The National Incident Management System (NIMS) provides a systematic, proactive approach to guide departments and agencies at all levels of government, nongovernmental organizations, and the private sector to work seamlessly to prevent, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate the effects of incidents, regardless of cause, size, location, or complexity, in order to reduce the loss of life and property and harm to the environment.

NIMS works hand in hand with the National Response Framework (NRF). NIMS provides the template for the management of incidents, while the NRF provides the structure and mechanisms for national-level policy for incident management.

**Citizens! The Village of Downs, the Downs Fire District, as well as many other agencies throughout Central Illinois are NIMS compliant. This will help us in the event of a catastrophic event such as a tornado both in emergency reaction to the event as well as emergency funding for clean up and rebuilding.Thanks to all who spent the time completing all of the required training.