The Illinois Preparedness and Emergency Response Learning Center (IPERLC), which will be housed in the MidAmerica Center for Public Health Practice at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health (UIC SPH). IPERLC will target its activities to the State of Illinois, one of the nation's largest and most diverse states, and will focus its activities on three major program areas: - Core Preparedness Competency-based Training for the Public Health Workforce - Partner-Requested Education and Training - Program Core and PERLC Network Activities IPERLC will be a lifelong learning center that will provide continuing education services to enhance the capacity and performance of the public health workforce to prepare for and respond to man-made and natural disasters. IPERLC will be built on the experience, partnerships, accomplishments, and lessons learned of the Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center, funded by CDC from 2000-2010. To ensure a competent and prepared workforce, the IPERLC proposes a plan in which it will work closely with its partners to assess, develop, deliver, evaluate and recognize the attainment of continued competency-based training and education, using the most current competency set developed for public health preparedness and response. The training needs of community organizations, groups and audiences identified by our public health partners will also be addressed, in order to develop courses and exercises that will respond to their current and emerging collaborative efforts to prepare for and respond to emergencies. To respond to training needs, IPERLC will use existing trainings or update, reformat and customize content using a variety of instructional modalities to meet the needs of our practice partners. Innovative instructional tools will be developed by applying new technology, where appropriate. Where training curricula are not available to address needs, new training courses will be developed and research findings will be translated to practice through training. All training activities will be evaluated. All learning will be managed and recorded by a learning management system. Continuing education will be recognized by a competency-based credentialing program for public health managers and emergency response coordinators. While IPERLC will target its primary activities to the State of Illinois, the Center is fully prepared to collaborate with our partners in the region, following in the tradition of the Illinois Public Health Preparedness Center. As part of the larger network of PERLCs, IPERLC will welcome the opportunity to support the network and participate and collaborate with the other Centers to address a range of cross-cutting topics.
