Local Officials

The National Integration Center (NIC) strongly recommends that all elected officials who will be interacting with multiple jurisdictions and agencies during an incident at the minimum complete IS-700: NIMS, An Introduction and ICS-100: Introduction to ICS. These courses provide a basic understanding of the National Incident Management System and the Incident Command System. Everyone directly involved in managing an emergency should understand the command reporting structures, common terminology, and roles and responsibilities inherent to a response operation.

Elected and appointed officials are responsible for ensuring the public safety and welfare of the people of that jurisdiction. Specifically, these officials provide strategic guidance and resources during preparedness, response, and recovery efforts. Elected or appointed officials must have a clear understanding of their roles and responsibilities for successful emergency management and response. At times, these roles may require providing direction and guidance to constituents during an incident, but their day-to-day activities do not focus on emergency management and response. Their awareness of NIMS is critical to ensuring cooperative response efforts and minimizing the incident impacts. One of the first things any elected official should know and understand is the Disaster Declaration Process.

To learn about potential funding, please review the funding opportunities detailed under the Homeland Security Grant Opportunities section of the ITTF website. Additionally, first responder organizations should work through their disciplines' mutual aid organizations, e.g. ILEAS for law enforcement, MABAS for fire, and IESMA for emergency management. The ITTF prioritizes funding for projects identified by its 16 committees.

Since 1999, Illinois has received more than $1 billion in federal preparedness funding. For annual award and expenditure totals, please view the ITTF Annual Reports listed in the Publications section of the ITTF website.

Residents and all sectors of the community have a critical role and shared responsibility to take appropriate actions to protect themselves, their families and organizations, and their properties. Planning that engages and includes the whole community serves as the focal point for building a collaborative and resilient community. Additionally, elected officials can use local government, school, municipality, and county websites as resources to link to information about personal preparedness. The Illinois Emergency Management Agency has a section of their website devoted to individual disaster planning. Businesses should also be encouraged to have emergency plans to allow them to quickly recover from an incident. FEMA's website offers emergency preparedness tips for the private sector.