Local Support

This STRAN Dashboard and the associated technologies are provided through a partnership with the Alliance for Community Solutions (ACS), a National 501-C3 Association of Communities. The content for this site is maintained by local volunteers for the South-Central Texas (STRAN) Chapter of ACS.

SCT-ACS Chapter Leaders:

STRAN Supporters:

The technologies available on this site are offered by the Alliance for Community Solutions (ACS) a National Non-Profit Partnership offering technologies and proven practices to all communities.

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Our Mission

The Mission of the South-Central Texas Regional Alert Network is dedicated to enhancing the overall welfare and resilience of our communities by building a collaborative environment across our region and using practical, sustainable solutions for day to day activities and to help ensure public safety.

Our Goals

The Goals and objectives include:

·       Provide leading edge technologies and proven practices that are sustainable and support whole community resiliency through daily use

·       Enhance the ability of each jurisdiction and the region to communicate emergency and non-emergency information to residents and responders

·       Support the identification, outreach, collection and maintenance of key community resources from both public and private sector organizations

Our History

The History of the South-Central Texas Regional Alert Network (STRAN) and the South Central Texas (SCT) Chapter  (User’s Group) dates back to 2007, with the creation of the AARIS Network, the first of now dozens of interconnected community-based organizations stretching across Texas and now through the Alliance for Community Solutions (ACS) membership reaches from Coast-to-Coast connecting a equal number of regional and state-wide networks.  The basis of the program is simple, “local communities can share proven practices for emergency preparedness and be better prepared…if they can furthermore share the cost of preparedness technologies, they can save money and be even more prepared.”  Learn More…

With this concept, a vision that others would want to participate and only a dozen communities willing to begin a journey, after the first 8 years ACS membership has expanded to over 10,000 agencies and 32,000 users in 5 States. 

Current Projects:

·       Integrated Access & Security: Current state of the art capabilities in security include the integration of communications, credentialing, physical access control and video solutions across a community, county and region. The STRAN program provides the only enterprise technologies that provide this capability at whatever level of integration desired.

·       Emergency Notifications: The Area Resident Communications (ARC) “Mass Emergency Notification” (MEN) Solution is an ongoing project to maximize the ability of local authorities to connect to local residents and businesses during times of local emergencies or area wide disasters. Our unified messaging program can send alerts and messages by email, standard text, priority text, voice (land line & mobile/cell), TTY/TDD device, pager, fax and mobile app.

·       National Weather Service Alerts: The ARC notification program offers every participating jurisdiction the ability to provide their residents with National Weather Service notices directly to their email and mobile device via text messages, as well as mobile app.

·       Automated Notifications: ARC can also send mass emergency notifications, based on information feeds from flood monitoring stations, road condition monitors and even hazardous leak detectors. This function helps provide timely notifications for evacuation from areas known for flooding conditions or a recognized threat.

·       Non-Emergency Notifications: Furthermore, the ARC program provides dozens of ways that local jurisdictions and agencies can connect with local residents and staff, providing daily use and benefit to the community, in a way that promotes overall preparedness and resiliency.

·       First Responder Call-out: Participating responder agencies can also use these notification tools to contact first responders by email, text, voice or mobile app. Responders can report their ability to respond, assisting incident commanders in making timely decisions based on available resources.

·       Standardized Responder IDs: Many of our member agencies participate in the standardized responder credentialing and ID program to assist response leaders to easily qualifying unknown responders offering assistance as part of a mutual aid event. Standardized IDs are supported for Emergency Management, Fire, EMS, HazMat, Law Enforcement, Fire Marshals, Search & Rescue, Medical, Public Health, City/County Officials, Government Administration, Public Works, Water & Wastewater, and VOADs.

·       Volunteer Call-out & Mgmt: Volunteer organizations can use these notification tools to request / confirm availability by email, text, voice or mobile app. Responders can report their ability to respond, assisting incident commanders in making timely decisions based on available resources.

·       Agency Registration: We currently have over 800 registered member organizations in STRAN; however we are always interested in expanding to offer the benefits of our program to more agencies in South-Central Texas. 

·       Business Registration: STRAN communities in their readiness efforts, promote the involvement of the private sector within our communities that wish to become better prepared as an organization and/or assist the communities in their goals of becoming better prepared. Toward these goals, we participate in the CiiBR Net initiative and encourage all private and public organizations to learn more about this exciting “whole community” program and how it can help your organization and community to be more resilient.

·       Mutual Aid Resources: Many of the participating agencies provide key contacts and resources during response and recovery to disasters.

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The technologies available in this dashboard are provided to participating government, public sector, public service, public safety and non-profit organization through The Alliance for Community Solutions (ACS).  To find out more about i-INFO Solutions or the other communities, Click Here.