Neighborhood America Tapped By National Council on Readiness and Preparedness (NCORP) and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government for Homeland Security Initiative

July 26, 2006 - Neighborhood America, providing the leading solution for online engagement and interaction via all forms of public comment has been called upon by the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness (NCORP) and Harvard's Kennedy School of Government to help create a National Blueprint for Secure Communities. The National Blueprint will aim to educate, train and help communities respond during the first 72 hours of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Neighborhood America will provide citizens, public and private sector officials with an online forum enabling them to provide input and to contribute ideas and procedures to help support this community preparedness initiative.

"It is an honor and privilege to work with the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness (NCORP) in partnership with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University," said Kim Patrick Kobza Neighborhood America's president and CEO. "Today organizations and agencies, particularly in government, are searching for improved channels for collecting and managing interactions with citizens. Together, we will look to engage with citizens by offering an interactive web-based solution bringing immediate insights to help shape the future of the National Blueprint for this Homeland Security initiative."

"Nearly 40 percent of America cannot afford to prepare for a major crisis. A comprehensive National Blueprint is needed to help local communities multiply their own local government capacity by leveraging the assets of the private sector and non-profit community to educate, train, and respond during the first 72 hours of crisis," said former Virginia Governor Jim Gilmore, spokesperson for the initiative. "The local first responders and community leaders all have a joint role to play and we need a template that helps them better define those roles, so they can learn, and implement best practices and ideas that have been developed in other communities and the federal government through the Blueprint process."

The template for the National Blueprint for Secure Communities will include
• Response/Containment
• Intelligence/Situational Awareness
• Public Health/Medical
• Transportation/Logistics
• Legal/Intergovernmental
• Public Safety/Information
• Infrastructure/Economic
• Citizen/Community

Several regional meetings will take place over the course of the next six months which will promote public participation in the National Blueprint initiative. Finally, in February of 2007 all submitted ideas and suggestions will be reviewed and presented to a session of the National Congress for Secure Communities in Washington D.C., on February 22-23, 2007. To learn more, or to contribute your thoughts or ideas please visit the National Blueprint for Secure Communities website at www.nationalblueprint.org.