The Region
The Northeast Homeland Security Planning Region contains 85 communities stretching from Ashby in the Northwest to Salisbury on the Northeastern coastal border with New Hampshire and Holliston in the Southwest. The region skirts the immediate urban, inner core of metro-Boston but also includes communities such as Arlington, Malden, Medford, Melrose, Saugus, and Watertown, which are immediately outside of the urban inner core. In the Northeast Region there are 1,971,945 people (747,313 households) in 1,310 square miles for an average population density of 1,505 people per square mile.
The Council
In the spring of 2004, now the Massachusetts Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS) designated five homeland security planning regions and appointed a sixteen-member multidisciplinary Advisory Council for each region. Council members represent all relevant public safety disciplines including law enforcement, fire service, emergency management, local public health, hospitals, emergency medical services (EMS), public works, transportation, corrections, and local government administration.
The Goal
The Advisory Council serves as the policy making body for the Northeast Homeland Security Planning Region as defined by the Massachusetts State Homeland Security Strategy developed by EOPSS. The role and responsibilities of the Council are to develop a regional Homeland Security Plan and oversee all grant program expenditures. The Regional Advisory Councils, with the help of the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and regional planning agencies (RPAs), submitted their first plan to EOPSS on July 28, 2004 after approximately a six-week development period.
EOPSS reached out to RPAs to help facilitate and draft the regional plans and to act as fiduciaries in their implementation and provide additional planning and facilitation services to the Councils as needed. The Metropolitan Area Planning Council, MAPC, serves in this role for the Northeast Homeland Security Regional Advisory Council.
NERAC Connect
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NERAC Connect is the Northeast Homeland Security Regional Advisory Council (NERAC)’s Collaborative-Information Sharing system. By using the MicroSoft SharePoint™ tool, it enables the Northeast Homeland Security Planning Region the ability to gain information across disciplines and jurisdictions. This information-sharing platform combines seven disciplines: law enforcement, fire, emergency management, emergency medical services, hospital, public health and public works on a single site that will allow for a more formal system on disseminating all the work, project highlights and resources NERAC provides for the region. The goal is to enhance information flow and communications by enabling first responders from across the NERAC Region and from seven disciplines to share a wide range of information/data on a day-to-day basis using Microsoft SharePoint™.
NERAC Connect was developed and conceived by the Northeast Homeland Security Regional Advisory Council (NERAC). Prior evaluation and discussion among the Council had illustrated a need for improved information sharing among first responders from different disciplines, jurisdictions and across governmental levels. With federal homeland security funding, and under the support of the Commonwealth’s FFY07 State Homeland Security Strategy, the SharePoint system proved to be the suitable platform. Because of the success and effectiveness Microsoft SharePoint has already demonstrated in its capability of non-voice communication and other data sharing, creation of document libraries for forms, policies, procedures & reports, scheduling and other operational needs, it was selected as the tool needed for the communication void in the region.
As the interest, use and need of NERAC Connect grows, the system will continue to be built upon to serve the needs of each discipline. It is the expectation that the NERAC Connect system will establish a means to enhance the collaborative nature of the NERAC community.
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