CERT: About Community Emergency Response Volunteer Teams

Tuesday, January 5, 2021

An emergency could strike at any moment. Being part of a community that’s proactive and prepared increases everyone’s chances of survival in a disaster situation. If you’d like to be a part of making communities safer, become a CERT volunteer. Many communities have existing CERT teams you can join. This blog will provide information about the purpose of CERT, how you can become a CERT member, and how SOS Survival Products serves CERTs across the country.

What is CERT?

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. The CERT program helps to educate ordinary citizens about disaster preparation for a wide range of natural disaster situations and man-made emergencies. A CERT member is a volunteer that serves to support professional responders in times of major disaster when resources are in short supply.

The CERT concept is about mobilizing an individual through education. During an emergency situation, trained CERT team members will assist professional firefighters, EMT responders, and more. They take on non-technical tasks such as assessing and communicating the needs of the community, putting out small, manageable fires, turning off gas supplies, and organizing light search and rescue efforts.

This citizen corps can make a big difference for its community in emergency situations, from disastrous earthquakes to power outages. CERT members can assist with rescue planning, building search activities, and animal care.

CERT volunteers are spontaneous volunteers for disaster situations. They’re highly valued members of the community as they free up trained professional responders to focus on the bigger tasks at hand like medical treatment or mass care. The voluntary citizen corps will self-deploy when the region in which they’re located is affected by an emergency, major disaster or minor.

CERTs assess any immediate losses, and implement the skills they’ve learned to help first responders and government workers minimize further loss of property and life. These trained volunteers will provide emergency services, offer assistance to victims, and assist with other activities including:

• Debris removal
• Crowd control
• Road blockages
• Traffic control
• Disaster supply distribution

This volunteer team organization plays a key role in community emergency services and the assessment of any area-wide threat. One of the main tasks of the team is to locate mass-casualties that will require professional response and rescue teams to be deployed. CERTs will also assist in emergency evacuation and more long-term functions such as helping to create temporary shelters.

CERT teams coordinate with all levels of emergency authorities within an overarching system that governs emergency response. This emergency operations center system is referred to as the Incident Command System (ICS), and it allows members to easily fit into the emergency assistance architecture. It plays an important role in organizing community disaster networks. CERT enhances the response capability of the ICS by allowing professional responders to focus on complex tasks without facing distractions that could be delegated to citizens with minimal training.

When members of a Community Emergency Response Team aren’t actively engaged in response or team operations, the team organizes fundraisers, practices emergency exercises, and engages with the community by holding teaching and recruitment events.

How Do I Get Involved?

Currently, there are hundreds of thousands of trained volunteers all across the nation actively engaged in their local CERT chapter program. But in order to keep these efforts going, new volunteers are always needed. You can take advantage of this volunteer opportunity to help your community during emergencies, and join a team of emergency responders.

Taking part in the emergency response effort is a great way to enhance your emergency preparedness skills. There are plenty of volunteer opportunities available. Most major cities have an existing CERT chapter, which may contain hundreds of members or just a few. CERT can refer to one of two entities:

1. FEMA’s National program, which uses a set of standardized training procedures to train large groups of community members. FEMA is a US federal government agency.
2. Local chapters that train emergency volunteers with the help of basic disaster response skills that can vary from location to location.

If your city has a CERT program that’s been established through FEMA, you can find it here. If your search via the FEMA link doesn’t return any results for your city, that doesn’t mean your city doesn’t have a CERT program. You can expand your search by browsing your city’s official government website, or by performing a quick Google search.

CERT basic training is designed to help you serve your community and assist emergency agencies. But more than that, it’s also designed to help you protect your family, friends, neighbors, or coworkers if a sudden disaster strikes. After proper training, you may receive a certificate of completion. Then members of the Community Emergency Response Team program are able to provide critical support to victims and first responders by mobilizing teams when disaster hits.

When an emergency occurs, the proper emergency manager operations can make a huge difference. During your CERT training sessions, you’ll learn a variety of rescue techniques, search techniques, basic medical treatment, basic hands-on disaster response techniques, and skills designed to mitigate the effects of a disaster as quickly and easily as possible.

While FEMA’s CERT training abides by a nationally established curriculum that delivers the same core content across all states, your local CERT training may vary. In both instances, CERT training will be free and you’re under no obligation to become a part of the program after completing your hours. CERT materials may be provided. Some offer train-the-trainer and program manager courses.

The official FEMA CERT training program consists of nine separate units:

1. Disaster Preparedness (2.5 hrs)
2. Fire Safety (2.5 hrs)
3. Disaster Medical Operations part 1 (2.5 hrs)
4. Disaster Medical Operations part 2 (2.5 hrs)
5. Light Search and Rescue Operations (2.5 hrs)
6. CERT Organization (1.5 hrs)
7. Disaster Psychology (1 hr)
8. Terrorism and CERT (2.5 hrs)
9. Course Review and Disaster Simulation (2.5 hrs)

CERT training is an excellent opportunity to prepare yourself and strengthen your emergency response capabilities. As a trained CERT member, you can play an essential part in emergency management in your community. Join the team of dedicated volunteers and learn the proper approach to emergency situations.

Products for CERT

At SOS Survival Products, we help CERTs make their communities safer. We carry a wide range of products designed to fulfill the needs of specific duty assignments in evacuations, light search and rescue, first responder assistance, emergency management, and more. This includes command guides and other literature, safety and emergency response equipment such as hard hats with accompanying identification stickers, identifying safety vests, identification patches, notebooks, backpacks, duffel bags, and kits.

Our CERT kits are designed to help volunteer service members make the most of their training.

A basic disaster response kit includes an identifying vest, hardhat, essential protection from dust and debris, a whistle, and flashlight. The intermediate kit provides a more utilitarian vest with pockets and reflective stripes as well as a duffle bag and more supplies. The deluxe kit contains materials for marking and containing utility problems as well as handling.

If you’re part of or want to become part of your Community Emergency Response Team, the experts at SOS Survival Products have the tools to help you prepare.