Your plan will be developed in accordance with the most recent guidance documents issued by DHS to the states, which are the 2005 State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy: Guidance on Aligning Strategies with the National Preparedness Goal; the 2007 National Preparedness Guidelines; the Homeland Security Institute’s Homeland Security Strategic Planning: Mission Area Analysis; and other federal guidelines, as well as any widely accepted best practices. 

Project Steps

To complete this project, follow the steps below:

Step 1

Develop a strategy for completing the project as a group. It is extremely important that everyone in the group know their roles and responsibilities. You may want to consider assigning roles, such as group leader, researcher, editor, and writer. Most if not all group members will have to perform more than one role for the group to complete the assignment on time.

Step 2

Using the library, conduct a literature search for articles and other relevant information to this assignment. In preparing this assignment, you must incorporate a minimum of 3 scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources.

Step 3

Using the Internet, search for relevant information, including existing SHSSPs. Be careful to weigh both the timeliness and accuracy of this information before incorporating it into your project.

Step 4

Using the steps above, the results of your literature and Internet search, and course textbooks, prepare a draft plan of 2,000–2,500 words entitled State A Homeland Security Strategic Plan in accordance with the following criteria:

• Apply best practices wherever possible in the plan development process.
• Align the strategic objectives that support state goals to the 7 identified national priorities:
  • Regional Collaboration
  • National Incident Management System (NIMS) and the National Response Framework (NRF)
  • National Infrastructure Protection Plan
  • Information Sharing and Collaboration
  • Interoperable Communications
  • Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) capabilities
  • Medical Surge and Mass Prophylaxis Capabilities
• Describe the strategies, goals, and objectives within the framework of the 4 identified mission areas:
  • Prevent
  • Protect
  • Respond
  • Recover
• Ensure the strategic planning process sufficiently takes the following into account:
  • Allowing local jurisdictions to participate in the planning process
  • Citizen preparedness and volunteer efforts
  • Regionalization and mutual aid

Step 5

Quality Control Questions: Use the following questions to check the quality of your work:

• Is the format of the SHSSP consistent with the guidance in the State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy: Guidance on Aligning Strategies with the National Preparedness Goal?
• Does the current SHSSP meet the update requirements found on page 7 of the State and Urban Area Homeland Security Strategy:Guidance on Aligning Strategies with the National Preparedness Goal?
• Does the SHSSP effectively incorporate the national priorities? More specifically, do the SHSSP’s goals and objectives align with the National Priorities? Make sure to use the most up-to-date guidance in the 2007 National Preparedness Guidelines and Homeland Security Strategic Planning: Mission Area Analysis.
• Does the SHSSP effectively incorporate the mission areas of prevention, protection, response, and recovery? Make sure to use the most up-to-date guidance in the 2007 National Preparedness Guidelines.