Community Partnership Program at Keesler

Today was the first of a series of meetings hosted by Keesler Air Force Base aimed at building a stronger relationship between the local community, government leaders, and the base.
State representatives, law enforcement leaders, city officials and more were all in attendance for today’s meeting. The Community Partnership Program is designed to combine military installation and local community capabilities and resources to kick start projects and partnerships that benefit the base and the community.
Since October 2012, the AFCP program has generated more than one thousand initiatives with potential value of $160 million over the next five years. Current initiatives include medical, joint fire police training, shared use firing ranges and more. 81st Training Wing Commander Col. Michele Edmondson said, “You look at the Division Street gate project and the partnership between the City of Biloxi, the state of Mississippi and the base to get where we are today, where we’re going to break ground on this gate pretty soon. That is absolutely amazing. You look at our security forces and the partnership that we have with the local police departments, first responders, using the Harrison County Detention Center if we need one. We already have so many great partnerships. This really just formalizes it.”
The community partnership meetings will happen once a month over the next five months to prioritize ideas and projects then will continue to meet quarterly.