Security and Safety Resource for Your Nonprofit

Planned Parenthood will be holding a security program with Chuck Harder from Priority One Safety Solutions. They would like to make other nonprofits aware of this company and its services.

The company provides services to create a secure workplace and to educate staff and/or students on how to react during an active shooter.

Priority One Safety Solutions provides services such as a complete property security assessment, a comprehensive security, threat, and training analysis, and much more. We offer presentations for staff or students which cover history of school shootings, pre-incident indicators, courses of action to take during an active shooter and when law enforcement arrives.

Past and present mass shootings, demonstrates that schools and businesses need to properly plan against such acts of unnecessary violence. A quality security assessment and proper training of staff and students can not only save money in insurance costs and lawsuits, but most importantly, lives.

The company gave two presentations for 200 staff members of the Windsor Central School District and gave a presentation to all local Catholic School staff in the past two months. The presentations give a realistic approach on how to train and react in the event of an active shooter.

Chuck Harder
Owner
Priority One Safety Solutions
www.priorityonesafetysolutions.com
PO Box 2869
Binghamton, NY 13902
(607) 765-9690

Resources for Shooting Emergencies, Security Needs

In light of the June 10 incident at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., when security guard Stephen Johns was shot and killed, American Association of Museums (AAM) is distributing Active Shooter materials prepared by the Department of Homeland Security. The materials provide guidance—in booklet, pocket card and poster forms—for the immediate actions to take in the event of an active shooter in your museum.

The Museum Association Security Committee (MASC) also shares its Recommendations for Preparing Museums for Active Shooter Situations, which were adapted from the Department of Homeland Security’s Active Shooter Guidelines. In order to prepare for an active shooter incident, MASC recommends that museums conduct a risk assessment, update their emergency evacuation plan following the risk assessment, train all employees and volunteers in the updated emergency evacuation plan, and conduct unscheduled realistic evacuation drills on a regular basis.

In addition, the Museum, Library, and Cultural Properties Council of ASIS International and the Museum Association Security Committee of AAM jointly developed Suggested Practices for Museum Security. Revised in 2006, the document addresses fire protection, burglar alarms, key control, access control, security staffing and training, security officer qualifications and pre-employment screening for museum employees.

Program Meeting Focuses on Saftey and Emergency Planning

The recent SCNY ED Group meeting drew over 27 participants to hear Richard D. Keehle Jr., the Manager of Safety and Security Services/Emergency Preparedness Coordinator from United Health Services. Mr. Keehle's presentation (available here) was all inclusive and covered the core areas of:
•Safety Planning
•Police/Fire Involvement
•Emergency Planning
•Evacuation Planning
•Actual Events
•Personal Protection

The program highlighted the need for nonprofits and their staff to carry out a risk assessment and have a plan in place to deal with emergencies (such as flooding, workplace violence, or even loss of power). Many nonprofits believe they don't have the expertise and resources available to address the areas outlined in this program, but the speaker highlighted some invaluable resources and related online free training available for any sized nonprofit.

Suggested resources:

• Link for NIMS ICS Courses: http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/crslist.asp
• www.ready.gov: a source for emergency templates and plans

Have other suggestions? Add them here or e-mail us.

Special Projects Committee
The Program ended with business meeting, which featured an update from the Special Projects Committee about the planned nonprofit economic impact study. Joe Sellepack, the Committee Chair, introduced the two Binghamton University interns, Katie McDonald and Mike Kvassay, who will be helping develop this effort. Joe also introduced a letter that will be going out to area nonprofit directors about this project, which will ask for their support. The meeting ended with a request from Katie to send thoughts and feedback about misperceptions/misconception/myths about their particular nonprofit organization and/or nonprofits organizations in general to her at kmcdona1@binghamton.edu. The information will be compiled and used to inform the qualitative portion of the Special Projects Committee project regarding the social and cultural benefits of nonprofit organizations.