Continuity of Operations (COOP) Assignment. (Foundations in Emergency Management for Disasters and Healthcare)

Continuity of Operations (COOP) :

– Overview

Continuity of operations refers to the process of ensuring that agencies, governments, businesses, etc. are able to continue to function when struck by disaster or a catastrophic event. Such a scenario could be sudden onset or long term problem. Regardless, the disaster life cycle applies to the approach to handling such cataclysmic events. Traditionally, governments were limited in their abilities to assist the private sector in responding to or recovering from disasters short of supporting infrastructure and bringing back utilities. However, this is changing as we speak under the leadership of the current FEMA director. Partnerships between the public and private sector, bringing business leaders into the loop regarding community preparedness and educational opportunities are just some of the changes which have been embraced within community emergency management in the last five years. Business and the private sector have many best practices which could aid and improve local governments in the setting of a disaster and the two would do well to learn from each others’ strengths.

This week’s assignment will familiarize you with several terms relative to response and recovery in the private sector as well as the ability to maintain operational capabilities during an incident which may impact the responding jurisdiction or agency itself.

– Reading Assignments

Attached Files:

• 1600-16-PDF (1).pdf (3.003 MB)
• 610-Continuity of Operations planning.pdf (258.679 KB)
• 610-coop_brochure.pdf (389.489 KB)
• 610-NSPD-51_ National Continuity Policy.html (28.933 KB)
• coop_multi_year_plan_guide.pdf (151.213 KB)

Perry & Lindell chapter 8

COOP Planning document – See PDF above.

NFPA Standards document – Note – This is a big document that should be part of your library. We will refer to it periodically, as will other faculty. You will find this both attached above and in Course Documents. Note – This is the 2016 update, which is the most recent.

FOCUS POINTS

Don’t be intimidated by the reading list. You have seen some of the Perry material before, so this is review. The Planning Document is a guide to writing a COOP. It is not hard reading. The NFPA Standards document is something we will use throughout the Masters, so file it for future reference, though you will use part of it this week.

– COOP Assignment

Attached Files:

• Examplar COOP2 SC.docx (711.95 KB)
• Exemplar COOP document.docx (45.175 KB)

Using the required reading for this week, identify the crucial components of a viable “FPC 65” COOP plan. Identify a ‘Critical Infrastructure / Key Resource’ organization for your COOP plan, provide a description of the CIKR function provided by the organization, and delineate the ‘essential functions and activities’ required to provide that function or service.

The FEMA document attached as coop-multi-year_plan is most helpful.

To clarify….

Review the FEMA Multi-Year Guide.

Choose an entity such as a business, community center, hospital etc.

Determine what critical infrastructures and key resources the entity provides and uses.

Describe briefly why each CI/KR is important.

Use Annex C of the FEMA plan as a guide to write a brief report of your entity’s COOP.

NOTE – Attached you will find two examples of well-done COOPs, both written by students.