Do you know what to do if a crisis happens in your area? Would you like to be able to protect yourself, your family, and help neighbors when such an event occurs? If you are interested in acquiring the training and skills to spring to action in a crisis, you should consider taking the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) course.

Bernard King, Emergency Management Specialist for the Cobb County Emergency Management Agency, distributed the following press release announcing training opportunities in February:

There are two CERT training opportunities with partners sites for February 2020. They are with the Cobb County Senior Services and St. Ann’s Catholic Church. Here are the details:

                Cobb County Senior Services – Wellness Center, 1150 Powder Springs Street, Marietta, GA 30064

                Three consecutive Wednesdays (must attend all 3 classes), February 5^th, 12^th, & 19^th, 2020 from 8:00am until 5:00pm

                To Register contact Tracy Shehab at tracy.shehad@cobbcounty.org or at the Wellness Center using #12448

                St. Ann’s Catholic Church, La Salette hall, 4905 Roswell Road, Marietta, GA. 30062

                Three consecutive Saturdays (must attend all 3 classes), February 22^nd, 29th & March 7^th, 2020 from 8:30am until 4:30pm

To Register contact Linda Walsh, RN at LWalshRN@st-ann.org or call (770) 552-6400 ext. 6019.

What is CERT?

In an earlier conversation with the Courier, King said, “What is the number one threat we all face in the way of disasters? Fires. Wherever we live, work, worship, everywhere we go there could be a fire. How do you plan?  How do you respond?  How do you recover from that? If you make a plan, if you create an awareness about it, and you decide how you’re going to respond before it ever occurs, then you’ve worked it out a little bit in your brain, and your learning curve is not as big.”

The Cobb County website describes the program as follows:

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program provides an opportunity for Cobb County citizens to gain knowledge about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their areas 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 neighborhoods or workplaces following events when professional responders are not immediately available to help.

To join Cobb County CERT, you must:

• Be over the age of 16
• Live, work or worship in Cobb County
• Pass a Criminal History background check