Antwane Johnson
Director of the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS)
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FEMA
A New Phase of Emergency Alerting
DHS S&T and FEMA IPAWS Equip Emergency Managers and First Responders with New Tools to Notify Public and Enhance Safety
The IPAWS Program Planning Toolkit will change the way our public safety community prepares for, responds to, manages, and recovers from emergencies. It''s a first step for alerting authorities and emergency managers to set their teams up for success in the Alerts, Warnings, and Notifications (AWN) landscape. And, thanks to the stakeholder-driven research that''s gone into the development of this toolkit, it is uniquely tailored to provide the AWN community with guidelines that they will need when implementing emergency response plans.
Developed for and by alerting and public safety stakeholders, the toolkit provides guidance on establishing a new AWN program or refining an existing one. Emergency managers, public information officers, alert originators and administrators, and experts all contributed best practices that will help additional agencies/jurisdictions nationwide ensure their AWN programs run smoothly. Previously, stakeholders would contact IPAWS with issues or questions. The goal of the new toolkit is to put reference tools at their fingertips.