Exercises
DEM Weekly “I Wonder” Webinar Series
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, many exercises have been postponed or canceled. The Utah Division of Emergency Management will be hosting a weekly webinar series aimed at providing local emergency managers with relevant content and opportunities to enhance their capabilities. Most of these webinars will be seminars or workshops with a hands on portion which will allow emergency managers to become oriented to a DEM process or test a DEM product. More information can be found on our “I Wonder” Webinar Page.
COVID-19 Exercise Tools
FEMA’s Preparedness in a Pandemic Exercise Starter Kit helps whole community partners by providing sample documents state, local, tribal and territorial governments can use to conduct their own workshops on preparedness in a pandemic. The questions and considerations contained in the guide were developed from FEMA’s COVID-19 Pandemic Operational Guidance for the 2020 Hurricane Season.
As organizations across the country plan for how to return to full operations and protect the wellbeing and safety of their employees and communities, FEMA’s National Exercise Division and the National Continuity Programs have collaborated to develop an Exercise Starter Kit on Reconstituting Operations. This Exercise Starter Kit is designed to be shared across the whole community to help organizations, including government agencies, conduct their own planning workshops to navigate the complexities of returning to full operations during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
What is the Exercise Starter Kit (ESK) on Reconstituting Operations?
- A virtual toolkit designed to help any organization across the community facilitate their own conversations around planning considerations for resuming operations during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
- A set of sample conduct slides and a sample facilitator guide that organizations can adapt and customize for their own needs depending on the organization type and current situation.
- A toolkit organized into four discussion areas: people, facilities, messaging/communications and resources/logistics that guides organizations through helpful questions such as:
- What resources are needed to return to full operations?
- How should we communicate with our staff and the public?
- A toolkit developed based on the Guidelines for Opening Up America Again and the FEMA fact sheet, “Planning Considerations for Organizations in Reconstituting Operations During the COVID-19 Pandemic.”
Exercise Assistance Request Form
Please use this form to request DEM assistance for your exercise. We will contact you after receiving your request to let you know what assistance we can provide.
Exercise Templates
***NEW HSEEP Tools***
Latest release of HSEEP Doctrine
2020 HSEEP Information Sheet
2020 HSEEP Frequently Asked Questions
The Homeland Security Exercise Evaluation Program (HSEEP) Preparedness Toolkit is a website with all of the available templates related to the HSEEP policy & guidance. DEM has adopted HSEEP as a best practice for exercise design and development, conduct, evaluation and improvement planning. A graphic representation of the HSEEP Exercise Cycle includes over 18 elements to include in an exercise process (pdf graphic). HSEEP is part of the National Preparedness System (pdf graphic).
DEM has created versions of some of the HSEEP templates to include instructions and links to relevant supporting documents. These templates include:
- ALL NEW TEMPLATES COMING SUMMER 2020
- Exercise Plan
- Exercise Overview
- After Action Report
- Improvement Plan
- Executive Summary
- Participant Roster
- Multi-Year Training and Exercise Plan (TEP) (This template will be replaced with the Integrated Preparedness Plan in late 2020 or early 2021)
Exercise Types
There are seven exercise types. Four are discussion based and three are operations based. These exercises increase in their complexity. Here are a few exercise tools that may be used as aids for determining which exercise type is appropriate.
- How to Create an Exercise
- Exercise Types (list with descriptions)
- Exercise Types Cheat Sheet (pyramid graphic)
Other Training & Exercise Program Management and TEPW Tools
- Core Capabilities – Graphic
- Core Capabilities Definition – Graphic
- Core Capability Development Sheets – FEMA Resource
- Other Capabilities for Exercise Design Consideration
- Outdated – Target Capabilities List (2007) – Target Capabilities are based on the old Core Capabilities from the 2007 HSEEP Guidance. Although these are outdated, there are some valuable “tasks” that you can consider in your exercise design and evaluation planning processes.
- Public Health Development Capabilities – CDC Resource (2011)
- Universal Task List (UTL) – A tool that describes the tasks that may be used in the development of EEGs.
- THIRA Process – Graphic
- Key Elements of a TEP – Graphic – The TEP is now known as an Integrated Preparedness Plan – this tool will be updated to reflect that change in 2021.
- POETE – Graphic
Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop (IPPW) – Formerly known as a Training and Exercise Planning Workshop (TEPW)
-
- 2020 Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop – Worksheet
- This worksheet can be used as a guide to support your Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop. More detailed information will be shared in early 2021.
(For any information on how to facilitate an IPPW or to create an Integrated Preparedness Plan, please contact Tracy Bodily tbodily@utah.gov)
- This worksheet can be used as a guide to support your Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop. More detailed information will be shared in early 2021.
- 2020 Integrated Preparedness Planning Workshop – Worksheet
- FEMA Independent Study Course on Exercises
- IS-139.a – Exercise Design and Development New 3/1/2018
- IS-120.c – An Introduction to Exercises New 2/12/2018
- IS-130.a – How to be an Exercise Evaluator New 2/12/2018
EMPG Sub-recipients are required to provide exercise reports utilizing the content found in the HSEEP templates for the exercises that they report. DEM recommends the use of HSEEP for all exercises conducted at the local, county tribal and state level even if they will not be utilized for grant reporting.
The table below includes links to the DEM exercise templates.
**Planned/Real-World Event Approval Form
EMPG Exercise
|
Exercise Plan
|
After Action Report
|
Participant Roster* |
Seminar
|
Not Required |
Either AAR/IP or
|
At a minimum, names of participants
|
Workshop
|
Not Required |
Either AAR/IP or
|
At a minimum, names of participants
|
Tabletop |
Not Required |
Required |
Required: See template |
Drill
|
Not Required |
Required |
Required: See template |
Functional |
Required |
Required |
Required: See template |
Full-Scale |
Required |
Required |
Required: See template |
Planned Event** |
Not Required |
Required |
Required: See template |
Real World Event** |
Not Required |
Required |
At a minimum, names of participants
|
**Planned/Real-World Event Approval Form