The Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (Post- Katrina Act) required that FEMA establish the national preparedness system to ensure that the nation has the ability to prepare for and respond to disasters of all types, whether natural or man-made, including terrorist attacks. The Community Preparedness Division is responsible for leading activities related to community preparedness, including management of the Citizen Corps program. According to fiscal year 2008 Homeland Security Grant Guidance, the program is to bring together community and government leaders, including first responders, nonprofit organizations, and other community stakeholders. Serving as a Citizen Corps council, government and nongovernment stakeholders are to collaborate in involving community members in emergency preparedness, planning, mitigation, response, and recovery. Councils and partner programs register online to be included in the national program registries. The Division also supports the efforts of non-DHS federal “partner programs,” such as the Medical Reserve Corps, that promote preparedness and the use of volunteers to support first responders. The CERT program’s mission is to educate and train people in basic disaster preparedness and response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, and disaster medical operations, using a nationally developed, standardized training curriculum. Trained individuals can be recruited to participate on neighborhood, business, or government teams to assist first responders. The mission of the Fire Corps program is to increase the capacity of fire and emergency medical service departments through the use of volunteers in nonoperational roles and activities, including administrative, public outreach, fire safety, and emergency preparedness education. FEMA also is responsible for a related program, the Ready Campaign, which works in partnership with the Ad Council, an organization that creates public service messages, with the goals of raising public awareness regarding the need for emergency preparedness, motivating individuals to take steps toward preparedness, and ultimately increasing the level of national preparedness. The program makes preparedness information available to the public through its English and Spanish Web sites (www.ready.gov and www.listo.gov), through printed material that can be ordered from the program or via toll-free phone lines, and through public service announcements (PSA). The Ready Campaign message calls for individuals, families, and businesses to (1) get emergency supply kits, (2) make emergency plans, and (3) stay informed about emergencies and appropriate responses to those emergencies. FEMA faces challenges in measuring the performance of local community preparedness efforts because it lacks accurate information on those efforts. FEMA is also confronted with challenges in measuring performance for the Ready Campaign because the Ready Campaign is not positioned to control the placement of its preparedness messages or measure whether its message is changing the behavior of individuals. According to FEMA officials, FEMA promotes citizen preparedness and volunteerism by encouraging collaboration and the creation of community Citizen Corps, CERT, and Fire Corps programs. FEMA includes the number of Citizen Corps councils, CERTs, and Fire Corps established across the country as its principal performance measure. However, FEMA faces challenges ensuring that the information needed to measure the number of established, active units is accurate. In our past work we reported on the importance of ensuring that program data are of sufficient quality to document performance and support decision making. Although not a measure under the Government Performance Result Act, FEMA programs report the number of local units registered as a principal performance measure; however, our work showed that the number of active units reported may differ from the number that actually exist. For example, as of September 2009: Citizen Corps reported having 2,409 registered Citizen Corps councils nationwide that encompass jurisdictions where approximately 79 percent of the U.S. population resides. However, 12 of the 17 registered councils we contacted during our site visits were active and 5 were not. The CERT program reported having 3,354 registered CERTs. Of the 12 registered CERTs we visited, 11 were actively engaged in CERT activities, such as drills, exercises, and emergency preparedness outreach, or had been deployed to assist in an emergency or disaster situation, although 1 had members that had not been trained. One registered CERT was no longer active. State officials in two of the four states also said that the data on number of registered programs might not be accurate. One state official responsible for the Citizen Corps council and CERT programs in the state estimated that as little as 20 percent of the registered councils were active, and the state subsequently removed more than half of its 40 councils from the national Web site. Officials in the other state said that the national database is not accurate and they have begun to send e-mails to or call local councils to verify the accuracy of registrations in their state. These officials said that they plan to follow up with those councils that do not respond, but they were not yet certain what they planned to do if the councils were no longer active. These results raise questions about the accuracy of FEMA’s data on the number of councils across the nation, and the accuracy of FEMA’s measure that registered councils cover 79 percent of the population nationwide. Some change in the number of active local programs can be expected, based on factors including changes in government leadership, voluntary participation by civic leaders, and financial support. FEMA officials told us that the Homeland Security Grant Program guidance designates state officials as responsible for approving initial council and CERT registrations and ensure that the data are updated as needed. According to FEMA officials, however, in practice this may not occur. Community Preparedness Division officials said that they do not monitor whether states are regularly updating local unit registration information. FEMA officials said that FEMA plans to adopt a new online registration process for Citizen Corps councils and CERTs in 2010, which will likely result in some programs being removed from FEMA’s registries. They said that FEMA expects to use the new registration process to collect more comprehensive data on membership and council activities. According to FEMA officials, updating initial registration information will continue to be the responsibility of state officials. The Citizen Corps Director noted that the Citizen Corps program does not have the ability to require all local units to update information, particularly councils or CERTS that receive no federal funding. According to the Fire Corps program Acting Director, a state advocacy program initiated in 2007 may help identify inactive programs as well as promote the Fire Corps program. As of September 2009, there were 53 advocates in 31 states. We will continue to assess this issue as part of our ongoing work. Currently, the Ready Campaign measures its performance based on measures such as materials distributed or PSAs shown. For example, according to a DHS official, in fiscal year 2008, the Ready Campaign had more than 99 million “hits” on its Web site, more than 12 million pieces of Ready Campaign literature requested or 43,660 calls to the toll-free call numbers. The Ready Campaign relies on these measures because it faces two different challenges determining whether its efforts are influencing individuals to be more prepared. First, the Ready Campaign is not positioned to control the when or where its preparedness message is viewed. Second, the Ready Campaign is not positioned to measure whether its message is changing the behavior of individuals. With regard to the Ready Campaign’s ability to control the distribution of its message, our prior work has shown that agencies whose programs rely on others to deliver services face challenges in targeting and measuring results in meeting ultimate goals, and when this occurs, agencies can use intermediate measures to gauge program activities. However, according to FEMA’s Acting Director for the Ready Campaign, funds are not available for the Ready Campaign to purchase radio and television time to air its PSAs; rather, the Ready Campaign relies on donations of various sources of media. As a result, the Ready Campaign does not control what, when, or where Ready Campaign materials are placed when the media is donated. For example, what PSA is shown and the slots (e.g., a specific channel at a specific time) that are donated by television, radio, and other media companies are not under the Ready Campaign’s control, and these are not always prime viewing or listening spots. Based on Ad Council data, the Ready Campaign’s PSAs in 2008 were aired about 5 percent or less of the time by English and Spanish television stations during prime time (8:00 pm to 10:59 p.m.), and about 25 percent of the PSAs were aired from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. Similarly, about 47 percent of English radio and about 27 percent of Spanish radio spots were aired from midnight to 6:00 a.m. FEMA officials said that with the release of its September 2009 PSAs, they expect increased placement during hours where there are more viewers and listeners. Just as the Ready Campaign has no control over the time PSAs are aired, it does not control the type of media (e.g., radio and television) donated. Based on Ad Council data on the dollar value of media donated to show Ready Campaign materials (the value of the donated media is generally based on what it would cost the Ready Campaign if the media space were purchased), much of the value from donated media is based on space donated in the yellow pages. Figure 1 shows the value of various types of media donated to the Ready Campaign to distribute its message during 2008. The Ready Campaign also faces a challenge determining the extent to which it contributes to individuals taking action to become more prepared—the program’s goal. Measuring the Ready Campaign’s progress toward its goal is problematic because it can be difficult to isolate the specific effect of exposure to Ready Campaign materials on an individual’s level of emergency preparedness. Research indicates that there may be a number of factors that are involved in an individual taking action to become prepared, such as his or her beliefs as to vulnerability to disaster, geographic location, or income.