IEMA hosts summit to develop new state homeland security strategy
Input
gathered at 8 town hall meetings throughout state
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[September 07, 2012]
SPRINGFIELD -- After nearly a
year of listening to emergency responders, business leaders,
government representatives and others from across the state, the
Illinois Emergency Management Agency is hosting a two-day summit
Thursday and Friday in Springfield to mold that input into the
state's new homeland security strategy.
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The Illinois Homeland Security Vision 2020 initiative was launched
last fall as a statewide, grass-roots initiative to engage Illinois'
residents and organizations in the revision of the state's strategy
for dealing with current and emerging threats and risks, citizen
preparedness, and disaster response and recovery.
More than 400 people participated in a series of eight town hall
meetings that focused on gathering input and ideas on homeland
security and disaster response issues. Participants included law
enforcement, fire services, public and private health organizations,
emergency management, school officials, private sector, elected
officials, nongovernmental organizations, and private citizens. The
meetings were in Belleville, Urbana, Effingham, Springfield,
Carterville, Dixon, Sugar Grove and Wheaton.
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"Traveling around the state, meeting with people from throughout
the community, gave us a clearer picture of their concerns and
challenges for homeland security and emergency preparedness," said
IEMA Director Jonathon Monken. "While some issues were unique to
certain regions, several common themes emerged. These will be core
components of the new state strategy that will lead us into the next
decade."
Monken said the five key topics from the town hall meetings will
be discussed by participants at the summit. Those topics are
intelligence and information sharing; community resilience;
interoperable communications; training; and sustaining capabilities
of established assets and partnerships.
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Following the summit, the membership of the Illinois Terrorism Task
Force will incorporate the input from the participants into a final
homeland security strategy that will guide homeland security
preparedness for the next decade.
Vision 2020 is similar to the process the state of Illinois
undertook in 2001, shortly after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. That
process resulted in the development of a statewide homeland security
program that is recognized as one of the best in the nation.
[Text from
Illinois
Emergency Management Agency file received from
the
Illinois Office of
Communication and Information]
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