FEMA Region 2's October bulletin: a free cyber webinar for houses of worship Oct. 20, school safety grants due Oct. 29-30, and a National Fire Academy deadline

FEMA Region 2, which covers New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, sent out its Preparedness and Resilience Bulletin (Volume 11, Issue 6) on Oct. 6, 2026. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, so the theme is passwords, phishing and patching, with a side of hurricane prep.

Free cyber webinar, Oct. 20: FEMA Region 2 and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) host "Securing the Next 250" on Tuesday, Oct. 20, from 2 to 3 p.m. Eastern on Zoom. CISA Region 2 cybersecurity advisor R.S. Richard Jr. will cover practical steps for protecting systems at houses of worship, community and faith-based groups, and other nonprofits. Registration is through FEMA's ZoomGov page linked in the bulletin.

Grant deadlines: the bulletin flags two school safety grants listed on SchoolSafety.gov's Grants Finder Tool: the Community and Schools Youth Drug Prevention Program, due Oct. 29, and the Students, Teachers, and Officers Preventing (STOP) School Violence Program, due Oct. 30.

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Training: the National Fire Academy's application period is open until Oct. 15, 2026, for courses at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, Md. FEMA also lists an alert-and-warning technical assistance workshop on Nov. 3-4 (11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern), an Out of Harm's Way evacuation and shelter-in-place webinar on Nov. 17 (2 to 4 p.m. Eastern), a virtual CERT Train the Trainer course (K0428) Dec. 1-10, a revised Community Mass Care/Emergency Assistance course (K0108) Dec. 2-4, and five newly revised NIMS ICS position-specific courses, including Incident Commander and Communications Unit Leader.

Also in the issue: a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs toolkit for faith leaders supporting veterans experiencing homelessness, free Ready New York preparedness presentations from NYC Emergency Management, the IRS's free VITA and TCE tax-help programs, FEMA's announcement of $300 million in Nonprofit Security Grant Program awards to more than 1,600 nonprofits, and recaps of September outreach in Oswego County, St. Thomas, Staten Island and at Rowan University in New Jersey.

The bulletin is free to subscribe to through FEMA's GovDelivery signup page; training calendars for FEMA, New Jersey OEM, NJOHSP and New York DHSES are linked at the bottom of each issue.