Over the past three years, the cities of Aurora and Naperville have been working together to plan and prepare for the worst-case scenario, a potential terrorist attack.
Aurora and Naperville were selected as recipients of the Complex Coordinated Terrorist Attacks (CCTA Program) in 2017. The CCTA Program provided federal grant funding to cities and states across the country to improve their ability to prepare for, prevent, and respond to sophisticated, coordinated terrorist attacks in collaboration with the whole community.
The CCTA Program was launched in 2016 when the U.S. Congress provided the Department of Homeland Security and its Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) $35.9 million to distribute to select communities across the country to develop plans, training, and exercises that focus on enhancing preparedness against CCTAs. 29 recipients were selected in July 2017. The cities of Aurora and Naperville received a joint $1.4 million in federal grant dollars, one of the more substantial awards to the selected recipients.
Over the past two years, the cities have used the funding to create new regional emergency plans, training, and programs to prepare our cities for a potential worst-case scenario. The funding has also gone to help prepare citizens with programs like ALICE Training at businesses, schools, churches, and other locations across our two cities.
On Thursday, public safety agencies and city leaders from Naperville and Aurora will be host a community transparency workshop to show the community what the grant has accomplished over the past two years and preview our large-scale exercise scheduled for 2020. The community will also get an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the program overall.
CCTA Whole Community Transparency Workshop Thursday, November 7th, 2019 10:30 a.m. to noon at Calvary Temple – 9S200 IL-59, Naperville, IL 60564