident command, planning and tactical operations topics.
The project included support to the Regional Domestic Security Task Force with the development of a Regional Terrorism Response Plan and supporting functional annexes and other regional programs across the full spectrum of first responder roles and emergency support functions. In addition, the project supported federal initiatives such as the National Plans Review and Pilot Capabilities Assessments.
This project lead to numerous best and promising practices for grants management, homeland security and emergency management.