Stop, Drop, "Rock" and Roll - CERT

The following appeared in the Washington Post at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022701466_3.html

Emergency Classes

Community Emergency Response Team training classes begin March 26 at the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy, 4600 West Ox Rd., Fairfax.

The 28-hour CERT program trains individuals in basic disaster-response skills, such as fire safety, search and rescue, team organization and disaster medical operations.

For information on the free program, call 703-246-4683 or visit http://https://mail.fairfaxcounty.gov/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.fairfaxcountycitizencorps.org.

Leap Day Emergency - Please Read

You may have made a New Years Resolution to be better prepared for an emergency in 2008. But, do you have that plan? Do you have an emergency preparedness kit?

HAVE YOU DONE NOTHING TO BE BETTER PREPARED???

Take this extra day of the year to follow a few simple steps.

The Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management and Citizen Corps Council suggests a simple four-step process for residents to prepare themselves, their communities and their businesses for naturally occuring or man-made emergencies.

Information on the process can be found at:
http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/oem/

If you have already taken steps to be prepared, consider helping others in the community to do the same.

Also consider the many volunteer emergency preparedness and awareness volunteer opportunities through the Fairfax County Citizen Corps Council at: www.fairfaxcounty.gov/oem/citizencorps/

What are you waiting for? Click on the links above to start taking some action today.

Fairfax County Fire Explorers Recruiting for New Members

Young men and women between 14 and 20 are invited to become Fire Explorers with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department.

Learn firsthand how exciting a firefighter’s job is by working with Fairfax County firefighters. Following an introductory training program, Fire Explorers may ride-along to real emergencies with firefighters and paramedics, and assist them by performing routine, supervised tasks.

Fire Explorers assist with virtually all routine tasks in the community and around the fire station, including community relations, fire prevention, equipment and station maintenance and training.

Fire Explorers wear a uniform, and are provided with helmets, turnouts and other safety clothing. Becoming a Fire Explorer is an excellent way to develop qualities and gain experience that will be helpful in the future.

Meetings are the first and third Monday of every month from 6-9 p.m. at the Fairfax County Fire Rescue Academy: 4600 West Ox Road, Fairfax.

For more information contact Captain David Tobin (also for reasonable ADA accommodations) at David.Tobin@fairfaxcounty.gov, 703-246-3965 or Firefighter Joseph Herrera at joseph.herrera@fairfaxcounty.gov, 703-780-0110 (both TTY 703-222-5494).

Memo from FEMA to America's First Responder Community - Satellite Re-entry

Additional information can be found at fema.gov

Citizen Corps Council - Request for (Your) Articles

Are you a regular reader of the Citizen Corps Council blog?

Do you have information you would like to share with this community?

If so, we are looking for additional writers for the blog.

Please CONTACT US if you are interested.

Suggestion of the Day - Teen CERT on Facebook

There are many different CERT teams on Facebook.

DHS and the organization that runs the Teen CERT program, should consider launching Teen CERT on Facebook.

It is pretty easy to setup this no cost way that would be a great way to have those students that have gone through the course network and share lessons learned.

In addition, those that have similar programs, just not called "teen" CERT could share their experiences as well. For example, quite a few Boy Scouts in Fairfax County have run through the CERT program through Camporees.

This blog entry is one example:

http://citizencorps.blogspot.com/2007/10/boy-scout-cert-emergency-preparedness.html

One Giant Leap For Mankind - Facebook

Thinking really ahead for National Preparedness month (which is when we launched this blog last year), we created a Citizen Corps Facebook Group.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10287941494

For those not familiar with Facebook, check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

South County (Fairfax) Gets CERT Class

Fairfax County CERT has entered into a new training partnership with the City of Alexandria, Virginia to train CERT students located in the south section of Fairfax County. This new training partnership will commence with the upcoming spring 2008 Fairfax County CERT training schedule.

Fairfax County CERT will be teaching three new classes starting March 17th, 2008. Two of the classes will be held at the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy. The other will be held at the city of Alexandria Fire Academy with portions of this class being held at the at the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy. This class will be taught by a mix of instructors from Fairfax County fire and rescue and Alexandria city fire department.

The new training partnership will introduce interoperability between Fairfax county CERT and Alexandria city CERT where none has existed previously. The new agreement ensures the best possible training for CERT members in the south Fairfax county area. This also ensures the most efficient use of Citizen Corps program funding.

Additional information on Fairfax County CERT can be found at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/oem/citizencorps/cert.htm

To signup for one of the upcoming courses, http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/contact/mailform.asp?ref=8004