6/21/2019 BERRIEN SPRINGS - We proudly congratulate our new Community Emergency Response Team Instructors to Berrien County after they graduated from a rigorous training program. This intense 3- Day train the trainer program offered by FEMA's Emergency Management Institute was held in Berrien Springs at the beginning of June. Upon completion, the graduates are able to confidently deliver instruction to prospective CERT members using the accredited CERT curriculum.
The Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division is planning on hosting a CERT program managers course July 17 and 18, 2019 in Berrien Springs. If you are interested, email [email protected] to inquire about the registration process. The program manager's course is designed to help those interested in developing or maintaining a CERT program in their community.
CERT is similar to the Neighborhood Watch program, but with a disaster response spin. The program is based upon helping your family and neighbors during a disaster while Professional Responders may be delayed by the impact of the disaster. After helping their families to safety, CERT members may begin to organize themselves in a neighborhood or community to begin helping the greatest number of people in the most efficient manner as possible until professional help arrives. Businesses, houses of worship, and other organizations also have found it helpful to manage their own organizational CERT program and use members as their internal emergency response teams. The program manager’s course will help them to build the internal policies they may need to put such a program together.
Congratulations again to our new instructors, we are proud of them.