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NOTE: The Office of Emergency Management continues to support established and trained CERT teams in the County. Due to budget cuts and layoffs, no new programs are scheduled.
 The Seminole County Office of Emergency Management realized that, when properly trained, citizens can become a tremendous resource to the emergency response. As a result, the emergency management team introduced a citizen training program known as C.E.R.T. (Community Emergency Response Team). The program is designed to focus on hurricanes, tornadoes and other major emergencies common to Central Florida, as well as training the student to deal with everyday emergencies. The training is focused on training neighborhood groups how to protect their communities from disasters. If a disaster was to occur, these groups could support neighborhood and community needs while emergency response units responded to the location.
The Basic CERT course lasts just 8 weeks and takes 2 1/2 to 3 hours per week of class and practical time.
MODULE 1:
Students will become aware of various types of major emergencies that could affect Central Florida, the emergency management system, and the process of disaster response and recovery.
MODULE 2:
Teaches basic fire suppression, team and personal safety considerations, an introduction to the problems associated with hazardous materials incidents.
MODULE 3:
Disaster medical operations, recognizing and treating life threatening injuries.
MODULE 4:
Triage and sorting patients, splinting, bandaging, and basic patient care.
MODULE 5:
Teaches light search and rescue operations, size-up, search methods, patterns, and safety precautions.
MODULE 6:
Focus on C.E.R.T. neighborhood operations before a disaster or emergency incident: long term planning, how to organize a neighborhood, evaluate available resources and identify people with special needs.
MODULE 7:
Deals with post-disaster operations, counseling, stress management.
MODULE 8:
Introduction to terrorism, response to a terrorist event, how to prevent terrorism in the community, United States threat levels.
If you are interested in taking a CERT course, please talk to your neighbors, homeowner's association, neighborhood watch group, or similar type community organization. The CERT program is "neighborhood based". Therefore, only groups from neighborhoods are allowed to take the course. Individuals may audit the course, but would not receive full benefit of the course.
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