After September 11, 2001, citizens were stunned and horrified that such an attack could be carried out on American soil. Unfortunately, this incident brought the realization that the United States was not immune to terrorist attacks on a grand scale. It would be safe to assume that most American citizens felt helpless and wondered what they could do to help prevent these attacks or assist those in need should the unthinkable happen.

On January 29, 2002 in the State of the Union address, President George W. Bush asked American citizens to volunteer their services to help safeguard the country. President Bush then formed the Citizen’s Corp program to help meet this request.

One of the many volunteer programs offered to citizens through the Citizen’s Corp program is the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). The concept of CERT was developed by the City of Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) in 1985. Due to the high probability of area wide disasters that are possible in Los Angeles, the LAFD recognized the need to train citizens to meet their immediate needs until help arrived. (http://www.fema.gov/community-emergency-response-teams/about-community-emergency-response-team, accessed) CERT has since been implemented throughout the United States. The training teaches citizens how to become self-sufficient and how to best assist their families, friends, and neighbors in the event of a disaster, whether it is natural or man-made.

Community based programs such as the CERT program allow citizens to better prepare for anticipated disasters and potential terrorist attacks. The CERT curriculum consists of volunteers attending one 2 ½ hour class per week for approximately seven to eight weeks. These classes are provided free of charge. During these classes students learn disaster preparedness for their families as well as their community, fire safety, search and rescue techniques, medical operations, and terrorism familiarity along with a few other topics. Many of these courses are taught by practitioners who have experience in their topic of instruction.

One of the many benefits of having CERT volunteers is that they can be utilized by first responders to complete a large number of tasks during an emergency, which frees up the professional responders to conduct the more technicaltasks(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Community_emergency_response_team) Some of these tasks could be providing minor first-aid and assisting in search and rescue efforts. Some jurisdictions will activate their CERT teams to assist in times of crisis.

Those that are interested in becoming a CERT volunteer can contact their local emergency management agency or fire department or they can look online to find the program closest to their community.