Grant Details

The State Homeland Security Program (SHSP) is a core assistance program that provides funds to build capabilities at the State, local, tribal, and territorial levels, to enhance our national resilience to absorb disruptions and rapidly recover from incidents both natural and manmade as well as to implement the goals and objectives included in State homeland security strategies and initiatives in their State Preparedness Report (SPR).

Activities implemented under SHSP must support terrorism preparedness by building or enhancing capabilities that relate to the prevention of, protection from, mitigation of, response to, and recovery from terrorism in order to be considered eligible. However, many capabilities which support terrorism preparedness simultaneously support preparedness for other hazards. Grantees must demonstrate this dual-use quality for any activities implemented under this program that are not explicitly focused on terrorism preparedness.

In developing applications for SHSP, recipients are encouraged to consider 2024 priority areas:

1. Enhancing the protection of soft targets/crowded places
2. Enhancing information and intelligence sharing and analysis
3. Combating domestic violent extremism
4. Enhancing cybersecurity
5. Enhancing community preparedness and resilience
6. Enhancing election security

In Virginia, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) is responsible for coordinating homeland security initiatives and various federal grants. Funds through SHSP are used to aid in the training of emergency first responders, the purchase of state-of-the-art equipment for combating and preventing terrorist acts and for planning, and exercise. Funds are also used for management, administration and the development of citizen corps projects at the local level.