Community Planner

The ideal candidate possesses experience in engaging communities to provide technical advice and guidance throughout the mitigation planning process. Additionally, they should have expertise in offering a comprehensive range of grants management services to support the development of hazard mitigation policies and programs.

What will I do in this position if hired?

In this Community Planner position, you will serve as a Community Planner on the FEMA Integration Team (FIT) and will be embedded within the Michigan State Police - Division of Emergency Management. Your role will involve providing continuous and coordinated FEMA presence within this partner organization.

Typical assignments include:

• Performing community mitigation planning work through engaging communities such as villages, Tribal reservations, cities, and counties.
• Collaborating with state, federal, and local partners to support state/local mitigation activities.
• Exploring potential funding and technical assistance resources to compliment FEMA and State mitigation funding.
• Reviewing and evaluating multi-hazard mitigation plans, and mitigation projects, submitted by State, Tribal, and local governments for FEMA approval in accordance with the laws, regulations, policy.
• Advising Federal, State, Local and Tribal partners regarding mitigation strategies, risk reduction, mitigation grants and programs, community planning tools, and data analysis.
• Maintaining inventory of approved plans, and tracks plan updates ensuring States, Tribal, and local governments are compliant with Federal requirements.
• Developing and implementing strategies to bridge the gap between mitigation planning and HMA (to facilitate/encourage project development from plans).
• Facilitating with the Region, targeted Mitigation Planning Training to state, local, tribal and other stakeholders.

What else do I need to know?

At FEMA, our mission is to help people before, during and after disasters, and every employee at FEMA has a role in emergency management. Every FEMA employee has regular and recurring emergency management responsibilities, though not every position requires routine deployment to disaster sites. All positions are subject to recall around the clock for emergency management operations, which may require irregular work hours, work at locations other than the official duty station, and may include duties other than those specified in the employee's official position description. Travel requirements in support of emergency operations may be extensive in nature (weeks to months), with little advance notice, and may require employees to relocate to emergency sites with physically austere and operationally challenging conditions.

This announcement is for a position as a CORE (Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employee). CORE employees are full-time employees hired to directly support the response and recovery efforts related to disasters. Appointments to CORE positions are typically between two years and four years in duration and may be renewed based upon workload needs and funding availability. Employees are hired under the Robert T. Stafford Act and are excluded from the provisions of title 5, United States Code, governing jobs in the competitive service. They can be hired under a streamlined process instead of a competitive process. After three years of continuous service, Stafford Act employees may be granted competitive eligibility to apply for permanent full-time positions at FEMA.

FEMA is committed to ensuring that its workforce reflects the diversity of the nation. At FEMA, our workforce includes the many identities, races, ethnicities, backgrounds, abilities, ages, cultures, and beliefs of the people we serve. To learn about FEMA's ongoing diversity and inclusion efforts, reasonable accommodation process, and the FEMA Core Values, please visit