Alliance for Response
Partners Strengthen Local Ties

Heritage Preservation’s Alliance for Response initiative has reached hundreds of individuals from collecting institutions and historic sites across the country. Launched in 2003, Alliance for Response is a series of one-day, invitation-only Forums designed to link cultural heritage and emergency response leaders. Through follow-up initiatives, it fosters cooperative disaster planning, provides essential training, and helps to integrate cultural heritage into local emergency plans.

In recent months, Alliance for Response networks have sponsored a variety of educational programs and worked on cooperative initiatives with city officials. Highlights include:

• The Cultural Emergency Management Team (CEMT) in Boston has made great strides toward becoming fully integrated into official emergency management systems. In April 2009, CEMT became part of the Massachusetts Coordinated Statewide Emergency Preparedness framework. The group will have an official role in responding to emergencies in the state, and its training and deployment will be supported through the state archives and the state library agency.
• Alliance for Response New York City, in partnership with the New York City Office of Emergency Management (OEM), held a lecture May 13 at the American Museum of Natural History. The program outlined OEM’s mission as well as the tools and initiatives it has developed for the community at large. On June 25, the OEM conducted a free training session to help cultural institutions create tabletop exercises tailored to their needs.
• Ohio Alliance for Response sponsored an expert panel session on fire suppression and mitigation at the Ohio Museums Association Annual Meeting on April 6. The Intermuseum Conservation Association will host the next meeting of the group in late July.
• Alliance for Response Philadelphia met April 20 to discuss a shared disaster supply cache and plan fire department walk-throughs. The group is exploring with the city’s Office of Emergency Management credentials for access to collections after disasters and representation for cultural heritage at the Emergency Operations Center.
• Pittsburgh Alliance for Response has held two meetings since its Forum in June 2008 – a tabletop disaster planning exercise conducted with the assistance of emergency professionals and a session covering risk management, mutual aid agreements, and mold remediation for damaged collections. A program on fire suppression is scheduled for September 9.

Four new Alliance for Response Forums will take place during the remainder of 2009 in Denver, Colorado; Raleigh, North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; and Woodstock, Vermont. More information is available on Heritage Preservation’s Alliance for Response Web site.