The next three-day session will be held Fall 2024.
Courses are held on Friday (6–10 p.m.), Saturday (8 a.m. – 5 p.m.) and Sunday (8 a.m. – 5 p.m.) at the O'Fallon Justice Center. You must attend all 2½ days. Attendance greater than 90% is required to pass the course.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), using the model created by the Los Angeles City Fire Department, began promoting nationwide use of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) concept in 1994. Since then, CERT’s have been established in hundreds of communities.
CERT training promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people that they serve. The goal is for emergency personnel to train members of neighborhoods, community organizations, or workplaces in basic response skills. CERT members are then integrated into the emergency response capability for their area. If a disastrous event overwhelms or delays the community’s professional response, CERT members can assist others by applying the basic response and organizational skills that they learned during training. These skills can help save and sustain lives following a disaster until help arrives.
CERT skills also apply to daily emergencies. CERT members maintain and refine their skills by participating in exercises and activities. They can attend supplemental training opportunities offered by the sponsoring agency and others that further their skills base. Finally, CERT members can volunteer for projects that improve community emergency preparedness.
CERT Training provides individuals who complete this course with the basic skills required to respond to their community's immediate needs in the aftermath of a disaster when emergency services are not immediately available. By working together, CERT volunteers can help save lives and protect property using the basic techniques in this course. The target audience for this course is individuals who desire the skills and knowledge required to prepare for and respond to a disaster.
Session 1 – Disaster Preparedness: Learn what actions participants and their families should take before, during and after a disaster. Learn how to operate in a safe, appropriate and legal manner.
Session 3 – Disaster Medical Operations - Part I: Participants practice diagnosing and treating airway obstruction, bleeding and shock by using simple triage and rapid treatment techniques.
Session 4 – Disaster Medical Operations - Part II: Covers evaluating patients by doing a head to toe assessment, establishing a medical treatment area, performing basic first aid, and practicing in a safe and sanitary manner.
Session 5 – Disaster Psychology and Team Organization: Covers signs and symptoms that might be experienced by the disaster victim and worker. It addresses CERT organization and management principles and the need for documentation.
Session 6 – Fire Safety and Utility Controls: Covers fire chemistry and considerations, resources, suppression safety, hazards and hazardous materials.
Session 7 – Light Search and Rescue Operations: Participants learn about search and rescue planning, size-up, search techniques, and most important: rescuer safety.
Session 8 – CERT and Terrorism: Participants learn about terrorism preparation, active shooter situations and Hazmat and CBRNE situations.
Session 9 – Course Review and Disaster Simulation: Participants review their answers from a take-home examination. Finally, they practice the skills that they have learned during the previous sessions in disaster activity.
People from all walks of life are eligible to attend the CERT program, including concerned citizens, Neighborhood Association members, Civic Organization members, college students, potential police applicants, factory workers, independent business people, city and county workers, Neighborhood Watch members, and many others.
Requirements
Persons interested in attending the CERT Program must live, work or attend school within St. Charles County
Persons Must be at least 18 years of age, have no prior felony convictions, have not been a suspect in a crime involving moral turpitude, have no involvement in criminal behavior or have police contact believed to compromise the integrity of the O'Fallon CERT Program or the O'Fallon Police Department and have no outstanding warrants
The O'Fallon Police Department reserves the right to disqualify any applicant as a result of information discovered during the background investigation
Applicants must provide two personal references
The application requires that the Applicant must sign before a Notary Public. The O'Fallon Police Department has Notary Service available Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m., free of charge.
This is a local decision. Someone under 18 should be with a parent or have permission to attend. Some communities have reached out specifically to young people. CERT is a great way to address the community service requirements for high school students and provides students with useful skills. CERT also fits nicely with training given to Boy and Girl Scouts and the Civil Air patrol.
How do CERT members maintain their skills?
CERT members and the local sponsoring agency work together to maintain team skills and the working partnership. It is suggested that the sponsor conduct refresher classes and an annual exercise where all CERT members are invited to participate. Some response agencies have conducted joint exercises with CERT teams and operate as they would during an actual disaster. The last point does bring up a lesson learned. Besides training CERT members, it is also important to educate members of response agencies in the community about CERTs, the skills that team members have learned during training and the role that they will have during a major disaster. One way to develop trust between CERT and responders is by encouraging agency personnel to participate in classes as instructors and coaches and in activities with CERT members.
CERTs may operate independently following a disaster CERTs can practice this independence by taking some responsibility for their own training. Teams can design activities and exercises for themselves and with other teams. Some members can be rescuers, some victims, and some evaluators. After the event, there can be a social so that community teams can discuss the exercise and get to know each other.
How do I take CERT training?
To become a CERT member, you will have to take the CERT training from a sponsoring agency like an emergency management agency, fire department or police department in the area where you live or work. In O'Fallon, call 949-7900 (Ext. 4642) or e-mail Officer Gene DeLaney at lbunt@ofallonmo.gov.
How does CERT benefit the community?
People who go through CERT training have a better understanding of the potential threats to their home, workplace and community and can take the right steps to lessen the effects of these hazards on themselves, their homes or workplace. If a disaster happens that overwhelms local response capability, CERT members can apply the training learned in the classroom and during exercises to give critical support to their family, loved ones, neighbors or associates in their immediate area until help arrives. When help does arrive, CERTs provide useful information to responders and support their efforts, as directed, at the disaster site.
CERT members can also assist with non-emergency projects that improve the safety of the community. CERTs have been used to distribute and/or install smoke alarms, replace smoke alarm batteries in the home of elderly, distribute disaster education material, provide services at special events, such as parades, sporting events, concerts and more.
How is the CERT funded?
Congress has provided funds through the Citizen Corps program to the States and Territories. Grants from these funds may be available to local communities to start CERT programs. Contact your State Citizen Corps point of contact to learn more about grant possibilities.
Also, there are a variety of local approaches to funding. Some communities build costs into their local budget while others charge participants to attend training to cover costs for instructors and course materials. In a few communities, CERT organizations have formed 501 (C) 3 for non-profit status to allow them to do fundraising and seek corporate donations.
What about liability?
The text of the Volunteer Protection Act of 1997 is available for viewing. Also there is information about State Liability Laws located on the Citizen Corps website. During training, each sponsoring agency should brief its CERT members about their responsibilities as a CERT member and volunteer. Finally, there is a job aid on liability for you to review in our Start a CERT Program section.
The CERT material was developed by the Los Angeles City Fire Department and adopted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 1993. The CERT manual contains basic and straightforward material that has been accepted by those using it as the standard for training.
It is important to remember that the best sources of help in emergencies are professional responders. However, in situations when they are not immediately available, people will want to act and help. We have seen this time and again in our history. CERT training teaches skills that people can use to safely help while waiting for responders. The alternate is to do nothing and that is not in our nature.
What if I have concerns about my age or physical ability?
There are many jobs within a CERT for someone who wants to be involved and help. Following a disaster, CERT members are needed for documentation, comforting others, logistics, etc. Non-disaster related team activities may include keeping databases, developing a website, writing a newsletter, planning activities, helping with special events and organizing exercises and activities.
During CERT classroom training, if one has a concern about doing a skill like lifting, just let the instructor know. You can learn from watching. We would like everyone who wants to go through the training to have an opportunity to participate and learn the skills. CERT educates participants about local hazards and trains them in skills that are useful during disaster and life's everyday emergencies.
What if I want to do more than just the basic training?
CERT members can increase their knowledge and capability by attending classes provided by other community agencies on animal care, special needs concerns, donation management, community relations, shelter management, debris removal, utilities control, advanced first aid, Automatic External Defibrillator use, CPR skills, and others. The sponsoring agency should maintain records of this training and call upon CERT members when these additional skills are needed in the community.
CERT member also can use their skills to help the program flourish by volunteering to schedule events, produce a newsletter, perform administrative work, and take leadership positions.
Who can take the training?
Naturals for the training are neighborhood watch, community organizations, communities of faith, school staff, workplace employees, scouting organization and other groups that come together regularly for a common purpose. CERT skills are useful in disaster and everyday life events.
Why take the CERT training?
Local government prepares for everyday emergencies. However, there can be an emergency or disaster that can overwhelm the community's immediate response capability. While adjacent jurisdictions, State and Federal resources can activate to help, there may be a delay for them getting to those who need them. The primary reason for CERT training is to give people the decision-making, organizational, and practical skills to offer immediate assistance to family members, neighbors, and associates while waiting for help. While people will respond to others in need without the training, the goal of the CERT program is to help people do so effectively and efficiently without placing themselves in unnecessary danger.
A success story about CERTs comes from events during the wildfires in Florida. The Edgewater CERT helped emergency management and the fire department personnel by assisting with evacuation; handling donations; preparing food for firefighters; and answering the phone while the professionals were fighting the fire. This is a great example of CERT members and response personnel working together for the benefit of the community.
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Sign-up for O'Fallon CERT
Register now for the next O'Fallon CERT class and learn how you can help in the event of an emergency. Classes are held at the O'Fallon Justice Center, 1019 Bryan Road.
O'Fallon, MO 63366
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