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CERT

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program helps train volunteers to assist first responders in emergency situations in their communities. CERT members give critical support to first responders in emergencies, provide immediate assistance to victims, organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site, and collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts. The role of a CERT volunteer is self-help/neighbor-help until such time as trained first-response personnel arrive.

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. Training of CERT volunteers consists of 20 hours of instruction on topics that include disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, and light search and rescue operations.

For additional information on CERT, visit http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/cert/index.htm.