Victims at Practical exercises for each class
Host two nighttime Potluck/Practicals a year
Annual Halloween Practical with Ghosties and Ghoulies in the Smokehouse – this is the all time favorite!
Try to host one class per month of extra training – Boater Safety, Ropes and Knots, Secondary Devices, Project Lifesaver training, SART/CART training (for animal shelters), Damage Assessment classes, Moulage classes, CPR classes, Animal CPR, Chain Saw Safety, Traffic Control, etc.
Provide victims for many city and military exercises. Also provide moulage artists.
Every other year do a CERTEX with CERT members from several surrounding cities. Generally this exercise has around 200 victims and 150 – 200 CERT responders.
The CERT volunteers in Virginia Beach gave over 12,000 hours to working city events during the last year – keeps them happy and engaged and provides much needed services to the city!

In various city events such as parades & fairs. We have helped with traffic control at several county & city trainings & even funerals. We are working on a smoke detector installation program but it has yet to get off the ground.

Keeping them updated on news and events, continued training, cross training into other Citizen Corps groups.

We have monthly & annual drills, reviewing what they learned originally in their academy. We also participate in various city events & have an annual recognition dinner in the winter & a barbecue / get-together / drill in the summer.

By finding several different ways to volunteer. Some people like office work, public events, public education or just collecting data on CERT inventory. We also have them interact with Amateur Radio Emergency Services and Medical Reserve Corps.
**Marion County CERT Program**

Monthly meetings with education updates
email
Community wide volunteer cross trainings
exercise role players
annual field day exercise
allow members to explore content of their interest

Refreshers, school events, drills to keep training fresh, recerts

Monthly meetings, which include presentations on topics by variety of presentors, exercises, newsletter, web site, and all of the above.

By maintaining contact and keeping them informed about upcoming events and drills.

Participate in at least 6 events a year in Latah County to promote CERT and emergency preparedness. We meet on a regular basis doing extra training such as: CPR/1st Aid; GPS & Mapping; Traffic Control; Sandbagging Techniques, to name a few.

Monthly general meetings where topics and trainings are presented.

By offering classes and encouraging them to attend CERT and Community Voluinteer Corps meetings.

Any way we can

By providing quarterly training & monthly meetings with the Team Leaders (Zone Captains)

Holding field trainings, tabletop exercises, seminars, online courses.

Quarterly training face to face
Online training (EMI, TEEX, own stuff, etc.)
Annual Recognition program
Specialization Track Training
Meetings with food (usually breakfast)
Lots of activities (events and social)

Continuing education courses, Saturday volunteer projects, drills with First Responders, etc.

By exceeding expectations for training meetings
Always having relevant topics presented by competent presenters.
Opening up some CERT training meetings to VIPS &ARES/RACES
Opening up some VIPS training meetings to CERT members.
By presenting enough challenges to the right members at the right time.
By doing four to six tabletop exercises per year.
By doing at least one county wide exercise per year
Etc.

Monthly Meetings
Drills/Exercises
Events
Email Communications

We have numerous events and quarterly trainings/refreshers, such as:
Support for emergency planning (neighborhoods, schools, community)
Support for public safety at community events
Emergency preparedness and Terrorism awareness
GPS/GIS awareness
Home safety / prevention assistance to others (winterizing homes, fire safety actions, crime prevention steps, etc.)
Flag Retirement Ceremony / Aid Station / Crowd Control / Safety Day

Planned events and training exercises
Make them feel part of dept and provide opportunities to advance

Quarterly meetings, where we cover a topic as a refresher. We also follow your lead with an annual refresher at the fire training center, then if we have the funding, we feed them.

Monthly continuing ed trainings, regular work opportunities, newsletter, meetings, annual appreciation picnic

Have bimonthly trainings.
The next couple of months we will get CPR & First Aid certification.
We also go on field trips and have guest speakers come to our meetings.

Monthly meetings and training

Having a hard time keeping them engaged. Trying drills and other event activity.

Quarterly meeting with Fire Dept coordinator with training included during this meeting.

Active members are required to have 12 hours of volunteer service and 4 hours of C.E. each year. We provide ongoing training. They also participate in local Drills and exercises.

This is very hard, you almost need a full time person that has the time to stay in contact with them and respond to their needs. We offer a free volunteer picnic every year for all of them. We started Alumni groups that meet once a month and they work on fundraising ideas for Fire and Police support.

Holding meetings, and using them in non-disaster roles

It is hard in a small county but we try to get them involved in other events in our county. That will help the citizen and show what CERT can do for your community.

Invite them to attend hands-on day at each training.

Meet every other month and require attendance at 3 meetings per year. Provide additional training, including with other area teams, several times a year. Expect participation on at least 1 community event per year. We also have several smaller committees that provide opportunity to get members involved and to build leadership.

Find other trainings to do – we offer first responder training in addition to the normal curriculum, we are also the animal response team which involves another set of trainings and we do those with the regional/team/national teams, we trained with the DCR on Boom training at the reservoirs, representatives go to the REPC meetings,

We keep our CERT engaged with newsletters and offering trainings

Trainings
Newsletters
Exercises/Drills
Volunteer Recognition

We try and find new and interesting topics to keep their interest. Recently they were included in classes from our electric and gas utility companies.

If funds exist, we try to conduct a training every two years. We also invite them to help with other activities. However this is a challenge that we have.

We provide them training opportunities and also provide them the opportunity to provide public education to the community.

Quarterly training

Again by use as volunteers in various other response agencies or non profits they have a minimum hours of duty they must perform monthly to stay in an active status. Our homeland security office utilizes CERT members as participants in local, area, and regional full scale drills .. From active shooter exercises at schools or universities to extensive tornado/plane crash drills.

Hold meetings, recognition, training, incorporating their decisions on how CERT grant dollars are spent.

At any local or state drills, CERT has a role in the drill. Bi-monthly meetings/trainings are held geared towards community issues/events. They set up information tables at all events (Cranston has about 14 events per year). The information tables offer evacuation info/routes and maps, medical POD information. Shelter training for evacuations as well as Cooling Centers for high temp/humidity days.

Monthly meetings / training, Facebook (www.facebook.com/AndersonCountyCert) interaction (public page as well as a members only page).

OEM meetings very two weeks.

Monthly training
Keeping them informed

To keep them engaged I send them to advanced training and communicate them on current community activities to attend in the region.
Free uniforms and equipment

Continuous training. I email them information I think they will find valuable but try not to email more than once a week. I conduct exercises to refresh their skills.

Monthly board meeting and try to have at least one exercise a year.
Sometimes incorporated with City, County or State exercise.

It’s hard…we have lost at least 15 volunteers over the last year …a new class / training is scheduled for late 2012…we will recruit more then…our goal is to have 50 members for a population of 44,000.

Emails with additional Training
Annual Refresher Training, provide refreshments, batteries, maybe another item. T-shirts if you can afford them.

Community Activities and continued training.

As much as possible in college events

We have monthly meeting featuring a variety of training, from refreshers to new info. Our most recent class was 3 days ago on food handling safety – perfect for the start of summer and BBQ season. We conduct joint training exercises with our fire dept and first aid squad.

Monthly in-service training, as well as other city functions

We are active with the state in the CERT Olympics, and we meet quarterly.

Conduct a large CERT training once a year – advanced training. Create committees like ICS – let the volunteers lead where the program will go. How large, what the goals and priorities will be to maintain the program.

Emails, Facebook page, volunteer opportunities

As previously stated, our CERT is an on-going, regularly activated for our many special events. The members have staffed safety perimeters during the Fourth of July, staffed railway crossings to keep children off the track beds, staffed first aid stations with Red Cross, EMS workers and regional Medical Reserve Corps members during our 150th Civil war reenactments. We plan to have team members carry first aid fanny packs and use arm bands to identify our members as first aid trained during this year’s 4th of July activities. We hope to start training our Neighborhood Watch teams to increase our numbers within our multiple neighborhoods throughout the City. Our members participate in regional training opportunities throughout the year with other jurisdictional teams. Upon completion of their basic training, members are invited to attend a graduation ceremony during a City Council meeting that is televised. Our Mayor and Fire Chief present certificates and official Identification Badges following a State Police criminal background check to each graduate. We continuously look for ways to keep them engaged. Our program just turned 3 years old with 32 members. We hold 2 classes a year, Spring and Fall.

Things to do, continuation training. Using them in house and keeping them involved in our office, having them volunteer in the office at anytime they are available.

We try to have monthly meetings, and by using them in conjunction with the fire departments, they have a better chance of being activated and used than if we waited just for a natural disaster. We also try to have a social meeting several times a year so everyone is friends, not just volunteers together.

They meet monthly or quarterly depending upon the time of year and events going on at that time. at each meeting some form of new training or refresher course is dealt with.
Note: we teach the class for many more people that never become a part of the CERT team plus we teach many from other counties.

Monthly meetings

We practice the ICS during every gathering. Volunteers stay engaged by participating at multiple local events, CERT exercises, guest speakers, CPR – AED classes, Mercy Air, shelter worker classes, (we have signed a partnership agreement with American Red Cross), and a variety of medical classes. We work very closely with our sponsoring agency, Julian Cuyamaca Fire Protection District.
We teach our teens, as well as adults. We have taught TEEN CERT members in Julian High School, (65 out of 162 total students), Julian Jr. High, (36 out of 90 students), and will continue teaching next semester with the goal of having each student provided with the life-saving and life-sustaining skills. The support from the adults is outstanding.
We start teaching the new FEMA Ready Kids program to Julian Elementary School 4th, 5th, and 6th grades on August 22, and each Wednesday afternoon for the school year.
We have just expanded to San Diego TEEN CERT to provide training to all of the school districts. My husband and I provide the TTT course, making it possible for more citizens from the various areas to teach the Basic CERT program.
Additionally, we teach the TEEN CERT Annex to CERT members who are already trainers, thereby allowing them to teach in the schools. A Life-Scan Background Check is required.

Meetings every month and various training sessions event participation.

Volunteering with the new CERT training, Attending exercises and community events, periodic training refreshers.

Monthly meetings and training, extra training that is requested by the members such as CPR, other awareness level classes.
Recommend IS 100, 200, 700, 800, 26, and others.

We have had dinners for all members. We have bought T-Shirts and caps for all members. We have training updates.

Keep them active with the above. Different levels of participation. 1 is lowest, 5 highest. To be a 5, you have to have lots of training and participation …Gives them a goal to shoot for.

Continued advanced training, exercises, town events, and other means to get them involved and not have them stagnate and lose interest in the program.

There is monthly training as well as using them for special events as first aid stations and assisting with other events such as triathlons, fireworks etc.

We offer many follow up classes: CPR, Search and Rescue, Bomb Activity, Moulage Training, Blood Borne Pathogens and many other classes that might peak their interest. We also offer an advanced first aid class since the one they get during initial training is just basic. The classes are not required and there are enough that they can pick and choose which ones they want to come to.

Training monthly with activities
Make them responsible for the program so they feel ownership with it.
We do training with the High School to get youth active in the program which they continue as they go out into the world.

Quarterly newsletter, quarterly meetings, quarterly training, annual regional CERTEX, and the above activities.

We will engage them in our campus exercises and promote them to our staff through regular HR updates.

Regular e-mail blasts, continuing education, starting to involve them in curriculum development and delivery, neighborhood organization

Keep them very active. Many events in the spring and summer, followed by interesting training in the down months.

We hold monthly meetings, we try to keep them informed of Emergency Management issues, we try to utilize them as much as possible.

Monthly meetings and training and communications by email weekly.

Many various activities. Advanced skills, ham radio

We have a large special needs population.

By providing additional training opportunities and involving them in exercises.

Quarterly refresher sessions and guest speaker invitations, HOA visits and conduct preparedness presentations.

Advanced CERT – save the dates- 2012
• July 26 – 6 pm at EHS UCSB – Triage refresher
• August 21 – 6 pm at SB City EOC – Red Cross Operations
• September 13 – 6 pm at EHS UCSB – Emergency Preparedness/Hazards refresher
• October 11 – 6 pm at EHS UCSB –Communications
• October 18 – 6 pm at SB City EOC – Search and Rescue Refresher
• November 15 – 6 pm at EHS UCSB –Damage Assessment
• December 18 – at SB City EOC-Team Org Refresher

Franklin Lakes is located in Bergen County. Bergen County offers continuing in- service courses for CERT members. These courses include shelter operations, HAM radio operations, weather-related classes, just to name a few. Our CERT members are also being trained in the operation of disbursing medications in the event of a bio-terrorism incident.

Currently, we email various types of information to former participants.

Monthly meetings and trainings, quarterly day-long training, and drills

Team membership requires meeting and training attendance.

Regular contact through e-mail and Facebook

Keeping their training current
Keep updated equipment for their tasks
Find deployment opportunities
Continually develop more volunteers

Our goal is to bring all CERT team members in twice a year for training that includes drills and table top exercises.

Unit meeting/training two times per year
Twice annual training
Invite members to help with CERT classes
Notify CERT members of training and/or conferences

Keep it active.

Continued training, special events and a volunteer recognition dinner with a CERT Volunteer of the year award.

By offering opportunities to volunteer whenever possible, offering continuous training opportunities (i.e., SkyWarn, CPR/AED/1st Aid, Emergency Sign Language communication, Heat & Health training, Signs of Terrorist/Bomb Awareness training, Michigan Advanced CERT designation training, Shelter Management, Donations Management, etc.), annual volunteer appreciation dinner with special awardees, Michigan Annual CERT Games (statewide competition), and bi-monthly meetings with guest presentations that are relevant, informative or training to enhance or develop new skills or techniques.

Haven’t found out the best way to do this.

Continuing education opportunities. Amateur radio.

Use them as often as possible.

Walton County has not done a very good job of this over the last few years. The teams that were once structured are no longer meeting regularly.
We are in the process of re-energizing our CERT program and will be seeking to engage those that have already received training as well as conducting training for new members.
Our plan is to keep them engage through training/exercise opportunities and using them to assist at planned events.

We have a lot of trouble here. We’ve increased the additional training we offer, partnered with the Red Cross, and staged events such as tabletop exercises, a CERT Rodeo, and regional exercises with neighboring jurisdictions.

Quarterly training (table top, practical exercises) & an annual County Disaster Exercise coordinated by the Fire District the exercise is held in.
Emails and Citizen Corps Council Meeting along with quarterly CERT meetings

Bi-monthly training that’s fun, like how to establish a helicopter landing zone, field hospital setup.

10 monthly refresher courses per year (2-hours in length)
Committee to provide direction on the program
CPR/AED training

Monthly trainings to maintain their skills.
We train our CERT’s ICS and NIMS.
Also, some members we train and release but if they want to move up in CERT ranks we train and maintain.

It is not so important for Denver to keep people engaged. It is more important to have the people and communities trained and empowered to help take care of each other while government is to busy to take care of them.

Email newsletters, advanced trainings, & simulated disaster practice.

We offer monthly training on topics chosen by our members that further discussion in basic class. Topics such as walking tour building assessments of our downtown cores, cooking in the dark, situational perspectives of law vs fire responders, DOT roadside safety and flagging, managing spontaneous volunteers, geological awareness and more, all delivered by subject matter experts from outside agencies and university faculty. We do a yearly awards banquet recognizing service hours by deployment, shifts served as Lead, and time spent in community leadership activities.

Trainings & quarterly meetings
Participation at community event; fairs, festivals,parades, road races for traffic control and informational displays.

That’s the hard part, still trying to do that.

Participate in community events throughout the County promoting CERT and emergency preparedness. Plus meet every quarter to review the manual and do exercises. They also want more training so we’ve added traffic control; proper sandbagging techniques; GPS and mapping; decontamination to name a few.

We are hosting CERT Advanced Classes and have just completed a Volunteer Template to be used to have assigned Volunteers. We are also beginning to work with social committees for parades, events, etc. that are held in the City to utilize our CERT volunteers.
Again, we are in the genesis of this program and will be looking for a lot of help.

By providing interesting continuing education programs and exercises. But most of all, by recognizing them for all of their hard work, dedication and special efforts. Foster City CERT’s are the best and I constantly remind them of that!

Of the 1400 people we’ve trained we have an active roster of 65 card-carrying neighborhood volunteers and additional teams of teachers and staff in 29 of our 41 schools. We provide additional training to those who have joined teams including invitations to awareness level training provided our fire, rescue, hazmat & medical responders. We use Neighborhood Watch and Map Your Neighborhood programs to further engage residents. Volunteers also join the Torrper Citizen’s Academy, CERT is required for local amateur radio club membership, JROTC, and other response oriented groups. We practice EOC activation quarterly with those volunteers as well.

Monthly training/refresher events.
At least two exercises a year.
Annual picnic/volunteer recognition.
Encourage participation in additional events (safety fairs, public information booths, presentations).
Our CERT Leaders do the training for the basic CERT course. They also are in charge of conducting much of the refresher/advanced training; and help plan the exercises.

We conduct three CERT Desserts each year, plus forward training opportunities and information via email as they arise. As emergency manager, I communicate and meet with my neighborhood teams on a regular basis, with each neighborhood expected to conduct one field exercise each year.
(CERT Dessert is what we call our continuing education meetings. We hold at least three such meetings a year specifically for our CERT graduates. Half of the meeting time is designated for review of standard CERT curriculum information (one topic selected per meeting), half is devoted to discussion on other CERT topics such as report-outs from neighborhood teams and sharing of ideas, discussion of training and exercise experiences, introduction of new and/or current safety and preparedness topics (i.e. H1N1 and pandemic preparedness) etc.
The City always provides beverages and at least one dessert, with our volunteers bringing the other desserts.)

We encourage CERT areas to practice response to a staged accident and treat/perform the medical and fire sections of CERT. Then discuss what they learned. This does not happen often enough.

Regular Meetings
Citywide Exercises
Continuing Education
Drills and Exercises
Work on Community Engagement
Special Events
NOTE: Would be open to discussions on all lessons learned/ways to improve CERT program.

Continual training – monthly
CMAP (CERT Mutual Aid Program) – Orange County – Advanced CERT Training
Newsletter
Recognition programs for volunteers
Red Cross First Aid/AED/CPR training
Continual email updates

FaceBook postings
Local Event Participation
Monthly Business Meeting
Monthly Training
Web page and Calendar

E-mail
advanced training
volunteer opportunities

Primarily through ongoing training opportunities, including:
CERT skill refresher sessions
CERT Animal Response
MC/ACS portable shelter assembly
GPS/map and compass, outdoor SAR
Traffic control & accident scene safety
Driving skills (truck, trailer)
Electric power line safety
Bear safety
Radiation
FireWise – wildfire preparedness
First Aid/CPR/AED
Pet First Aid

Monthly meetings and emails. Meetings consist of 2 hrs. of pertinent training for volunteers. Use of outside speakers (Edison, R.A.C.E.S., AHA, etc.)
Training Rodeos in Indio and locally.

Monthly refreshers. I also have a yearly Christmas party.

Training and Community Activities

Monthly meetings and training. However, this is difficult.

Monthly meetings with training, ongoing community support activities, formal exercise and Region-organized Advanced Cert Academy under the auspices of our County EOC

Continuous training opportunities and event integration with first responders.

Offer up training opportunities throughout the region for refreshers and new training.

They are currently organized under the police department. The team meets on a monthly basis and discusses policies, training, deployments, etc. They work closely with a Sgt/patrol officer. The team submits monthly hours spent on their various projects. Last year (2010) their time calculated to $17,000.

Our CERT team provides all public educational classes/outreach efforts.

Monthly meetings with training at every meeting. One major drill with Fire Dept. every year for CA Shakeout.

We offer two refresher courses per month in two locations per month. We conduct simulations several times per year. We also attend additional training and simulations throughout Oregon.
We require ICS 100, 200, & 700 from each member.

Review classes, drills, optional additional classes
Periodic emails
Instituting 3 level system, level 2 will require 100,200,700,800 + ARC
Level 3 will require 300 + EMR or higher

We offer quarterly meetings combined with trainings. When members complete the Basic Training, they get their CERT kit. If they come back for their first quarterly meeting, they get a CERT T-shirt and ball cap. Each quarterly meeting we give all CERT members in attendance a piece of equipment to add to their kits, such as blankets, pry bars, upgraded flashlights, etc.

Continuing education, try to find events where we can be used.

Training, Exercising, Equipping (volunteers are issued the equipment necessary to the functional group assigned to), giving real world missions, support new initiatives, training is based on the mission and goals of the program.

Events, educational events, disaster simulations…

Monthly training, extra advanced training every 90 days or so (first aid, combat first aid, CPR/ AED. HAZMAT awareness, wildland fire safety, power line / gas line safety, traffic control, animal safety, etc.) , frequent email contact announcing training and procedures, daily weather briefings sent to all active members, partnering with neighboring agencies’ CERT organizations with trips to other fire stations for training, working with local Fire Safe Councils on common safety projects.

Do not do a very good job of this. The city will not recognize teams for deployment.

By having annual drills and exercises..

Regular training, meetings and utilizing them at community events. They help park cars, monitor parking lots, hand out information and love to staff a CERT booth to educate people about CERT and recruited new members.

Regular training about 1 per month. Regular activations and/or engagements (drills, education, other opportunities to assist community/public safety etc).

Monthly meetings with part of the meeting being used for training and the other for general business.

See the list above. If local government is hosting or involved with an activity regardless of the discipline, CERT is invited to participate.

Offer lots of training opportunities; drill monthly which includes meeting and field exercises.

Their commitment is their willingness to help the community.
We are training to be fit for any emergencies that present, and with this knowledge we will reach the community leader.

Make the meetings interesting
Training – we train frequently on mass care (sheltering), handling people with disabilities.
Break the team up into committees, sheltering, search & rescue, equipment.

Our DMAC region holds quarterly refreshers and an annual refresher.

Quarterly meetings followed by an exercise.

Recruitment events
Mock disasters
Micro training

Lots of training opportunities
We always feed them when they show up for an event
By trying to fit their interests to the needs of our community. By this I mean there are some who only want to be involved in HAM radios and communications, that is where we have them working. Some want to get to know their neighbors, they are working on Map Your Neighborhood.
My main goal is to make everyone feel important to our team. I encourage the disabled, or physically limited in any way to find something they can do to help and they appreciate being needed.
About the ICS question, I ask that they take all four courses, but require only the first two.
I have a list of on-line courses and computers available at our own Fire Station (CERT HQ) for people to use to further their training in areas interesting to them.
We have one or two get togethers a year just for FUN.

Monthly community events and monthly training classes.

Monthly business meetings / training
Community events
Give them responsibility
Offer training outside the scope of CERT – (first responder, Search and Rescue, Fire Re-Hab, Traffic and Crowd control, etc)

We have monthly team meetings and I will email the team at least once a week with training opportunities.
We work with other CERT teams and MRC’s to have joint trainings.
We participate in non emergency events such as local road races and other planned events.
I also have a yearly social in the summer – this year we will have a scavenger hunt using the sectionalized maps and radios we have for our coastal search capability, followed by a cookout!

Try to use monthly meetings and drills

Monthly meetings and tabletop exercises
Offering teams for traffic control to other towns for NON-emergency events

Very difficult, but the easiest way is to continue to offer different training topics, food, etc.

This has been an ongoing issue in our community. We offer monthly training on a variety of subjects as well as a yearly scenario based exercise. Hoping to get the team involved in more of the public safety drills this coming year.
We do a train and release with the option to ‘maintain’, if by maintain you mean be an active part of the CERT team and participate in drills, etc. I’m also assuming that by ‘sworn personnel’ you mean paid public safety personnel?
Looking forward to reading about what you find out! Hi to Stacy! 🙂