Responsibility for helping to prepare members of the community for all hazards is shared by federal, state, local, and tribal entities, and nongovernmental organizations. At the federal level, FEMA is responsible for developing national strategies, policies, and guidelines related to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. To achieve the goals of a national strategy, however, requires a close relationship with nonfederal partners, based on the premise that resilient communities—those that can quickly recover from a disaster—begin with prepared individuals and depend on the leadership and engagement of local government and other community members. According to DHS, emergency management agencies at the jurisdiction level are to develop preparedness plans for their localities that are consistent with plans at the state and federal levels. States submit requests for federal Homeland Security funding for state, local, and regional projects, including projects related to community preparedness. FEMA is required under the Post-Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act of 2006 (Post-Katrina Act) to establish a 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 Program guidance, the program is to bring together community and government leaders, including first responders, nonprofit organizations, and other community stakeholders as a Citizen Corps Council 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 Community Preparedness Division also supports the efforts of non-DHS federal “partner programs,” such as the Department of Health and Human Services’ Medical Reserve Corps, which 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. According to FEMA officials, training is conducted by local government, typically the fire or police department, which also organizes and supports teams of the trained volunteers in neighborhoods, the workplace, and high schools. 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 is also responsible for a related program, the Ready Campaign, which works in partnership with the Ad Council, an organization that creates public service announcements (PSA), with the goals of raising public awareness about 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 PSAs. 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 for community preparedness. 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. FEMA programs report the number of local units registered nationwide as a principal performance measure, but FEMA does not verify that the registration data for Citizen Corps Councils, CERT, or Fire Corps volunteer organizations are accurate. Our work showed that the number of active units reported may differ from the number that actually exists. For example, as of September 2009 we found the following. 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, of the 17 organizations registered as councils that we contacted during our site visits, 12 were active and 5 were not active as councils. The CERT program reported having 3,354 registered CERTs. Of the 12 registered CERTs we visited, 11 reported that they were actively engaged in CERT activities, such as drills and emergency preparedness outreach, or had assisted in an emergency or disaster. The 12th registered CERT was no longer active. State officials in two of the four states we visited also said that the data on the number of registered programs might not be accurate. A state official responsible for the Citizen Corps Council and CERT programs in one 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 another state said that the 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 uncertain 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. Although changes 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, a FEMA official responsible for the Citizen Corps program acknowledged that the current program registration lists need to be verified to determine whether they are accurate. The official said that FEMA has plans for improving the accuracy of the data as part of a new online registration process for Citizen Corps Councils and CERTs in 2010, which would involve reregistering local programs with the goal of reactivating inactive programs, although it is likely that some inactive programs would be removed from FEMA’s registries. However, it is possible that registration data could continue to be inaccurate because, according to a FEMA official, the Citizen Corps program does not have the authority to require all local units to update information, particularly councils or CERTs that do not receive federal funding. Furthermore, FEMA officials explained that the Homeland Security Grant Program guidance designates state officials as responsible for approving initial council and CERT registrations and ensuring that the data are updated as needed and said that under the new registration process, state officials will continue to be responsible for ensuring that data are updated as needed. A Citizen Corps official told us that the Community Preparedness Division does not monitor whether states are regularly updating local unit registration information as they do not have the staff or processes in place to monitor states’ efforts and the Division would look to regional staff to work with state officials. The official said that FEMA is considering the possibility of providing contract support to states that request assistance in contacting local programs as part of the re-registration effort. A key FEMA official told us that they recently drafted a new strategic approach and are considering developing and using outcome measures that are focused on the achievements of Citizen Corps programs as well as the number of programs, as is currently measured. Outcome measures are important because a registered program being active is only a first step in measuring whether local programs are meeting intended program goals. However, our review of the draft showed that it does not state what actions FEMA intends to take to ensure that registrations are accurate and remain up-to-date. Therefore, FEMA does not have reasonable assurance that its data about the number of registrations for local Citizen Corps programs are accurate, which may affect its ability to measure the results of those programs. By developing an approach to ensure the accuracy of local Citizen Corps program data, FEMA managers and others would be better positioned to understand why Citizen Corps programs that no longer exist were disbanded, possible strategies for reconstituting or creating new programs, and a foundation for developing outcome measures that gauge whether local programs are achieving goals associated with enhancing community preparedness. 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 numbers. The Ready Campaign relies on these measures because it faces two different challenges in determining whether its efforts are influencing individuals to be more prepared. First, the Ready Campaign is not positioned to control 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.