Bio-Defense Network initiatives are regional in scope, much more than they previously were. One major Gulf Coast community has engaged us for a 14 jurisdiction regional initiative that will focus on Closed POD recruitment, writing Closed POD Plans as an Annex to MCM Plans, producing Workbooks for Closed POD hosts, performing readiness reviews of their current Closed PODs and holding a series of five year Closed POD planning sessions.
A New England community is hiring us to conduct a day long training session for 30 jurisdictions in the region. That session will train health departments on our proven method of recruiting and maintaining Closed PODs and will also include leading employers from those communities.
And a Pacific Northwest community of three counties is hiring us to recruit and train its Closed POD hosts. The first half of 2015 will be utilized for recruitment, while the second half of the year will be for training.
Regional projects are a positive trend, since they allow recruitment in multiple adjacent jurisdictions in the same community. This is more efficient and effective than working a single jurisdiction at a time. It is also more cost-effective for each jurisdiction, since the costs can be spread across multiple jurisdictions, or be underwritten by a grant or consolidating body, such as a UASI region. We believe this trend will continue, and look forward to working with more communities to help their preparedness efforts.