Taking Training: CERT – Community Emergency Response Team

I signed up for a local CERT course and just took my first class. I knew that much of the content wouldn’t be new to me, although I did expect to learn something new – I always do! And so far I have learned some good things, which I’ll be passing along to you as I progress through the course.

CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Training. Many cities offer courses like CERT through their Office of Emergency Management (or whatever they call it). If you go to your hometown’s website (e.g., Anytown.gov), you can probably find a link to an office that deals with emergency preparedness topics for your area. If your town isn’t big enough, try the county or the state.

If a course is offered but not called “CERT”, don’t worry about it. The goals are largely the same, across the different courses, at least the ones I’ve seen in my area (Washington State). Please let me know if you can’t find anything locally. I would be happy to do a little digging to see what I can find, if you aren’t able to.

Why do you care about my CERT course? I’ll walk you through at least some parts of each class, so that you will be able to determine:

  • Would it be useful for you, friends, or family?
  • What topics are covered?
  • What should you expect to learn?

Such preparedness courses have a lot to offer, and as you read further, I think you’ll realize that if you haven’t taken a course, you probably should.

Here are some additional resources:

I’ll have post several more articles about the training, as I go through it, to fill you in on some of the details. Stay tuned!

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