Penn State Fayette has established a Center for Community and Public Safety. A critical component of the center will be the development of a National Counter-Terrorism/Homeland Security Training Center.
Commonwealth College Dean Dianne Disney made the announcement about the new center in May to an audience of community, elected officials and campus staff and administration. Dr. Gregory Gray welcomed invited guests and members of the news media, and Ted A. Mellors, director of the center, presented an overview of the center’s goals and responsibilities.
“Penn State Fayette’s Center for Community and Public Safety is an academic and continuing education unit that provides first responder, governmental, industrial and corporate-based emergency and safety-oriented training and education programs and services,” Mellors said. “We plan for the center to be a leading provider of community and public safety-oriented training and educational activities within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.”
The center will focus on three strategic goals, he said. It will provide emergency response and safety-oriented training and education to local, regional, state and national audiences. It will establish a National Counter-Terrorism/Homeland Security Training Center by next fall and will identify funding sources to support the training center. And it will identify third-party funding to provide educational activities to emergency first responders on a no-fee basis.
Establishing a National Counter-Terrorism/Homeland Security Training Center at Penn State Fayette is vitally important to Pennsylvania and the nation, according to Lisa Davis, director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health at Penn State.
“Rural areas can be especially vulnerable to terrorist activities and their aftermath,” Davis said. “They are the center of agricultural production; are geographically isolated, often with mountainous terrain that can become impassible in inclement weather; and are served by small hospitals and volunteer emergency medical service units. They are the areas to which residents of metropolitan areas will travel in the event of terrorist activities in more densely populated locations. As such, it is vital that the hospitals and emergency response teams that serve these communities have available to them the training, capacity and networking essential to providing a timely and appropriate response in the event of a widespread emergency.”
In addition to establishing the Homeland Security Training Center, the Center for Community and Public Safety is replacing and expanding upon the duties of the Office of Emergency Medical Services. The center will now be the sole provider of Act 44 training for southwestern Pennsylvania, under contract by the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency through 2006. The campus has been a provider of this training since 1996 and has served the largest constable population (about 600) of the six statewide providers, offering about 50 constable classes annually.
The Center for Community and Public Safety will continue to be an accredited provider for CPR, First Aid, AED, Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support training. The center also is accredited by the Pennsylvania Department of Health as an EMS Training Institute approved to provide first responder, EMT, paramedic and other associated training courses.
In 2002, Penn State Fayette was selected to deliver the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency’s Statewide Crime Prevention Conference, and in 1999, the campus’ constable curriculum was honored as the top noncredit program in the country by the Association for Continuing Higher Education. During the last few years, the campus has delivered all of western Pennsylvania’s county Probation and Parole Officers Firearms courses.
Penn State Fayette has prepared a proposal for federal funding to provide direct and distance education instruction in responding to hazardous materials emergencies. The campus also has been selected by the University to coordinate all safety, hazardous materials, weapons of mass destruction and OSHA-related courses for the Commonwealth College.
The Center for Community and Public Safety received funding from the Emergency Medical Services Institute to develop a Web-based emergency medical services continuing education system and is collaborating with several agencies in the development of a module/distance education-based, initial emergency medical services certification training system.
The center also has been selected as a National Testing and Evaluation Site for Proline Training Inc. In addition, the center collaborated with the Westmoreland/Fayette Workforce Investment Board on a customized training for critical skills project and is collaborating with Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory to assist in the development and delivery of New Security Concepts for Public Safety and Public Order.
This year, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency designated the center as a Crime Prevention Resource Center for western Pennsylvania. The resource center will develop a Web site, produce a newsletter and produce or distribute printed materials, videos, costumes and other supplies for use by practitioners.
The Center for Community and Public Safety also is preparing to offer its first certificate program course work in homeland security.
Penn State Fayette has a long tradition of offering training in safety and security areas. In 1987, the campus established an emergency medical services education program, and since 1996, the campus has been developing and delivering education and training programs to a wide range of law enforcement and emergency-response personnel.
