Funding for Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training

Posted by on January 13, 2006

We are pleased to announce funding available through the Ready Campus Initiative to support CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) trainings on your campus.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program helps train people to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities. When emergencies happen, CERT members can give critical support to first responders, provide immediate assistance to victims, and organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site. CERT members can also help with non-emergency projects that help improve the safety of the community.

The CERT course is taught in the community by a trained team of first responders who have completed a CERT Train-the-Trainer course conducted by their state training office for emergency management, or FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute (EMI), located in Emmitsburg, Maryland. CERT training includes disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, and light search and rescue operations.

Over the next two years, the CERT program aims to double the number of participants, with over 400,000 individuals completing the 20 plus hours of training. Train-the-Trainer sessions will be held in all 56 states and territories over the next year to expand the program throughout the United States.

If you are interested in applying for CERT funding, please complete the attached application and return it our office by February 7, 2006. If you have any questions or need additional information, please contact Charlene Gray at cgray@paccompact.org or Helen Speziale at hspezial@misericordia.edu.