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General Discussion / Re: Opinions on CERT programs?
« Last post by Searchboss on November 19, 2024, 11:02:13 AM »I ran across something today I had not heard of: CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) programs. Sounds like a great idea, except its a FEMA program. Anyone had any experience with them?
CERT can be a good thing for the local community if it is applied right. Sadly, in my experience it is hit or miss. Several years ago when they rolled out the CERT Program nationwide the federal government gave states a lot of money to recruit and train local CERT teams on a county level, at least here in Georgia. They were administered by the local county EMA Directors. I was in the first class in my county (Houston) and helped to train several more teams as more people volunteered. Unfortunately, our then-EMA director only gave lip service to using volunteers for anything in the county. Essentially, none of the volunteer CERT Teams were ever used except in one missing person search, which was mainly a PR event. They mainly use the CERT program to obtain additional federal funds for the county.
We had several meetings over the years trying to get the county to use the CERT teams in various events, with no results. We tried to get the county to share a radio frequency with the CERT teams so we could better coordinate with the county EMA with no results. Finally, after several years, the CERT program quietly fell apart here.
In other GA counties I am familiar with the EMA?s also trained local CERT teams. Some were used as intended, but many counties used the CERT program and funding as a recruiting tool to get more volunteer firefighters or add to the volunteer groups that they already had set up and worked with regularly.
Always remember that the CERT program is administered by the Federal Government! The bottom line is that CERT is federally funded, but is locally organized. It is up to the local agencies to use the CERT as they desire, within very loose guidelines. If you want to join a CERT, I would encourage you to do so. The training is very basic, but not bad. They may or may not issue equipment. Like any organization, if your local EMA/CERT leaders are honest, honorable, and professional you may end up with some good training and make new friends. Just be cautious and limit your expectations.
