CERT

Community Emergency Response Team, CERT, is a training program that prepares you to help yourself, family, and neighbors in the even of a disaster.  As a member of a CERTteam, you can respond to disasters, participate in drills and exercises, and take additional training.

Under the direction of the local emergency responders, CERT teams help provide critical support by giving immediate assistance to victims, providing damage assessment information, and organizing other volunteers at a disaster site. They also offer a potential workforce for performing duties such as shelter support, crowd control, and evacuation until trained emergency personnel arrive.

The CERT program builds strong working relationships between emergency responders and the people they serve as well as helping the community year-round by assisting with community emergency plans, neighborhood exercise, preparedness outreach, fire safety education, and workplace safety.

CERT training takes about 20 hours to complete. Participants learn how to: identify and anticipate hazards, reduce hazards in the home and work place, extinguish small fires, conduct light search and rescue, set up a medical technique and help reduce survivor stress.

Who should take CERT training?  People interested in taking an active role in hometown preparedness. For more information on classes scheduled in Salt Lake City, visit the following links:

http://www.unifiedfire.org/divisions/community/cert.aspx?0

www.slcgov.com/em