Joy Peterson posted on July 01, 2011 15:33
Rome, Ga. –The Rome-Floyd County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) will be holding its next free certification class starting on August 2, 2011.
“In the past few months, local residents have seen the benefits directly of having an active CERT team,” said Vicki Wiles, CERT Coordinator. “Immediately after the strong winds hit, our CERT team was on the ground assisting public safety officials with search and rescue. In the days and months afterwards, they remained on the ground with clean-up efforts, debris removal and notifying affected residents of the resources available.”
The Rome-Floyd County CERT team has a roster of 300 members, with 174 actively participating in rescues and events all over the county.
“Even with this many volunteers, we can always use more,” said Wiles. “We welcome anyone with a spirit of volunteerism, dedication to getting a job done and a passion for helping people. We especially need CERT members that are fluent Spanish and sign-language.”
CERT training promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people they serve. Everyone is welcome to volunteer and no prior emergency or medical training is required. Members are trained in light search and rescue techniques, disaster preparedness, terrorism, medical treatment, team organization, disaster psychology, and then complete a final exercise using the skills just learned. CERT members are then integrated into the emergency response capabilities for their area.
Class dates are as follows:
Tuesday, August 2 6pm- 10pm Floyd County Health Dept. Friday, August 5 6pm- 10pm Floyd County Health Dept.
Tuesday, August 9 6pm- 10pm Floyd County Health Dept. Friday, August 12 6pm- 10pm Floyd County Health Dept. Saturday, August 13 8am - 12noon Fire Tower Training Center, Graduation Exercise
Please note: all 5 sessions (20 hrs) must be completed.
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