Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training Program Launched by SEMA

The Shrewsbury Emergency Management Agency is beginning its first CERT training cycle here in town.  Classes will begin on Monday April 2, and run for 10 weeks, concluding with a training exercise to assess the proficiency levels students have attained.  The initial class has five members, who will augment three Shrewsbury residents currently trained as CERT members.  These three are currently members of the Grafton CERT organization, but will leave Grafton and join the Shrewsbury organization to become the nucleus of the first CERT effort in town. 

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program helps train people to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities. When emergencies happen, CERT members can provide support to first responders, give immediate assistance to victims, and organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site. CERT members can help improve the safety of the community in many ways, such as monitoring parade participants for safety, marshalling at road races, monitoring water bodies during extreme rainfall events, providing emergency radio communications when needed, assisting in shelter operations as needed and helping during evacuations if needed.

The CERT course is taught in the community by a trained team of first responders who have completed a CERT "Train-the-Trainer" course conducted by the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), or the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Emergency Management Institute (EMI), located in Emmitsburg, Maryland. CERT training includes but is not limited to disaster preparedness, limited fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, sheltering operations and light search and rescue operations.

CERT is a significant national effort in local preparedness.  Over the next two years, the national CERT program aims to double the number of participants, with over 400,000 individuals completing the 20 plus hours of training. Train-the-Trainer sessions will be held in all 56 states and territories over the next year to expand the program throughout the United States.

Learn more by visiting the CERT homepage.