On Sunday, July 24, at thousands of convenience store nationwide, uniformed or badged 9-1-1 professionals will be able to get a free coffee, fountain drink, or snack as a way of saying "thank you" for their invaluable and courageous public service.

NENA is partnering with the NACS Foundation and American Red Cross in the convenience and fuel retailing industry’s fourth annual 24/7 Day, which recognizes first responders, medical and emergency personnel, and volunteers who work around the clock, 24/7, serving our communities to ensure we do not face emergencies alone.

The participating locations are operated by Allsup’s; Casey’s; Delek; ExtraMile; GPM Investments; High’s; Huck’s; Loop Neighborhood Markets; Maverik; Newcomb Oil; RaceTrac; Rapid Refill; Rutter’s; Sheetz; Spinx; St. Roman Oil/Ynot; The Hub Convenience Stores; TXB Stores; Wawa; and Yesway.

NENA members are encouraged to visit one of these stores, take photos of themselves enjoying their free benefit, and post them to social media with the hashtags #247Day, #ConvenienceCares, and #ThankYou911.

Click here for more info and links to participating outlets.  

On July 16, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline) transitioned from its previous ten-digit phone number to the 988 dialing code.

How will 988 and 9-1-1 work together?
In rare but critical circumstances — less than 2% of the time — counselors will determine via their protocols that someone is at imminent risk of harming themselves or someone else. In these situations, the Lifeline will contact 9-1-1 to dispatch emergency services.

988 is not able to directly transfer a call to 9-1-1. Because of that, the Lifeline counselor must relay the information to the 9-1-1 dispatcher.

If I get a call from a 988 Lifeline counselor requiring dispatch, what should I do?
If the Lifeline counselor has location information, follow your existing protocols for emergency dispatch.

If the Lifeline counselor is not able to provide location information, they may ask you to initiate a geolocation lookup with the wireless carrier or Internet service provider (ISP). Note: The Lifeline does everything it can to get a location; however, 988 does not have access to geolocation data for incoming contacts. 

Click here to learn more. 

The NENA Requirements for 3D Location Data for E9-1-1 and NG9-1-1 document establishes consensus requirements for operationalizing the use of 3D location data for 9-1-1. Specifically, this document provides concrete guidance for implementing recent FCC z-axis location requirements at the PSAP and communications center, and throughout the 9-1-1 ecosystem. The document assists the  9-1-1 community in operationalizing 3D location information delivered with 9-1-1 calls, as recently required by the FCC.

This document is divided into three parts:

• Informative material on the regulatory and technical background on 3D location in 9-1-1;
• Practical guidelines for implementing 3D location information in 9-1-1 systems today, including configuration and construction of 3D mapping information; and
• Calls for future standards work, including revisions to LoST, PIDF-LO, dispatchable location methods including civic address uncertainty, and handling of 3D shapes and structures in NG9-1-1—including initial work contributions to those efforts.

Leading the charge for positive change, this month we honor the Aurora 911 Center’s team for their incredible organizational wellness results! Prior to completing the Navigating Adversity training program, their team faced near-burnout levels of stress. Wellness capital, expressed as the amount of built-up resources we have available to us, was nearly depleted, causing them to continue operating every single day at an energy deficit.

Once through the Navigating Adversity course, their team surpassed the 20% improvement goal we set for them and actually experienced an 18% decline in symptoms of adversity PLUS a 22% improvement in resilience! Now, now only do they share a common language around what wellness is, they can continue their culture change efforts by identifying future wellness ambassadors and training them to integrate the powerful tenets of Navigating Adversity into the PSAP’s daily activities. Well done, Aurora!

NENA seeks to fill a vacancy on the Education Advisory Board (EAB) - the team charged with carrying out NENA’s educational mission. Candidates are required to be NENA members in good standing who possess the skills necessary to support and direct NENA’s educational mission and goals. Candidates holding the Emergency Number Professional (ENP) certification are preferred.

Learn more about the commitments associated with serving on the EAB at nena.org/eab-purpose. Applications are due by Friday, August 19.

Click here to apply.

ECRF and LVF implementations are beginning to occur across the US and Canada and the NENA Standard for the Provisioning and Maintenance of GIS Data to ECRFs and LVFs needs to be updated. Much has occurred in standards work since this document’s initial release that must be addressed in a second version of the ECRF/LVF standard. A complete editorial and clarification read-through will be performed after specific tasks outlined in the working group charter are addressed.

Contributors to the working group must have knowledge NG9-1-1 and, in particular, the role of the LVF and ECRF in NGCS.  The working group will benefit from having participants that are GIS/SI/ECRF/LVF vendors, as well as those from 9-1-1 agencies or GIS data providers with experience in maintaining and provisioning their existing systems (or who are actively engaged in implementation/deployment of systems). Knowledge of one or more of the following standards/documents is preferred: i3 Architecture, NG9-1-1 GIS Data Model, CLDXF, LVF Consistency, GIS Data Stewardship. The first weekly meeting will be on Tuesday, August 2  at 11AM Eastern.

Click here to volunteer!

A newly-formed NENA/APCO Work Group will review and revise the Standard for the Establishment of a Quality Assurance/Quality Improvement (QA/QI) Program for Emergency Communication Centers (ECCs). The revision of this standard will provide uniform methods to evaluate the delivery of service by 9-1-1 personnel to ensure high standards of performance.

Click here to sign up by August 1.

The Fire Protection Research Foundation (FPRF), NFPA’s research affiliate, is conducting a study on Public Safety Call Answering and Event Processing Times. Public Consulting Group LLC (PCG) is working alongside the Fire Protection Research Foundation to collect, analyze, and summarize data regarding public safety call answering and processing times in the United States to determine if the current call time provisions in NFPA 1225, Standard for Emergency Services Communications, are reasonable.

PCG will be collecting and analyzing computer-aided dispatch (CAD) call data and other related information for analysis. The goal is to collect and analyze data from a diverse set of Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) dispatch centers (large, small, urban, rural, etc.). They are asking for voluntary participation from PSAP dispatch centers who would like their data to be included in the analysis. They will be excluding data regarding law enforcement calls to focus solely on fire and EMS events. Data will be aggregated for analysis; individual agency data will not be included in the final report. Please note that most of the data requested in this survey is best provided by management personnel responsible for the agency's PSAP or dispatch center.

If your agency/department would like to submit data for this study, follow the instructions provided on the Fire Protection Research Foundation’s website. Resources included on this website will help you to understand the simple data request and complete the questionnaire.

The due date for questionnaire completion and data submission is no later than July 22, 2022.