The second level (CERT ELITE) are required to attend CERT training, attend 4 continuing education classes per year and volunteer for 2 events in our community each year. They also have the opportunity to drill with our firefighters.

We currently have 6 CERT Captains and 1 CERT Battalion Chief. Each CERT ELite is placed unter a Captain to make 7 teams for call out.

The Members that want more…. “get more” and the ones that don’t…. “don’t”. It works out great for all.

I am particularly interested in the linkage between sustainable practices and community resiliency. Things as diverse as bicycle commuting, alternative energy, rainwater catchment, gardening and canning all stand to put our city on a much stronger footing than a cities that are more reliant on outside suppliers, infrastructure, and oil, for their well-being. I would like to see people at the national level connect these dots as well.

All of these ideas have a impact on CERT.
Some folks just like to be “trained” to be prepared for the “what ifs” of life.

Train ‘em young and you stand a good chance to keep ‘em interested for a long tim.

Also volunteer’s, God love’m . What ever happened to just helping out? does everyone need to have a team or a club or a organization?
i’d encourage CERT training as a means of making the citizens more self reliant or resilient.

Don’t even get me started about why there are multiple Citizen Corps programs that don’t interact well.
Civil Defense anyone?

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”

Theodore Roosevelt (American 26th US President (1901-09), 1858-1919)

As an LA County firefighter who was involved in developing the first CERT program in the nation in LA County in the late 1970’s, the program does an excellent job of what it was designed to do. To train local persons to respond locally during catastrophic events when traditional public safety agencies will be overwhelmed and 911 does not work. It is correct that ANY volunteer program has a hard time of retention if the individual cannot put their training to use on a regular basis. It is easy to recruit but hard to retain.

Once our FD found out just how many dedicated volunteers they had, they began giving us more assignments. It seems to me that by offering advanced levels and advanced training, that fills the ‘what next’ feeling. At this time we have upwards of 75 ‘hard core’ volunteers that have been activated multiple times from storms to gas main breaks. That’s just our story, but maybe it is one to consider for other areas where the volunteers want to do more.