Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
The purpose of CERT is to provide citizens with the basic skills required to physically, mentally and emotionally handle their needs and have the training and basic skills to assist and respond to their community's needs during and in the aftermath of a disaster.
Interested in Joining our CERT Team?
The University of Utah has CERT Online Classes (link below) that the Indiana Department of Homeland Security has approved. We partner with that organization to deliver the classroom portion of the program. Once an individual has completed the online portion of the CERT program, they receive a certificate of completion. That certificate is presented to Lake County Homeland Security/EMA agency, and we provide the practical evolutions/skills portion of the course for completion.
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) | Family & Preventive Medicine | U of U School of Medicine (utah.edu)
One of the most important functions of the CERT team during a disaster is managing and directing untrained volunteers who arrive at a disaster scene and want to be of assistance. During the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, hundreds of thousands of volunteers appeared at disaster sites, police and fire departments, hospitals, and Red Cross offices.
While trained CERT team members and other civilians are needed, the trained emergency responders need to do the rescue work rather than train those who want to help. The trained CERT team volunteers help those untrained volunteers be productive, while allowing the first responders to do their work.
The Lake County Homeland Security and Emergency Response CERT team becomes empowered to respond to disasters that affect their families and neighbors within Lake County.
Lake County has started to train CERT volunteers and we are receiving good response to this program. We will be advertising primarily on Social Media with future class information. Each class will be limited to only 10 participants.
Robert D. Walker, Director
Please contact our office with any questions at 219-755-3549.
