Task 4: Community Capability Review – Capability Assessment

Task 4: Community Capability Review

Capability Assessment

To accomplish mitigation, each community possesses a unique set of capabilities such as policies, authorities, staff, programs, funding, and other resources. The planning team can review these unique capabilities and identify those that can help diminish disaster losses or reduce risks in the future. The planning team should also identify those capabilities that unintentionally enhance risks in the community. Capability assessment is particularly helpful in the planning process of multi‐jurisdictional areas where local capability extensively varies.

The planning team gathers and assesses the information on the capabilities of the community. The mitigation plan should document the existing policies, authorities, programs, and available resources of each jurisdiction. To assess capabilities, start by reviewing existing information, reports, and plans, as well as interviewing local agencies and units to get a better understanding of relevant practices, resources, regulations, and programs. An effective method to do is to distribute a capabilities worksheet (see Worksheet 4.1) for each planning team member to complete.

Element C1: A mitigation strategy should be included in the plan that provides an outline of a jurisdiction for the purpose of diminishing the potential losses acknowledged in the risk review based on current policies, authorities, available resources, programs, and its capability to improve and develop, on the existing tools. 44 CFR §201.6(c)(3)