As local health departments (LHDs) strive to achieve and enhance community preparedness, response, and recovery capacity and capability, they are often faced with searching through hundreds of randomly assorted tools across a wide‐range of sources. In an effort to create a more seamless process, NACCHO in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), developed a resource portfolio, combining various tools and resources on the CDC Public Health Preparedness Capabilities into one easy-to-search reference guide.

Informed by subject matter experts and NACCHO preparedness workgroups, this portfolio contains a total of 347 vetted resources addressing the following CDC Public Health Preparedness:

• Capability 2: Community Recovery
• Capability 3: Emergency Operations Coordination
• Capability 4: Emergency Public Information and Warning
• Capability 5: Fatality Management
• Capability 7: Mass Care
• Capability 10: Medical Surge
• Capability 11: Non‐Pharmaceutical Interventions
• Capability 12: Public Health Laboratory Testing
• Capability 14: Responder Health and Safety
• Capability 15: Volunteer Management

Resources for Capabilities 1, 6, 8, 9, and 13 can already be found by searching NACCHO’s Toolbox or within an earlier version of this portfolio. While the newly released portfolio covers the remaining ten capabilities by offering a combination of toolkits, guidance documents, templates, and links to exemplary programs for each topic area. Vetting and evaluation to select all of the included tools was modeled after the Public Health Practices (PHP) methodology developed by the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP). A practice suitable to pass the PHP vetting process must meet the following criteria:

1. Practice belongs in one or more public health practice domains;
2. Practice is useful without obvious flaws; and
3. Practice has relevance beyond the jurisdiction that created it.

To accommodate local priorities and needs in the context of this particular report, the selection process was further adjusted and refined to include the following modifications:

1. Selected tools can include resources that are widely used and valuable, but do not necessarily meet the PHP definition of innovative;
2. Selected tools can include resources developed by federal, private, and other entities not traditionally included on the PHP site; and
3. Selected tools can include resources that have been used, evaluated, or are data‐driven in a documented way.

The resource portfolio is formatted to be viewed in its entirety, and/or filtered by capability, or by resource need. Each capability is organized to feature tools within three main categories:

1. A fact sheet describing the priority gaps, challenges, and resource needs identified by LHDs;
2. A cross-walk illustrating the resource needs identified by LHDs with the corresponding tools identified to address those needs; and
3. A series of reference sheets, organized by resource need, and a table providing an overview of the evaluation for each resource.

NACCHO encourages LHDs to reference this portfolio as a guide informing agency preparedness planning and exercises. Additionally, LHD staff are asked to share this tool widely across their respective networks. During a time when resources are tight but the workload is large and expanding, this portfolio can substantially advance LHDs preparedness efforts through the application of its numerous proven practices and tools. As a result of this process, public health officials can take on a more direct and streamlined approach to addressing gaps in preparedness capability.

To view and download the entire resource portfolio, click here.