A Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a group of organized and trained volunteer disaster workers that operates at the neighborhood level. Free training from the Hamilton County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) can help you be prepared to help when the worst happens.
When disaster strikes, CERT volunteers spring into action: They are trained to suppress small fires, conduct light urban search and rescue, and provide emergency medical aid and psychological comfort to their neighbors.
In the post-disaster environment, CERT members assist in the community during the crisis. CERTs may also be called upon to help in other areas during emergencies even when their own neighborhood is not impacted.
The CERT Program prepares these volunteers with 20 hours of classroom and hands-on training. The training is provided by volunteer “subject matter” experts such as firefighters, EMTs and building safety personnel.
Hamilton County Emergency Management Executive Director Shane Booker has been involved in CERT classes in Hamilton County since 2015.
“The free training teaches people how to help their families and their neighbors,” Booker told The Reporter. “If a disaster impacts a neighborhood and police and fire cannot get in, the CERT group helps with search and rescue, medical triage and first aid. It is a great resource for our county.”
The training is spread over nine weeks, taking only a couple hours each week.
“We ask people to commit to nine nights,” Booker said. “We have different topics for each night. The classes are from 7 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, and we have one Saturday morning. They all build upon one another. At the end they take a written examination and a skills test, and graduate – when they receive a backpack provided by the county. It includes personal protective equipment, a wrench to shut off utilities, a crowbar, triage tape, medical supplies – a whole host of things. We swear them in as emergency management volunteers. We also offer them insurance, in the event they are injured while helping in an emergency they would be covered for medical treatment.”
Booker considers this training to be a benefit to both the individuals attending the classes and the entire community.
“CERT is a great resource for the community,” Booker said. “It is a value to the individual because of the skills they learn and what they can apply at home – which of course will help their families – but at the same time the more neighborhoods we can get on board with this, the more it can help the whole county.”
“The program goes back to late 2010,” CERT Program Coordinator Jon Baldwin told The Reporter. “I came in in early 2012. About 145 people have been trained in that time. CERT as a program from FEMA goes back to the mid-80s and had city-based teams – specifically Carmel and Westfield – prior to 2010. They also trained people. My rough estimate is that about 300 people total have had this training.”
Baldwin said the average class size is 15 people.
“The foundation of this training is that is something bad is happening in your local neighborhood, under the protections of the Good Samaritan Act, you are allowed to go out and use those skills,” Baldwin said. “Hopefully you have enough neighbors who have taken the training so you can function as a team because it is a team effort. The idea of the CERT program is to learn to work together as a team: How to watch out for our safety; some basic first aid; how to triage the way the first responders do.”
According to Baldwin, part of the philosophy of the training is to be able to be self-sufficient as a group for up to 72 hours. That is a common theme FEMA has been promoting for years for personal families.
“If something happens in an area where EMA thinks CERT volunteers might be helpful, they contact me in my office and I alert and activate volunteers by sending a message out to all the CERT volunteers we have to see who is available,” Baldwin said.
According to Booker, people who go through the training enjoy it and can use the skills to give back to their communities in a variety of ways.
“When I became the director in February, one of the things I wanted to make sure we did was to provide these folks with a way to give back to the community,” Booker said. “We have been working with public safety special event organizers to figure out what people can do to help support the community. Volunteers have worked at the Noblesville Street Dance, worked intersections at the Noblesville parades, helped with parking in Fishers, they were out as eyes and ears to help people at Cicero’s Lights Over Morse Lake fireworks.”
At events like the Noblesville Street Dance and Light Over Morse Lake, CERT volunteers use public safety radios on the same channel as first responders.
“We have been doing outreach events,” Baldwin said. “For example, the cities of Carmel, Fishers and Westfield have what they call ‘Public Safety Days’ in which fire, EMS and police show equipment. The idea to try to attract families and children to explain how they spend your tax dollars on equipment and here are the services we provide. It is similar to the ‘touch a truck’ programs that some places put on. We have done those things, and recently we have had a chance to support local events as trained, organized, trustable volunteers.”
Baldwin also makes presentations at businesses and civic groups like the Rotary and American Legion. You can contact him via email at Jon.Baldwin@hamiltoncounty.in.gov for more information.