Training & Course Catalog
(Note: At this time, all courses are in beta mode, and are offered free regardless of if they are flagged as a paid course)
Before we teach you what to do, we need you to understand why. The threat is real, confirmed, and pre-positioned. The journey starts with seeing the world as it is — then making yourself ready — then extending that readiness outward to everyone who depends on you.
Note: when registering to take courses, the registration email may go to your SPAM folder.
We use the built in WordPress user registration process to enroll students. When you click on a course, you will be prompted to log in. If you have not yet established your account, follow these steps:
To Register for the courses:
1: Log in to Enroll
2: Register
Before you start, we recommend you take the free FIR overview, its quick, with no exam.
Training & Certification · FIR CI Reference Architecture v5.6
One foundation. One shared core. Then the track that fits your role.
Everyone starts on the same free ground — because you can’t lead readiness you can’t personally pass. From there the path branches: a mayor learns to authorize and fund; a utility lead masters one domain; an assessor carries the full methodology to certify a Diamond Blue community. You only train as deep as your decisions require.
Beta pricing. Every course below is currently free while the curriculum is in beta — including the courses that carry a list price. List prices show what each course will cost when the beta closes; the Foundation (BSE 099–102) and the Free Companion courses (FIR 001, FIR 002, FIR 003) stay free permanently. Certification, package, and group figures are indicative until then.
How the Path Works
Read it bottom to top: a common base, a common paid core, then three tracks aligned to what you actually decide. Each layer is a prerequisite gate for the one above it.
Credential: Awareness track (in development)
Credential: CRC
Credential: CIRP → CBRA
A note on course numbers: courses and their prerequisites do not always run in exact numerical order. The curriculum has evolved over time, and course numbers reflect when each course was developed — not the sequence in which you take them. Follow the tracks and the prerequisites listed on each course card, not the numbering.
Free Foundation
Four courses, free, ~28 hours. Required of everyone before any paid track — the honest first step every FIR practitioner takes. They must be completed in numeric sequence — 099 → 100 → 101 → 102 — each at a minimum 80% to pass — before any paid track unlocks.
Why This Matters (Orientation)
The confirmed threat, what a Black Sky Event is, and why readiness starts with you.
Source Discipline & Methodology
Find, evaluate, and synthesize primary-source intelligence — and the seven-step method that connects the curriculum.
Individual Readiness
Can you get home? Tiered survival kits, movement reality, water, calories, paper navigation.
Household Readiness (Tier 0H)
You made it home — now sustain 30 days. Water, food, medical, sanitation, security, a 90-day plan.
Free Companion
Free, and free forever. These sit beside the Foundation, not inside it — the four-course Foundation sequence is unchanged, and nothing here is required to unlock a paid track. FIR 002 (Making the Case) is additionally required before FATP instructor qualification (BSE 307).
Member Orientation
What FIR is, how the curriculum is organized, and how to find the track that fits your role.
Making the Case
How to present a threat this large without freezing the person you need to move — and how one small, finishable ask becomes a movement. Every other course makes you or your community more ready; this one teaches you to bring somebody else in.
Find Your Path — Curriculum & Framework Orientation
New here? Start with the map. A short wayfinding course: the whole curriculum on one page, the framework at a glance, and your path through it by your role.
Common Paid Core
The shared body every Operational and Practitioner candidate takes — how a community coordinates and sustains itself for months. Completing the Core opens CRC eligibility. All four courses à la carte: $386 list; the CRC bundle below includes them.
Food Systems & Agricultural Resilience
The three-leg food assessment, resilient-agrihood doctrine, local production, and seed preservation.
Why Consolidation: From Collapse to Market Recovery
Why the structure exists and where it ends: all external governance and supply chains have failed; consolidation is the survival bridge, and its endpoint is a restored local market economy under the constitutional order.
Community Readiness & Governance
Skills registry, mutual aid, shared supply, gathering points, and the bounded governance that sustains a community for months.
Consolidation Framework & Diamond-N Practicum
What a community does when help isn’t coming — the Consolidation Framework plus the Diamond-N baseline practicum.
Track A · Awareness — Leadership
For officials who authorize and fund. The Foundation plus a governance brief from the GOV elective series — not the assessor stack. A mayor does not need OT/SCADA or assessment methodology to make a credible funding decision.
Resilience for Decision-Makers
A short brief for electeds and funders: the threat in plain terms, what a resilience program buys, the Affordability Decision that is the funder’s gate, an affordable Fast Start anchor, a self-funding hierarchy that does not depend on grants, and how to authorize and resource it credibly.
Back to Work: Re-Employment & the Guild Transition
Most payroll jobs end with the grid; necessary work explodes. The governed transition from the pre-BSE economy to guild employment — skills registration, guild intake and chartering, scrip wages, the free-issue bridge — with the historical record: guild intake and apprenticeship, WPA/CCC work relief, Depression self-help cooperatives, and post-war reconversion.
Contracting for Contingency & the Post-BSE Economy
Position the entity BEFORE the event — standby and contingency contracts, mutual-aid compacts, force-majeure and impracticability doctrine — then form and enforce agreements AFTER it, through the community’s own functioning local courts, with payment in scrip or in kind. Carries the U.S. legal record of what has and has not been lawful, counsel-routed throughout.
Local Scrip, Barter & the Credit-Ledger Economy
Standing up the community’s medium of exchange: municipal scrip issuance, barter markets, and the credit ledger — with the Depression scrip record, Wörgl, WIR, and modern local currencies, and the U.S. legal boundaries (18 U.S.C. §336, 31 U.S.C. §5103, wage-payment law, barter-exchange tax rules) stated plainly and counsel-routed.
Legal Protections for Emergency Responders
Officials won’t authorize, volunteers won’t serve, operators won’t share — not because the law forbids it, but because nobody in the room can say what protections exist. The publicly documented landscape, described from the record: the LP-001–022 protections register, state Good Samaritan laws and the federal Volunteer Protection Act of 1997, PCII and the SAFETY Act, counsel-routing doctrine — and governing without the echelons: how post-BSE decisions are documented and reviewed once state and federal authority reconstitute. Described, not promised; routed, not resolved.
Rule of Law Under Stress
Lawful military authority in collapse — martial law, military government, and their limits — with a branching Order-Under-Stress capstone.
Track B · Operational — Domain Leads
Foundation + Common Core + the domain course(s) for your role, leading to the CRC credential. Pick the courses that match the function you run; the CRC bundle carries up to four domain courses, and more domain courses are being added.
OT/SCADA Security Fundamentals
Control-system exposure, default-credential failures, and the hardening that keeps utilities and water systems running.
Shadow Grid & Energy Independence
Microgrid and islanding fundamentals, generation and storage, and the shadow-grid capability that outlasts the macro grid.
Community Communications (ARES/HF)
Inter-community HF coordination, mass notification, and the ARES net discipline that keeps a community talking when networks are down.
Stockpile & Supply Chain
Days-of-supply depth and resilient logistics — what to hold, how to rotate it, how to source when normal supply fails.
Community CI Research
Hardened-Facility OSINT methodology and the three-leg food-system primary-source research that grounds a community assessment.
Shadow Infrastructure Survey & Community Carrying Capacity
The community shadow inventory and carrying-capacity calculation that sets the Diamond-N baseline.
Post-BSE Community Health & the Disease Environment
The two-front health function — infectious reversion and chronic-care interruption — with a tiered cache and stations and the dual clinical/counsel routing that keeps it honest.
Post-BSE Veterinary & Animal Health
The animal half of the community health function — working animals, livestock and herd biosecurity, the zoonotic front shared with BSE 113 (Post-BSE Community Health & the Disease Environment), a tiered veterinary cache, and the dual clinical/counsel routing that respects veterinary practice acts.
Track C · Practitioner — Assessor
The lead assessor’s path. The full methodology leads to CIRP; the Diamond tier leads to CBRA — the non-negotiable signature on a Diamond Blue scorecard.
FIR Resilience Framework Tool Practicum
Hands-on with the tool that executes the methodology — taken right after Source Discipline.
FIR Resilience Framework
The full assessment methodology at scale: three-vector scoring, six-domain compliance, and a defensible Diamond-N scorecard.
Compliance Standards
The ten-dimension readiness model (A–J) and the 0–5 maturity rubric an assessment scores against, per vector.
Roadmap Development
Turning gap analysis into phased, costed action across the Transition → Core → Optimized progression.
Military Mutual Aid & DSCA
Base-adjacent integration: Defense Support of Civil Authorities and military mutual-aid frameworks.
Threat Posture & Kill Chains
Reading the adversary — attack kill chains across cyber, physical, and EMP/GMD, translated into assessment.
Advanced OSINT for CI Assessment
Deep open-source research methods for hardened-facility and critical-infrastructure assessment.
Funding Architecture & Self-Funding Strategy
Structuring the self-funding architecture that makes a transition bankable — Diamond Blue industrial-park revenue, private and municipal capital, with federal/state grants as opportunistic supplement only.
Diamond Blue Certification
The capstone: validating a community has met the full Diamond Blue standard with demonstrated, exercised capability.
Community Economic Framework & Tier 0S Delivery Architecture
How a community sustains operations beyond the stockpile horizon — the economic framework and Tier 0S delivery architecture.
FATP / Instructor Development
FIR Authorized Training Provider qualification — train-the-trainer for regional resilience anchors.
Exercise Design & Recertification Architecture
Designing and evaluating exercises that prove capability, plus the annual recertification architecture.
Certification Pathway
Three stacked credentials, each building on the track below it. The lead assessor on a Diamond Blue transition carries all three. Open each card for every course the credential requires.
Bundle includesCommon Core, up to four domain courses of your choice, and one CRC exam sitting. Foundation is free and required first.
Exam75-question proctored exam · 90 min · pass 65% · exam-only $195 if you bought courses individually
Every course for CRC
- BSE 099 Why This Matters (Orientation)
- BSE 100 Source Discipline & Methodology
- BSE 101 Individual Readiness
- BSE 102 Household Readiness (Tier 0H)
- BSE 104 Food Systems & Agricultural Resilience · 2 hrs · $59 list
- GOV 106 Why Consolidation: From Collapse to Market Recovery · 4 hrs · $119 list
- GOV 107 Community Readiness & Governance · 4 hrs · $119 list
- GOV 108 Consolidation Framework & Diamond-N Practicum · 3 hrs · $89 list
- BSE 103 OT/SCADA Security Fundamentals · 8 hrs · $239 list
- BSE 105 Shadow Grid & Energy Independence · 8 hrs · $239 list
- BSE 111 Community Communications (ARES/HF) · 6 hrs · $179 list
- BSE 112 Stockpile & Supply Chain · 4 hrs · $119 list
- BSE 106 Community CI Research · 6 hrs · $179 list
- BSE 110 Shadow Infrastructure Survey & Community Carrying Capacity · 8 hrs · $239 list
- BSE 113 Post-BSE Community Health & the Disease Environment · 4 hrs · $119 list
- BSE 114 Post-BSE Veterinary & Animal Health · 4 hrs · $119 list
- Fundamentals Evidence packet (see below)
- CRC exam sitting — 75 questions · 90 min · pass 65% · online proctored
- Core + four typical domain courses à la carte ≈ $1,042–$1,342 list · exam-only sitting $195 · retake $95 after 14 days
Bundle includesCRC held, plus the full assessor methodology (109, 201–207), the supervised practicum, and one CIRP exam sitting. GOV 110 and BSE 106 must be complete.
Exam150-question proctored exam · 3 hrs · pass 70% · supervised assessment
Every course for CIRP
- CRC (Foundation, Core, domain courses, exam)
- GOV 110 Resilience for Decision-Makers · ~2.5 hrs · $79 list
- BSE 106 Community CI Research · 6 hrs · $179 list
- BSE 109 FIR Resilience Framework Tool Practicum · 4 hrs · $119 list
- BSE 201 FIR Resilience Framework · 16 hrs · $449 list
- BSE 202 Compliance Standards · 8 hrs · $239 list
- BSE 203 Roadmap Development · 12 hrs · $349 list
- BSE 204 Military Mutual Aid & DSCA · 4 hrs · $119 list
- BSE 205 Threat Posture & Kill Chains · 4 hrs · $119 list
- BSE 206 Advanced OSINT for CI Assessment · 8 hrs · $239 list
- BSE 207 Funding Architecture & Self-Funding Strategy · 8 hrs · $239 list
- Supervised assessment practicum
- CIRP exam — 150 questions · 3 hrs · pass 70% · online proctored
- Methodology courses à la carte $1,872 list, before practicum and exam
Bundle includesCIRP held, plus the Diamond tier (305–308), portfolio review of 2+ completed assessments, and the oral board.
ExamPortfolio + 90-minute oral board before the FIR Assessment Review Board
Every course for CBRA
- CIRP (and therefore CRC)
- BSE 305 Diamond Blue Certification · 16 hrs · $449 list
- BSE 306 Community Economic Framework & Tier 0S Delivery Architecture · 6 hrs · $179 list
- BSE 307 FATP / Instructor Development · 16 hrs · $449 list
- BSE 308 Exercise Design & Recertification Architecture · 12 hrs · $349 list
- Portfolio of 2+ completed assessments, reviewed by the FIR Assessment Review Board
- 90-minute oral board
- Entry in the FIR Practitioner Registry with Diamond Blue signature authority
- Diamond-tier courses are $1,426 list; the balance is portfolio adjudication, the oral board, and registry credentialing — the CBRA fee is mostly the board, not the coursework
List prices, bundle prices, and package prices are indicative until the beta closes. Course numbering and the Foundation tier are locked; paid-track spans and certification hour totals are being confirmed. Anything you buy individually within 12 months counts toward the bundle or package that contains it (see Purchasing below).
Fundamentals Evidence — Required for Every Certification
Before sitting any FIR certification exam — CRC, CIRP, or CBRA — every candidate submits proof they have internalized the fundamentals:
- Get Home Bag load list with photographs and weight calculation.
- Personal PACE communications plan.
- Paper route map, workplace to home, with alternates and hazard annotations.
- Completed household assessment using the FIR Family Checklist.
- 90-day household readiness improvement plan.
- Primary-source library: 20+ Tier 1/2 sources on your local critical-infrastructure environment.
Organizational Training Packages
Two ways in: a card-sized Starter that a department can buy without a procurement cycle, and the full package it grows into. Every Starter dollar is credited toward its full package for 12 months.
Community Readiness Starter
Foundation + Core + one domain course for 3 staff, plus a scoping call — enough to seat a working group and see the methodology on your own community. Priced under common purchase-card limits — pay by card, no PO.
What’s included & the upgrade path
- Free Foundation (099–102)
- Common Core (104, GOV 106–108)
- One domain course of choice
- 60-minute scoping call with FIR Services
- Upgrade within 12 months and the full Starter price is credited; the three trained seats count toward the package’s five
- Starter-course finals may be re-taken free as a refresher before the follow-on courses begin
Municipal Readiness Package
Foundation + Core + four domain courses (Shadow Grid, Stockpile & Supply Chain, Community Health, and one elective per participant) for 5 staff + five CRC exam sittings + tabletop exercise + assessment kickstart — everything a municipality needs to launch a Diamond Blue transition. All package courses are live.
Every course in the package
- Free Foundation — BSE 099, 100, 101, 102
- Common Core — BSE 104, GOV 106, GOV 107, GOV 108
- BSE 105 Shadow Grid & Energy Independence
- BSE 112 Stockpile & Supply Chain
- BSE 113 Post-BSE Community Health & the Disease Environment
- One elective domain course of the participant’s choice (e.g., 103 OT/SCADA for the utility lead, 111 Communications for the ham lead, 106 CI Research for the planner)
- Five CRC exam sittings
- Facilitated tabletop exercise
- Assessment kickstart — the first pass of the FIR methodology on your community, with FIR Services
- ≈ $5,210 of coursework at list plus $975 of exam sittings, before the tabletop and kickstart
Utility Compliance Starter
Foundation + the Energy/Utility courses (103 OT/SCADA, 105 Shadow Grid) for 2 compliance staff, plus a scoping call. Priced under common purchase-card limits — pay by card, no PO.
What’s included & the upgrade path
- Free Foundation (099–102)
- BSE 103 OT/SCADA Security Fundamentals
- BSE 105 Shadow Grid & Energy Independence
- 60-minute scoping call with FIR Services
- Upgrade within 12 months and the full Starter price is credited; the two trained seats count toward the package’s three
- Starter-course finals may be re-taken free as a refresher before the gap assessment
Utility Compliance Package
Foundation + the Energy/Utility courses (103 OT/SCADA, 105 Shadow Grid) for 3 compliance staff, plus a gap assessment across the three FIR resilience vectors — Cyber, Physical, EMP/GMD — and the Energy and Water/Wastewater domains. Both courses are live.
What the gap assessment scores
- Cyber vector — network segmentation, OT monitoring, credential management, incident response, detection of pre-positioned access (scored against CISA advisories and NERC CIP)
- Physical vector — substation and facility hardening, ballistic protection, counter-UAS, surveillance, access control, perimeter (scored against FERC CIP-014 and FIR physical standards)
- EMP/GMD vector — Faraday protection, GIC blocking, surge protection, hardened communications, EM-rated backups (scored against EMP Commission standards)
- Energy domain — indigenous generation, islanding, and shadow-grid capability that outlasts the macro grid
- Water / Wastewater domain — closed-loop treatment on local energy, locally sourced chemicals, distribution independent of the macro grid
- Scored gap report per vector with days-of-supply modifier, and a phased roadmap the compliance team can carry into its own program
Continuing Education & Purchasing
Certificates. Every completed course issues a certificate of completion showing contact hours; accepted where self-reported/independently-verified training is recognized (e.g., IAEM AEM/CEM training hours). Not yet IACET-accredited.
Group rates. One organization, one 12-month window: 5–9 seats save 15%, 10–24 seats save 20%, 25+ seats save 25% off list on individual courses and CRC bundles. Seats bought one at a time count — once your organization crosses a tier, the remaining seats bill at that rate and the difference on earlier seats is credited to your account. Purchases within the same window also count toward the package that contains them.
How to pay. Individual courses, CRC bundles, and both Starters price under common purchase-card single-transaction limits and can be paid by card — no purchase order or procurement cycle needed. Full packages and CIRP/CBRA bundles are invoiced through FIR Services — purchase orders, W-9, net-30, and ACH available. Your organization’s own card rules govern what may go on a card; we will not split a single purchase across transactions.
Delivery & Enrollment
All training is delivered 100% remotely — no travel required. Self-paced modules with 24/7 access, live virtual scenario sessions, online proctored exams, and digital badges through Credly. Every course requires a minimum 80% to pass, and the four free Foundation courses must be completed in numeric sequence (099 → 100 → 101 → 102) before any paid track. Cohorts launch quarterly (January, April, July, October); exams run on-demand once prerequisites are met. Credentials are verified through the public FIR Practitioner Registry.
The journey starts with you.
BSE 099 is free. It is the ground every track stands on — and the honest first step toward a community that can sustain itself when the grid does not.
Start BSE 099 — Free© 2026 Foundation for Infrastructure Resilience · FIR CI Reference Architecture v5.6 · fir.foundation