In 2022, FEMA‘s National Preparedness Assessment Division conducted a grant effectiveness case study with the Blue Lake Rancheria to better understand the effects of preparedness grant funding investments made by the tribe. To conduct this case study, FEMA personnel held a virtual interview with Blue Lake Rancheria’s Office of Emergency Services in September 2022. During the case study, participants discussed the tribe’s use of preparedness grant dollars to invest in community resilience, investment and allocation strategies, and recommendations for improving FEMA’s administration of its preparedness grant programs. The case study resulted in the following findings:
- The geographic isolation of Blue Lake Rancheria has shaped the tribe’s emergency management and investment strategies.
- The Blue Lake Rancheria’s resourceful investment of funding from multiple federal and state grant programs significantly improved its ability to advance community and energy resilience for its members and whole community stakeholders in the greater North Coast region of California.
- Investments using FEMA preparedness grant funding in planning, training, exercises and equipment play a critical role in Blue Lake Rancheria’s emergency management approach, supplement investments using other FEMA, federal and state grant funds in technology to ensure energy resilience, and result in positive impacts to the tribe’s response and recovery outcomes during disaster incidents.
- In particular, the Blue Lake Rancheria’s investment of 2016 Tribal Homeland Security Grant Program funding to create the Resilience Training and Innovation Center filled an important gap in the North Coast region’s resilience framework. It accomplished this by providing trainings to local emergency managers, including from other tribal nations and remote areas, and helping build relationships between the tribe and other federal, state, local and tribal stakeholders in the emergency management community.
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