FEMA - Mission Areas and Core Capabilities

The National Preparedness Goal identifies five mission areas and 32 core capabilities intended to assist everyone who has a role in achieving all of the elements in the Goal.

Five Mission Areas:

• PREVENTION - Prevent, avoid, or stop an imminent threatened or actual act of terrorism.
• PROTECTION - Protect our citizens, residents, visitors, and assets against the greatest threats and hazards in a manner that allow our interests, aspirations and way of life to thrive.
• MITIGATION - Reduce the loss of life and property by lessening the impact of future disasters.
• RESPONSE - Respond quickly to save lives, protect property and the environment, and meet basic human needs in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident.
• RECOVERY - Recover through a focus on the timely restoration, strengthening and revitalization of infrastructure, housing and a sustainable economy, as well as the health, social, cultural, historic and environmental fabric communities affected by a catastrophic incident.

The core capabilities, established in the National Preparedness Goal, are referenced in many national preparedness efforts, including the National Planning Frameworks.  The Goal groups the capabilities across the relevant five mission areas.  Some core capabilities fall within a single mission area, while others apply to multiple or all mission areas.

The core capabilities are distinct critical elements necessary to achieve the National Preparedness Goal and essential for the execution of each mission area.  Developing and sustaining the core capabilities through the combined efforts of the whole community.

• PLANNING - All Mission Areas - Conduct a systematic process engaging the whole community as appropriate in the development of executable, strategic, operational, and/or tactical-level approaches to meet defined objectives.
• PUBLIC INFORMATION AND WARNING - All Mission Areas - Deliver coordinated, prompt, reliable, and actionable information to the whole community through the use of clear, consistent, accessible, and culturally and linguistically appropriate methods to effectively relay information regarding any threat or hazard, as well as the actions being taken and the assistance being made available, as appropriate.
• OPERATIONAL COORDINATION - All Mission Areas - Establish and maintain a unified and coordinated operational structure and process that appropriately integrates all critical stakeholders and supports the execution of core capabilities.
• INTELLIGENCE AND INFORMATION SHARING - Mission Areas Prevention and Protection - Provide timely, accurate, and actionable information resulting from the planning, direction, collection, exploitation, processing, analysis, production, dissemination, evaluation, and feedback of available information concerning physical and cyber threats to the United States, its people, property, or interests; the development, proliferation, or use of WMDs; or any other matter bearing on U.S. national or homeland security by local, state, tribal, territorial, federal, and other stakeholders.  Information sharing is the ability to exchange intelligence, information data, or knowledge among government or private sector entities, as appropriate.
• INTERDICTION AND DISRUPTION - Mission Areas Prevention and Protection - Delay, divert, intercept, halt, apprehend, or secure threats and/or hazards.
• SCREENING, SEARCH, AND DETECTION - Mission Areas Prevention and Protection - Identify, discover, or locate threats and/or hazards through active and passive surveillance and search procedures. This may include the use of systematic examinations and assessments, bio surveillance, sensor technologies, or physical investigation and intelligence.
• FORENSICS AND ATTRIBUTION - Mission Area Prevention - Conduct forensic analysis and attribute terrorist acts (including the means and methods of terrorism) to their source, to include forensic analysis as well as attribution for an attack and for the preparation for an attack in an effort to prevent initial or follow-on acts and/or swiftly develop counter-options.
• ACCESS CONTROL AND IDENTITY VERIFICATION - Mission Area Protection - Apply and support necessary physical, technological, and cyber measures to control admittance to critical locations and systems.
• CYBERSECURITY - Mission Area Protection - Protect (and if needed, restore) electronic communications systems, information, and services from damage, unauthorized use, and exploitation.
• PHYSICAL PROTECTIVE MEASURES - Mission Area Protection - Implement and maintain risk-informed countermeasures, and policies protecting people, borders, structures, materials, products, and systems associated with key operational activities and critical infrastructure sectors.
• RISK MANAGMENT FOR PROTECTION PROGRAMS AND ACTIVITIES - Mission Area Protection - Identify, assess, and prioritize risks to inform Protection activities,  countermeasures, and investments.
• SUPPLY CHAIN INTEGRITY AND SECURITY - Mission Area Protection - Strengthen the security and resilience of the supply chain.
• COMMUNITY RESILIENCE - Mission Area Mitigation - Enable the recognition, understanding, communication of, and planning for risk and empower individuals and communities to make informed risk management decisions necessary to adapt to, withstand, and quickly recover from future incidents.
• LONG-TERM VULNERABILITY REDUCTION - Mission Area Mitigation - Build and sustain resilient systems, communities, and critical infrastructure and key resources lifelines so as to reduce their vulnerability to natural, technological, and human-caused threats and hazards by lessening the likelihood, severity, and duration of the adverse consequences.
• RISK AND DISASTER RESILENCE ASSESSMENT - Mission Area Mitigation - Assess risk and disaster resilience so that decision makers, responders, and community members can take informed action to reduce their entity's risk and increase their resilience.
• THREATS AND HAZARDS IDENTIFICATION - Mission Area Mitigation - Identify the threats and hazards that occur in the geographic area; determine the frequency and magnitude; and incorporate this into analysis and planning processes so as to clearly understand the needs of a community or entity.
• INFRASTRUCTURE SYSTEMS - Mission Area Response and Recovery - Stabilize critical infrastructure functions, minimize health and safety threats, and efficiently restore and revitalize systems and services to support a viable, resilient community.
• CRITICAL TRANSPORTATION - Mission Area Response - Provide transportation (including infrastructure access and accessible transportation services) for response priority objectives, including the evacuation of people and animals, and the delivery of vital response personnel, equipment, and services into the affected areas.
• ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE/HEALTH AND SAFETY - Mission Area Response - Conduct appropriate measures to ensure the protection of the health and safety of the public and workers, as well as the environment, from all-hazards in support of responder operations and the affected communities.
• FATALITY MANAGEMENT SERVICES - Mission Area Response - Provide fatality management services, including decedent remains recovery and victim identification, working with local, state, tribal, territorial, insular area, and federal authorities to provide mortuary processes, temporary storage or permanent internment solutions, sharing information with mass care services for the purpose of reunifying family members and caregivers with missing persons/remains, and providing counseling to the bereaved.
• FIRE MANAGEMENT AND SUPPRESSION - Mission Area Response - Provide structural, wildland, and specialized firefighting capabilities to manage and suppress fires of all types, kinds, and complexities while protecting the lives, property, and the environment in the affected area.
• LOGISTICS AND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT - Mission Area Response - Deliver essential commodities, equipment, and services in support of impacted communities and survivors, to include emergency power and fuel support, as well as the coordination of access to community staples. Synchronize logistics capabilities and enable the restoration of impacted supply chains.
• MASS CARE SERVICES - Mission Area Response - Provide life-sustaining and human services to the affected population, to include hydration, feeding, sheltering, temporary housing, evacuee support, reunification, and distribution of emergency supplies.
• MASS SEARCH AND RESCUE OPERATIONS - Mission Area Response - Deliver traditional and atypical search and rescue capabilities, including personnel, services, animals, and assets to survivors in need, with the goal of saving the greatest number of endangered lives in the shortest time possible.
• ON-SCENE SECURITY, PROTECTION, AND LAW ENFORCEMENT - Mission Area Response - Ensure a safe and secure environment through law enforcement and related security and protection operations for people and communities located within affected areas and also for response personnel engaged in lifesaving and life-sustaining operations.
• OPERATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS - Mission Area Response - Ensure the capacity for timely communications in support of security, situational awareness, and operations by any and all means available, among and between affected communities in the impact area and all response forces.
• PUBLIC HEALTH, HEALTHCARE, AND EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES - Mission Area Response - Provide lifesaving medical treatment via Emergency Medical Services and related operations and avoid additional disease and injury by providing targeted public health, medical, and behavioral health support, and products to all affected populations.
• SITUATIONAL ASSESSMENT - Mission Area Response - Provide all decision makers with decision-relevant information regarding the nature and extent of the hazard, any cascading effects, and the status of the response.
• ECONOMIC RECOVERY - Mission Area Recovery - Return economic and business activities (including food and agriculture) to a healthy state and develop new business and employment opportunities that result in an economically viable community.
• HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES - Mission Area Recovery - Restore and improve health and social services capabilities and networks to promote the resilience, independence, health (including behavioral health), and well-being of the whole community.
• HOUSING - Mission Area Recovery - Implement housing solutions that effectively support the needs of the whole community and contribute to its sustainability and resilience.
• NATURAL AND CULTURAL RESOURCES - Mission Area Recovery - Protect natural and cultural resources and historic properties through appropriate planning, mitigation, response, and recovery actions to preserve, conserve, rehabilitate, and restore them consistent with post-disaster community priorities and best practices and in compliance with applicable environmental and historic preservation laws and executive orders.