NDPC Hosts The Hawaii Training Initiative
August 6, 2013
The National Domestic Preparedness Consortium (NDPC) hosted The Hawaii Training Initiative at Chaminade University of Honolulu on July 16-18. The event, provided free-of-charge to participants, was a unique DHS training opportunity for state and local responders, focusing on counter-terrorism and disaster preparedness.
“The goal of the Hawaii Training Initiative was to provide a broad spectrum of training opportunities to enhance the culture of preparedness for the state of Hawaii among all the stakeholders including local, county, state and federal law enforcement, public health, hospitals, military, state government, private security and education,” said Steve Williams, Associate Director of Operations and Plans at the National Center for Biomedical Research and Training, an NDPC member organization.
“This provided an opportunity for these diverse stakeholders to come together, interact,
provide an overview of their capabilities, and learn as a whole community, not just
as a single agency.”
The Hawaii Training Initiative offered a wide range of courses including Biological
Incidents Awareness; Campus Emergencies: Prevention, Response & Recovery; Screening
of Persons by Observational Techniques; Law Enforcement Prevention and Deterrence;
Intermediate Incident Command System for Expanding Incidents; Social Media for Disaster
Response and Recovery; and Leveraging Tools for Conducting Damage Assessments.
Participants could earn up to 24 hours credit toward the Law Enforcement Terrorism
Certification Program (LETCP), currently adopted by the state of Oklahoma. In turn,
Chaminade University of Honolulu will offer both undergraduate and graduate academic
credit for courses completed within this program. Upon successful completion of the
advanced certification, eligible participants will be awarded 18 credit hours toward
an on-campus or online degree at Chaminade University.
The response to this training initiative was very positive, and participants noted
the desire for this to become an annual event. “NDPC and their array of gifted instructors
brought sorely need training to the island, and we can only hope that they return
with a new list of course offerings very soon,” said Ron Becker, Criminal Justice
Chair at Chaminade University of Honolulu.
Chaminade University is a private college offering degrees in criminology and criminal justice designed to prepare the undergraduate and graduate student academically for entry into and advancement in career positions in administration, criminal justice, criminology, law enforcement and public safety at the federal, state and local level.
The NDPC is a professional alliance sponsored through the Department of Homeland Security/FEMA
National Preparedness Directorate. The consortium, made up of seven members, reflects
the missions of all these organizations with its commitment to provide quality, cost-effective
counter-terrorism training to the nation’s emergency responders.
The LETCP curriculum includes both web-based and instructor-led training, which includes
mobile and residential training. Each of the courses offered in the training program
have been either DHS-certified or are federal or state courses approved through DHS.
Each course is also offered at no cost to the participant.