The Hollywood, Florida Community
Emergency Response Team (C.E.R.T.) program
helps train volunteers to assist first responders in emergency
situations in their own communities. CERT members provide
critical support to first responders in emergency situations,
provide
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 your community by a trained
team of people who have completed a CERT Train-the-Trainer
course conducted by their official state training
office for emergency management or FEMA's
Emergency Management Institute
(EMI). Training of CERT volunteers consists of 20+ hours
of instruction on topics that include disaster preparedness,
disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations,
light search and rescue operations and terrorism.
