Fairfax County Citizen Corps Takes Home The Award

Congratulations to Andrew Levy, 2007 Citizen Corps Leader of the Year as presented at the 2007 Virginia Public Safety Outreach Conference.

The Citizen Corps Leader of the Year is a "manager, coordinator or council member whether volunteer or career who exemplifies the Citizen Corps mission".


Pictured (from left to right) are:

- Brock Bierman. Director, DHS/FEMA Community Preparedness Division. Small State and Rural Advocate;

- Sharon Woo, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Citizen Corps & CERT Training and Outreach Coordinator;

- Suzanne Simmons, Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Volunteer Coordination Program Manager; and

- Andrew Levy, Fairfax County Citizen Corps Council Chairman receiving the award.

Fairfax County Attends Virginia Public Safey Outreach Conference

On November 14-15, Members of the Fairfax County Citizen Corps Council, including representatives from the Fairfax County Office of Emergency Management, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) attended the 2007 Virginia Public Safety Outreach Conference: Ready Virginia.

They also attended 2007 Virginia Citizen Corps Tidewater Training Day.

Best practices learned from other Citizen Corps Councils will be shared in the next few weeks on this blog.

Fairfax County in Emergency Management Update - TWICE

Fairfax County CERT trains area Boy Scouts

Members of the Fairfax County Emergency Response Team trained Boy Scouts at the George Mason District BSA "Camporee," Oct. 13-14 at the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Academy. The event focused on methods of effective disaster preparedness and mitigation, with a simulated hurricane recovery center that helped scouts earn emergency preparedness merit badges. CERT subject matter experts led scouts through various training and response scenarios and served as command and control staff, moulage technicians and logistical preparation staff.

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School emergency preparedness resources

U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez released a set of guidelines to help educators and parents interpret federal privacy laws in an initiative prompted by the mass shooting at Virginia Tech. The Department of Education also released three brochures on privacy laws: one for K-12 educators, one for colleges and one for parents. They will be sent to schools, school boards and education associations.

A press conference for the initiative "Creating a Culture of Preparedness Among Schools" took place at Mt. Vernon High School in Alexandria, Va., with student representatives from the Fairfax County Fire and Emergency Medical Services Science program and the Fairfax County Citizen Corps Council.

A complete DHS list of emergency preparedness resources for schools is available at http://www.dhs.gov/schoolpreparedness.

Supporter of Citizen Corps Re-elected.

Congratulations to Gerry Connolly for being re-elected as Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. We look forward to your continued support and help to secure funding to maintain our programs.

From http://www.gerryconnolly.com/issues

Public Safety

Gerry Connolly knows that the first step in fighting crime is to prevent it. Last year, the crime rate in Fairfax County hit a 32-year low and, among the 50 largest jurisdictions, was the lowest in the nation. Our violent crime rate is half that of our neighboring jurisdictions.

- Put more police officers on the street and a police resource officer at every school
- Fought gangs by involving police, schools and the community in an anti-gang initiative that has reduced gang membership by half in our schools
- Initiated the Park Watch program
- Started the Safe Teen Driving initiative
- Strengthened Neighborhood Watch and Citizen Corps programs
- Chairs the Emergency Preparedness Committee for metropolitan Washington

Costly Conferences? Or Free Training

Have you seen a conference you would like to attend, but it is too costly?

You might consider volunteering at the conference. Often they offer their volunteers free registration and it also provides a good networking opportunity.

Community Colleges Another Source for Low Cost Training

While we focused on free training this week, we should not forget about training programs at relatively low cost through local community colleges.

Explore a Second Career at NOVA’s
Medical Education Campus in Springfield

NOVA’s Springfield-based Medical Education Campus (MEC) is adding three newly formatted courses to its winter schedule: Medical Office Specialist, Medical Transcription, and Comprehensive Medical Billing and Coding. According to Harriet Zimmerman, RN, Director of Workforce Development and Continuing Education, the classes represent a “track” for students planning to work in the medical field but not directly with patients.

"We’re using several of our most popular courses to construct a Medical Office track that can be taken separately or in succession,” Zimmerman explains. “This series may be of particular interest to career-switchers—it allows successful students to enter a job field where there is high demand for these skills.”

The five-week Medical Office Specialist training program provides the knowledge and skills necessary to function as an administrative professional in a medical office. Students will learn how to effectively run the MediSoft office suite (used in a majority of medical offices in the D.C. metro area); following successful completion of the course, students can seek employment continue their education.

Comprehensive Medical Billing and Coding is a 12-week course that allows students to apply theoretical and practical billing and coding knowledge to real-life situations. (This class is also offered at NOVA’s Arlington Center, located near the Ballston subway station.)

Basic Medical Transcription is designed specifically for those looking for a second career; graduates are well-prepared to work in a doctor's office, hospital, clinic, or to be self-employed. The six-week course includes medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, completion of medical reports and medical digital editing.

The winter session of Workforce Development and Continuing Education classes gets underway mid-January. To register or to learn more about these classes, call 703-822-6532 or visit http://www.nvcc.edu/medical/continuing

New Citizen Corps Information Website Integrated with Office of Emergency Management

For those who have been waiting for our website to be updated, it is now complete.

Visit: http://www.fairfaxcountycitizencorps.org/ or http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/oem/citizencorps.htm

Thank you to Ellen Kamilakis for making this happen.