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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

HSMI Receives College's 2nd Largest Congressional Appropriation


MCC’s Homeland Security Management Institute (HSMI) has been notified that it will receive $438,000 in congressional funds to provide emergency management planning, training and response for people with disabilities and special needs.

This federal funding, made available by U.S. Rep. John R. “Randy” Kuhl, will allow us to continue providing vital training to our area’s most vulnerable population. In the summer of 2005, HSMI was awarded funds to train special needs’ populations, especially senior citizens, individuals residing in assisted living communities, and people who are deaf and hard of hearing.

Natural and intentional disasters like– Hurricane Katrina and the global war on terrorism – make us aware of the greater need for plans and operational procedures related to response and recovery to these populations.

HSMI has established a national reputation for working with special populations and has developed one of the first Citizen’s Emergency Response Team (CERT) training programs for the deaf and hard of hearing. Graduates of these programs assisted in locating over 400 missing hard-of-hearing victims during Hurricane Katrina. CERT graduates also helped answer the TTY line during the telethon.

  This is the second congressionally-directed funding for HSMI; the first was a $500,000 appropriation in May 2005 made possible through U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds. Both represent the two largest federal appropriations in the college’s history.

 

John Perrone
Homeland Security Management Institute
01/09/2008