"Nassau County - Long Island, New York"

Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano has announced that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has named the Nassau County Citizen Corps Council as a finalist for the 2010 National Citizen Corps Achievement Awards–Celebrating Resilient Communities. Administered by FEMA and implemented locally, Citizen Corps is the grassroots movement to actively engage civic leaders and the public in community safety and disaster preparedness.

The Nassau County Citizen Corps Council has been recognized for exemplary community preparedness efforts and was selected as a finalist in the category of Collaborative Preparedness Planning.

The Nassau County Citizen Corps Council was chosen as a national 2010 finalist, in part, due to its goal of training the 1.3 million residents to prepare themselves and their families in their neighborhoods, workplace, schools and colleges for disasters; as well as encouraging them to take a more active role in emergency management planning and because the council believes in success through collaboration.

“I am proud of the hard work and achievements of the members of the Nassau County Citizens Corps Council and I congratulate them for this honor,” said County Executive Mangano. “This recognition demonstrates their dedication and commitment to ensuring that our communities are prepared and safe from harm.”

The Nassau County Citizen Corps Council is made up of 19 community organizations, including the Nassau County Office of Emergency Management, Police Department, Fire Marshal, Department of Health, Office of Minority Affairs, Office of the Physically Challenged, Veterans Service Agency, Nassau Regional EMS Council, City of Glen Cove Volunteer Fire Department, Nassau County Village Officials Association, Nassau County Chapter of American Red Cross, Freeport Village Emergency Management, and the Long Island Voluntary Agencies Active in Disaster (LI VOAD) which is composed of over 20 agencies such as Faithful Response, The Salvation Army, United Way, Catholic Charities, Long Island Cares, and other related human-services providers.

The Council coordinates the involvement of community members and organizations in emergency preparedness, planning, mitigation, response, and recovery. Council volunteers of CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) and MRC (Medical Reserve Corps) are utilized in many aspects of the Emergency Operations Plan such as shelter staffing, commodity distribution, warehousing and surge capacity. CERT volunteers participate in all Emergency Operations Center activations and mobilize to assist in both large and small-scale events within the community each year.

Key MRC and CERT Program attributes are:

• participated in over 94 Activations & Exercises

• Trained 4,392 Volunteers in disaster response and recovery

• Trained 17,472 individuals in preparedness

• Logged 80,430 volunteer hours

• 1,020 CERT Volunteers
• Distributed over 40,000 preparedness publications at community events

Award winners will be announced in September as part of National Preparedness Month (NPM), and will attend a Community Resilience Roundtable in Washington, D.C, with national leaders in emergency management, including FEMA, the National Emergency Management Association, and the International Association of Emergency Managers. Led by FEMA’s Ready Campaign and Citizen Corps, NPM is held each September to encourage Americans to take simple steps to prepare for emergencies in their homes, businesses and communities.

For information on the Nassau County Citizens Corps, please visit www.nassaucountyny.gov/agencies/OEM/CC/CERT/

Mangano Announces Nassau County Citizen Corps Council Named National Achievement Award Finalist