COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM(CERT)

April 2009 Katonah Village Improvement Society Bulletin COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM (CERT) TRAINING As outlined at the Emergency Preparedness talk, the Town Of Bedford is offering a course to train citizens to enable them to effectivelly help our police, fire and EMT personel in the event of an emergency. Assistance from trained citizens will allow our emergency personel to focus their resources on those in more dire need. Katonah Village Improvement Society POLICE DEPARTMENT CERT TRAINING CLASS The Bedford Police Department is seeking Town residents, business owners (and employees) who may be interested in volunteering as members of the Police Department Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). · The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community. This training is geared toward citizen volunteers who are not affiliated with a typical emergency response agency such as police, EMS, or fire department. The Police Department will be hosting a basic CERT training class on the following tentative dates (all Wednesday evenings) at the Katonah Fire Department. All classes are approximately two hours in length. All classes must be attended to become certified as this is a national curriculum. Make-up dates TBD: April 15 Disaster preparedness April 22 Disaster Fire Suppression April 29 Disaster Medical Operations, Part 1 May 6 Disaster Medical Operations, Part 2 May 13 Light Search and Rescue Operations May 20 Disaster Psychology and Team Organization Seats for this class are limited, and will be offered on a "first come - first served" basis. Contact the Police Department CERT Coordinator, Police Officer Vincent Gruppuso to reserve your seat for this class by telephone 241-3111 or email vgruppuso@bedfordny.info For additional information regarding the Town of Bedford CERT Program, click here For additional information about this nationally recognized program, click here email: news@kvis.us web: http://www.kvis.us Forward email