JAMES LEE WITT ASSOCIATES JOINS PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP WITH ORFALEA FOUNDATIONS’ AWARE & PREPARE INITIATIVE
CEO James Lee Witt speaks at the Kick off of the Orfalea Foundations' Aware & Prepare effort in Santa Barbara, California.
JAMES LEE WITT ASSOCIATES JOINS PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP WITH ORFALEA FOUNDATIONS' AWARE & PREPARE INITIATIVE
NEW YORK, March 13, 2009 -- GlobalOptions Group, Inc (NASDAQ: GLOI) announces today that James Lee Witt Associates, the Company's Crisis Management and Preparedness Services Division, joins the Orfalea Foundations in highlighting the successes of the first year of their Aware & Prepare Initiative, a disaster preparedness public-private partnership in Santa Barbara County, California.
March 13 marks the first year of a three year community partnership between Witt Associates and the Orfalea Foundations to strengthen emergency and disaster preparedness in the Santa Barbara County Operational Area. This effort began as a result of the Santa Barbara Civil Grand Jury report released in May 2006 which examined gaps in community preparedness.
"Natural disasters of any type can hit Southern California at any time and because of this, we felt it was important toleverage the community level networks and implementation linkages for disaster management," said James Lee Witt,Chief Executive Officer, James Lee Witt Associates. "We are proud to be working with the Orfalea Foundations in providing the private and non-profit sectors an opportunity to leverage the public strength to reduce the vulnerability to disasters."
This partnership recently provided the Radio Ready program with satellite communication equipment to Santa Barbara County's Emergency Operation Center and select radio stations, which will allow officials to communicate information to local radio stations which can remain on the air with generator power during an emergency. In addition, a satellite station located at the County Government Center will assist government officials in communicating when conventional systems have failed.
"The Orfalea Foundations wanted to bring together one of the nation's most well-known disaster experts to improve communications during an earthquake or other emergency," said Lois Mitchell, President, Orfalea Foundations. "Witt Associates has brought a strong sense of vision and leadership to the Aware & Prepare Initiative and has helped the Orfalea Foundations in leveraging a terrific public-private partnership in the community and statewide."
Since Natalie and Paul Orfalea (Kinko's, Inc. founder) established the Aware & Prepare Initiative in 2008, their primary goal has been toenhance capabilities to mitigate, prepare for, respond to, and recover from an emergency or disaster within the Santa Barbara County Operational Area.
In addition to attending the Orfalea Foundations kick-off activities in California, Witt Associates will also be recognized with a Legislative proclamation for its leadership and assistance in the Aware & Prepare Initiative by State Assemblyman Pedro Nava, Chair of the State of California Assembly's Joint Committee on Emergency Services.
GlobalOptions Group
GlobalOptions Group, with headquarters in New York City and offices in 16 cities, is a provider of high-end risk assessment and mitigation services to Fortune 1000 corporations, governmental organizations and high-profile individuals throughout the world. GlobalOptions Group's services currently include risk management and security, investigations and litigation support, and crisis management. These engagements take GlobalOptions Group staff around the world and are typically highly-sensitive engagements where GlobalOptions Group is interacting with senior leaders in corporations and governments. Its overall mission is to identify, evaluate, assess, prevent and correct issues that may threaten people, organizations or strategic initiatives for corporations or governments. Additional information can be found at www.globaloptionsgroup.com.
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