Extra capacity for the agencies that carry the plan
An outdated EOP, an EMPG deliverable coming due, an exercise requirement with no one free to design it. Small EM offices carry a full-size mission with a fraction of the staff. We provide experienced, standards-based surge capacity: EOPs, COOPs, HSEEP exercises, and after-action reports, delivered by a CEM who has sat in your chair.
Emergency managers wear every hat: planner, trainer, grant writer, coordinator, public educator, and responder. When a deliverable date collides with an actual incident, planning work is what slips. It slips again the next quarter, and eventually the plan is five years old and the state review is scheduled.
Baldwin Safety Solutions works as an extension of your office rather than as an outside vendor. Every engagement is led personally by a Certified Emergency Manager and Master Exercise Practitioner who has sat on your side of the table: deputy director of a county emergency management agency who authored its Emergency Operations Plan and then used it during real incidents, regional manager directing emergency management across a 17-county area, and statewide planner authoring a state agency's continuity, debris, and recovery plan set.
That background matters in a specific way. Plans arrive already shaped for state review and grant monitoring, because they were written by someone who has been on the reviewing side as well as the writing side. You stay in control of the mission. We take work off your plate and bring an outside perspective that strengthens the whole program.
The five situations agencies usually call about
1. The EOP is out of date and the revision keeps getting deferred
Departments have reorganized, the alternate EOC moved, half the contact roster has retired, and the annexes reference a structure that no longer exists. We rebuild against a current risk picture and a current org chart, structured to FEMA CPG 101 and consistent with NIMS so it coordinates cleanly with the state and with neighboring jurisdictions. Working sessions are with the people who would actually staff the EOC, not only with department heads, because the deputy who runs the desk at 2 a.m. is the one who has to find things in it.
2. A grant deliverable is due and there is no one free to produce it
Preparedness funding carries planning, training, exercise, and reporting obligations that are routinely underestimated when the application is written. We produce deliverables in the form the funder expects, with documentation traceable enough that a monitoring visit is uneventful. Where the scope in the award does not match what your jurisdiction actually needs, we will say so rather than building something you will not maintain.
3. The exercise requirement is coming and nobody has time to design one
We design HSEEP-aligned exercises around objectives specific to your program, facilitate them independently, and deliver a full documentation package: situation manual, evaluation guides, after-action report, and an improvement plan with owners and dates. Independence matters here. A facilitator who did not write the plan will probe where an author instinctively explains. Our tabletop guide covers the design approach in detail.
4. Findings from the last three exercises are still open
This is the most common program weakness we see and the one with the clearest fix. We work through the backlog, separate root causes from symptoms, consolidate duplicate findings, attach owners and realistic dates, and set up a review rhythm that keeps items moving. Our after-action report guide describes the discipline involved.
5. A new director inherited a program with no record of itself
Turnover in a small office often means the institutional knowledge left with the last person. We reconstruct the program record: what plans exist and when each was last touched, what training has actually been delivered against what the roster shows, which mutual aid agreements are current, what the corrective action backlog contains, and what your state expects next. The output is a prioritized gap list your office can work through internally or use to justify a budget request.
Built to hold up to state review and grant monitoring
Everything is written to the standards your state and your funders already expect: FEMA CPG 101 for plans, NIMS and ICS for structure, HSEEP for exercises and evaluation, and your state's own program requirements. You should not be reworking documents after submission because a consultant used their own house format.
We match your jurisdiction's terminology, position titles, and annex structure rather than imposing a template. If your county organizes by Emergency Support Function, the plan is organized by ESF. If your EOC runs on section chiefs, the checklists are written to section chiefs. Consistency with what your people already use is most of what determines whether a plan gets opened.
How engagements are usually scoped
A single deliverable. One plan, one exercise, one after-action report. Common when a grant deliverable or a review date is driving the timeline.
A program assessment. A structured look at the whole program against the standards that apply to you, producing a prioritized gap list your office can either work through internally or use to justify a budget request. Many agencies start here.
Ongoing surge capacity. A defined block of hours across a year covering whatever is most pressing: plan revisions, exercise design, AAR writing, grant deliverables. This suits offices that are structurally short-staffed rather than temporarily busy.
Working alongside, not around
We are comfortable plugging into an active EOC and equally comfortable working quietly between incidents. Either way, the objective is durable capacity rather than dependence. Plans come with the rationale documented so your staff can maintain them. Exercise packages come with the design templates. If you take a gap list and close it with your own people, that is a good outcome and a better one than discovering the same gaps during a review.
Standards and frameworks we work in
- FEMA CPG 101, Developing and Maintaining Emergency Operations Plans
- NIMS and the Incident Command System
- HSEEP, Homeland Security Exercise and Evaluation Program
- FEMA Public Assistance documentation expectations for debris and recovery
- National Preparedness Goal core capabilities and THIRA methodology
Working with an outside planner, answered.
We are a two-person office. Is a consultant realistic for us?
Small offices are the typical client. Scope is the lever: a single plan revision or one exercise with documentation is a defined, fundable piece of work. Preparedness grant programs commonly fund exactly this kind of planning, training, and exercise support, and we can help identify which program fits the scope.
Will you use our existing plan or start from scratch?
Usually we revise. Most plans are fundamentally sound and out of date in specific, fixable ways: a risk assessment that predates a major development, rosters nobody has touched in years, annexes naming departments that were reorganized. A short gap assessment tells us quickly whether revision or rebuild is the better use of your budget, and revision is cheaper when it is viable.
How much of our staff time will this take?
Less than doing it internally, but not zero, and any consultant who says otherwise is describing a template. Expect a kickoff, a handful of working sessions with the departments involved, and a review cycle on drafts. For a county EOP revision that is typically a few hours a month across three to five months, concentrated in the departments that own annexes.
Can you facilitate an exercise for a plan you wrote?
We can, and sometimes that is the practical choice. Where independence matters, such as an exercise supporting a grant deliverable or a state review, we will recommend an independent evaluator and say so up front. A facilitator evaluating their own plan has an unavoidable blind spot.
Do you work outside Georgia?
Yes. We are based in Atlanta and serve agencies nationwide, on site and remotely. The standards-based portion of the work travels; what changes is the state statutory and state agency layer, which we confirm for your jurisdiction during the assessment.
What does it cost?
It depends on scope: the size of the jurisdiction, the number of plans or annexes involved, whether exercises and documentation are included, and how much of the underlying risk and program analysis has already been done. Every project starts with a free consultation and a clear, fixed proposal, so you know the number before any work begins.
Short on time, not on responsibility?
Let's talk about where an extra set of experienced hands would help most. Your initial consultation is free.
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