Exercise and Preparedness Tools

Preparedness Toolkit (PrepToolkit)

PrepToolkit is an online collaborative environment in which individuals from all levels of government and the private and nonprofit sectors can prepare for risks in their communities and provides an avenue to execute preparedness activities efficiently and easily and to share this work with others.

Whole community partners can register by creating a username and password for system access. Usernames and passwords are self‐managed by the user with support from the help desk.

PrepToolkit Registration and Login

The impacts of climate change are being felt today in communities across the country and increasingly test our resilience. Exercises provide a method for participants to visualize a future that is outside their direct experience and evaluate options for constructive action to adapt to climate changes already occurring and those to come. The Long-Term Community Resilience Exercise Resource Guide is a “one-stop–shop" for any jurisdiction or organization looking to conduct a climate-focused exercise.

This guide equips users with:

• A dictionary with common terms to ensure a shared understanding of climate-related terminology and principles before an exercise.
• Tools and templates for planning and conducting climate-focused exercises.
• Resources including funding opportunities, risk assessments and training programs.

Email the National Exercise Program email with questions or to share how you are using the Long-Term Community Resilience Exercise Resource Guide.

2021-2022 National Exercise Program Exercise Starter Kits

FEMA maintains a series of Exercise Starter Kits (ESKs) supporting the implementation of the 2021-2022 National Exercise Program (NEP) cycle.  Each NEP cycle is guided by a series of Principals’ Strategic Priorities (PSPs). Each ESK is aligned to a NEP PSP through its core capabilities, objectives and target capabilities.  ESKs are designed to provide stakeholders across the whole community with ready-to-use materials and templates to develop, conduct, and evaluate a discussion-based exercise tailored to their specific threats, resources, operational plans, and procedures of their organization/jurisdiction or jurisdiction. Each ESK includes a set of pre-populated HSEEP-aligned templates and are available for download through the EM Toolkit section of PrepToolkit.

FEMA’s National Exercise Division (NED) recognized that exercise practitioners struggled to adapt exercises to the unique challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic produced. NED collected and compiled lessons learned and best practices from across the whole community of exercise professionals related to two topics: “Virtual Exercise Best Practices” and “Safe Exercise Practices for In-person Events.” The new materials are posted below. 

Cyber Ready Community Game

The community weathers multiple cyber incidents, shares information, and negotiates to prioritize cyber response resources needed to sustain the community’s critical functions. Through game play, players learn aspects of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s cybersecurity framework.