The current closing date for applications is April 19, 2010. Applicants are advised to carefully review the submission requirements contained within the Fiscal Year 2010 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program Guidance and Application Kit, available through the following link: www.fema.gov/government/grant/rcp/index.shtm. The following detailed instructions were provided to 2009 applicants, and these requirement steps are expected to be similar for 2010: (1) eligible applicants were required to complete the Investment Justification in the template provided at www.fema.gov/government/grant/rcp/index.shtm; (2) the Mid-term draft Investment Justifications were due to each site's Federal Preparedness Coordinator (FPC) for review in mid-February. The review is optional, but highly encouraged; (3) SAAs were to submit completed applications electronically through www.grants.gov no later than 11:59 PM EDT on the deadline date; (4) Local agency application procedures and timelines are determined by the SAA and vary by state. It is recommended that local agencies contact their SAA before the review date for local procedures. For a complete list of SAAs visit www.dhs.gov/xgovt/grants/.

The purpose of the RCPGP is to enhance catastrophic incident preparedness in selected high-risk, high-consequence urban areas. RCPGP is intended to support coordination of regional all-hazard planning for catastrophic events, including the development of integrated planning communities, plans, protocols, and procedures to manage a catastrophic event. RCPGP provides a framework for enhancing the Nation's security and resilience for catastrophic events through fixing shortcomings in existing plans, building regional planning processes and planning communities, and linking operational needs identified in catastrophic event plans to resource allocation. The program supports innovative approaches to catastrophic preparedness through planning and personnel, and aligning existing operational resources in the 10 selected areas. Applicants are advised to carefully review the submission requirements contained within the Fiscal Year 2010 Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program Guidance and Application Kit: http://www.fema.gov/pdf/government/grant/2010/fy10_rcp_kit.pdf. The focus of the Regional Catastrophic Preparedness Grant Program (RCPGP) will expand in Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 to focus on additional elements of the preparedness cycle by addressing the need to train, exercise, and evaluate and improve their plans to meet the needs of their region. With the progress made, most sites are anticipated to be far enough along by 2010 to focus primarily on training, exercising, and evaluating and improving regional plans. The RCPGP grantees have plans, planning relationships, and some standing agreements to share resources. As part of the FY 2010 grant cycle, the ten existing RCPGP sites will continue to build upon, validate, and implement the projects identified in the FY 2008 and FY 2009 RCPGP grant cycles. Sites are encouraged to develop projects to achieve and maintain a continuous cycle of planning, organizing, training, exercising, and evaluating and improving their regional catastrophic plans. Based on progress to date in planning, the priorities for FY 2010 are: (1) Organize and Staff - Develop plans to organize and staff catastrophic plans to ensure adequate support to review, develop, implement, and revise plans as needed; (2) Train - Develop and implement plans to effectively train newly developed regional catastrophic plans with communities, States, nonprofit organizations, and the private sector, as well as other regional partners; (3) Exercise - Develop and implement plans to exercise regional catastrophic plans to test capabilities and interdependencies between jurisdictions based on regional threats; (4) Evaluate and Improve - Assess ability of plans to address regional catastrophic needs, evaluate findings, and develop corrective action plans to improve plans based on lessons learned. In addition, several cross-cutting principles will guide efforts in FY 2010: (1) Prioritize funding for efforts which formalize sustainable working groups and projects for continued effective coordination and include State and Federal partners as well as the community and private sector stakeholders; (2) Ensure synchronization of plans and shared best practices; (3) Implement citizen and community preparedness campaigns; and (4) Plan for and pre-position needed commodities and equipment; (5) Take into account the needs of both the area at risk of attack and likely host communities; (6) Establish projects focused on implementing and validating plans developed; (7) Develop a strategic path forward that addresses the future growth of work done through this program; (8) Ensure that operational plans developed address, as appropriate, populations with functional and access requirements, as well as children. Each grantee that receives funding under FY 2010 RCPGP is required to complete specific deliverables and activities as part of the FY 2010 grant cycle: (1) Maintain citizen and community preparedness campaigns, and develop a Citizen Preparedness Plan focused on the plans and annexes developed through FY 2008 and FY 2009 RCPGP. (2) Develop a Training Plan to support the successful implementation of all plans and annexes developed through FY 2008 and FY 2009 RCPGP. (3) Develop an Evaluation Plan, to include assessments and exercises, for all plans and annexes developed through FY 2008 and FY 2009 RCPGP. (4) Develop a comprehensive strategic plan that addresses at minimum the following requirements: (a) Development of needed capabilities related to the plans generated under RCPGP; (b) Long-term Integration of plans into existing training and exercise structure; (c) Continuation of the Regional Catastrophic Planning Team (RCPT) beyond the duration of the RCPGP. (5) Participate in regional and national workshops organized by FEMA focusing on planning and the development of a standardized national planning process. (6) Integrate planning activities with all other appropriate State and regional working groups (e.g., Regional Transit Security Working Group, Area Maritime Security Committee, Local Emergency Planning Committee). Allowable costs are divided into categories: (1) Planning: sites may use RCPGP funds for planning efforts to address catastrophic events, including developing support tools that enable catastrophic planning and developing contingency agreements/emergency contracts that address logistics and pre-positioning of commodities related to plans developing with RCPGP FY08 funds; (2) Personnel: Hiring, overtime, and backfill expenses are allowable under only to perform programmatic activities deemed allowable under existing guidance; and (3) Critical Emergency Supplies: Once key requirements have been met, a participant may request permission to use funds to acquire critical emergency supplies (include meals, water, and basic medical supplies). (4) Training: To support the implementation of plans developed through RCPGP, appropriate training of relevant personnel is an allowable expense for the FY 2010 grant cycle. (5) Exercises: Tabletop exercises to validate plans developed through RCPGP are allowable expenses. Please refer to this program's guidance for detailed information.

This program was first offered in FY 2008. During that first year, FEMA National Preparedness Directorate (NPD) funded over $60 million in projects from 10 (ten) sites, which focused on a variety of capabilities ranging from Mass Evacuation, to Debris Removal, to Cyber Attack Coordination. The total amount of funds available under the FY 2009 RCPGP was $34,002,500. A total of $31,002,500 has been allocated to the sites, while $3,000,000 was retained for technical assistance support. The maximum award for Tier 1 sites was $3,617,000; Tier 2: $1,420,875.

Varies

Contact the State Administrative Agency in your state for local information. A complete list of SAAs can be found at www.dhs.gov/xgovt/grants/

Name: FEMA GPD Call Center

Department: Federal Emergency Management Agency

City: Washington

Zip: 20472

Email: ASK-GMD@dhs.gov