Campus Resilience Program Releases New Exercise Starter Kits for Cybersecurity, Hurricanes, and Active Shooter Scenarios

The Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Academic Engagement (OAE) released today three Exercise Starter Kits for the academic community as part of the Campus Resilience (CR) Program.

The CR Program’s Exercise Starter Kits are self-conducted tabletop exercises (TTX) designed for institutions of higher education (IHE). The Exercise Starter Kits provide IHEs with a set of scalable tools and documents to develop a TTX that can be tailored to match pressing threats and hazards, while validating specific emergency plans, protocols, and procedures.

The Exercise Starter Kits are complementary to the CR Program’s TTX series, which offers the NTTX, RTTX, and LTTX events annually. The Exercise Starter Kits allow an IHE’s campus law enforcement, emergency management staff, and leadership to continually test and strengthen current emergency preparedness plans outside of an in-person TTX Series event.

Exercise Starter Kits scenarios currently focus on cyber breaches, hurricanes, and active shooter incidents. Each Exercise Starter Kit includes a set of planning documents that contain pre-populated exercise content. Kit tools and documents include:

• An Exercise Conduct Briefing for presentation during the TTX
• A Situation Manual to provide background information on the TTX, scenario content, as well as discussion questions for participants
• A Facilitator Guide for assisting facilitators in delivering the TTX
• A Participant Feedback Form Template for players to provide candid feedback on the TTX
• An After-Action Report Template for summarizing key strength and areas for improvement following the TTX

For more information on the CR Program’s Exercise Starter Kits, read the Exercise Starter Kit one-pager. To obtain an Exercise Starter Kit, please fill out this survey.

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