The Local Assistance State Team (LAST) Program is a collaborative effort between the Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation. The Foundation realized that to best assist families and departments who had lost a firefighter in the line of duty – they needed to have trained personnel on the ground and available to help when requested within six hours of death. This could only be accomplished by developing a team of trained responders in each state who could be deployed immediately upon notification of a line-of-duty death.
When a line-of-duty death is reported to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, the Coordinator of the Local Assistance State Team (CAST), in that state, is notified. They immediately contact the chief of the affected department or his/her designee and offer the assistance of the Local Assistance State Team. That assistance can include, but is not limited to, operational support to ensure the continuance of service to the community, any and all needed support to the family of the fallen firefighter, planning and coordination of funeral activities, assistance in obtaining behavioral health counseling for family and department members, and the preparation of local, state, and federal benefit claims. While these teams may perform many important functions their primary responsibility, when requested, is to assist with the preparation and submission of the Public Safety Officers Benefit claim. The Local Assistance State Team will only assist after being requested and then will operate in a transparent manner behind the scenes to accomplish their tasks.
These Local Assistance State Teams are made up of members who come from all areas of public safety, as well as survivors of line-of-duty deaths, and volunteers from all lines of work. They are all passionate about helping those who have suffered the loss of a family member or department member in the line of duty. Whenever possible, the team coordinator is a Fire Chief who has experienced a line of duty death and has in-depth knowledge of his state and its fire service activities. The coordinator will designate one or two backup positions to his position to ensure that there is someone available should there be a line of duty death in their state. There are many specialty members on each team such as an honor guard commander, chaplain, survivor, logistics specialist and benefit specialist just to mention a few. In large states, teams will try to duplicate these specialties in different areas of the state to shorten response times to all areas of the state. Team deployment can be as few as one member to a complete activation of the team depending on what assistance is requested by the department that has lost a member.
Please check the box next to the following questions if the answer is 'yes'.
Hosted three virtual CAST trainings, February 11, April 8, and June 10 to keep coordinators (CAST) members current on PSOB and other pertinent Local Assistance State Team information. Sixty members participated in these virtual trainings.
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The NFFF has established and trained Local Assistance State Teams (LAST) in all 50 states. LAST personnel include more than 300 fire service members trained to provide immediate and long-term support to agencies that have experienced the loss of a responder in the line of duty. When a line-of-duty death is reported to the NFFF, the LAST coordinator (CAST) in that state is notified; they immediately make contact with the chief of the affected department or his/her designee and offer the team’s assistance. This assistance is fully customizable to the agency and can take many forms. It may/may not include: operational support to ensure continuance of public safety services to the community; any and all needed support to the family of the fallen firefighter; planning and coordination of funeral activities; facilitating connections to behavioral health counseling for family and department members; and the preparation of local, state and federal benefit claims. LAST will assist only upon request and will then operate in a transparent manner behind the scenes to accomplish their tasks.
Whenever possible, the team coordinator (CAST) is a fire chief who has experienced a line-of-duty death and has in-depth knowledge of his state and its fire service activities. The CAST will generally designate one or two members as backups to ensure the team’s availability in the event of a fatality. Specialty members on each team may include honor guard commander, chaplain, Fire Hero Family member, logistics specialist, and benefits specialist. Teams in larger states generally have redundancy in positions to shorten response times to all areas of the state. Team deployment can range from one member to a complete activation of the team, based on the assistance requested by the department.
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Please submit a signed letter of support from your agency’s executive or other senior staff member. The letter can be emailed to or uploaded with this request. The letter should be submitted on official letterhead and include the following information:
- General information regarding the request for TTA services, i.e., the who, what, where, when, and why.
- The organizational and/or community needs specific to the request for TTA services.
- The benefits or anticipated outcomes from the receipt of TTA services.
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