Authorized Personnel Only

               COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM
      
                               Click here to download the “CERT Exam”.

Community Emergency Response Team training is a Department of Homeland Security program managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that educates citizens about the hazards they face in their community and trains them in lifesaving skills. If needed following a disaster, these citizen-responders use their training as part of a neighborhood or workplace team to help others when professional responders are overwhelmed or not immediately available.

PURPOSE OF THE PROGRAM

CERT members provide immediate assistance to victims in their area, organize spontaneous volunteers who have not had the training, and collect disaster intelligence that will assist professional responders with prioritization and allocation of resources when they arrive. CERT promotes a partnering between emergency management and response agencies and the people in the community that they serve.  The goal is to train members of neighborhoods and workplaces in basic response skills. Then CERT teams are formed and maintained as part of the emergency response capability for their area.

If there is a natural or man-made event that overwhelms or delays the community’s professional responders, CERT members can assist others by applying the basic response and organizational skills that they learned during their CERT training. These skills can help save and sustain lives until help arrives. CERT members also can volunteer for special projects that improve a community’s preparedness.

HOW IT WORKS

The basic CERT training program is a 24-hour course, typically delivered one evening per week over a 7-week period. Training sessions cover disaster preparedness, fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, disaster psychology, team organization, and a new module on terrorism to educate CERT members about BNICE agents: Biological, Nuclear, Incendiary, Chemical, and Explosive. This module will help CERT members identify situations where these agents may have been used and protective actions that they should take. 

Click to download “How to organize a CERT Team”

TRAINING FOR INSTRUCTORS or TRAIN-the-TRAINER (T-T-T) Program

The 5-day, 40 hour TtT course will prepare instructors to train members of their communities in topics including disaster fire suppression, disaster medical operations, light search and rescue, and team organization and management. This Train the Trainer program is also intended to familiarize emergency program managers and instructors with course content and prepare them to market, promote, and administer this self-help emergency management program in their jurisdictions.

The training concludes with a disaster simulation in which participants practice skills that they learned throughout the course. CERT information including a CERT Instructor Guide and Student Guide is located on the web at http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/cert/index.htm. The instructors Guide and Student Text will be provided to participants at the beginning of the T-T-T Course. 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

Ideally, local instructional teams should be made up of emergency program managers and fire service and medical personnel who, by working together, can implement the program in their jurisdiction. People who have attended EMI’s Resident CERT TtT should not apply for this course.

PRE- REQUISITES for Instructors:

Emergency Program Managers: Member of the emergency management community who will promote, organize, and administer the CERT program in conjunction with local CERT trainers.

CERT Trainers: Prior Instructional skills and certification in first aid, firefighting, or rescue techniques is helpful.

US SOUTHCOM - Humanitarian Assistance Program are encouraging Caribbean communities to train CERTs so that they can perform essential lifesaving functions while waiting for professional responders following a disaster. National Disaster Coordinators (NDC) in their respective countries can manage or facilitate the development of this program in the region.