Emergency Response Volunteer Trainings to Begin at Paul Revere

As public safety response times in the westernmost areas of the city remain a concern, opportunities for volunteers to train to become initial responders continue.

The Brentwood Community Council is sponsoring a free community emergency response team (CERT) training program at Paul Revere Charter Middle School starting in March. The program is provided by the Los Angeles Fire Department and is the Nationally Accepted Federal Standard for community response team training.

All sessions will be on Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. The dates will be March 7, March 14, March 28, April 4, April 11 and April 18. Note, there is no class on March 21. Due to scheduling conflicts at the school, this specific offering will be reduced to six weeks and classes three and four will be combined in one session. After the second session, there will be a skipped week in the schedule. 

According to Brentwood's CERT contact Jerry Adomian and Pacific Palisades' CERT contact Patric Cohen, even though local government prepares for every day emergencies, during a disaster, the number and scope of incidents can overwhelm conventional emergency services. The CERT program is an all-risk, all-hazard training. They say the valuable course is designed to help you protect yourself, your family, your neighbors and your neighborhood in an emergency situation.

In the CERT training, citizens learn to:

• Manage utilities and put out small fires
• Treat the three medical killers by opening airways, controlling bleeding, and treating for shock.
• Provide basic medical aid.
• Search for and rescue victims safely.
• Organize themselves and spontaneous volunteers to be effective.
• Collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts.

Classes will be in the school’s town hall next to the cafeteria. Signs will be posted to help locate the building.

Sign up for the class by emailing your name, email, and phone number to:
info@brentwoodcommunitycouncil.org. If you do not have email, or have questions, call 310-472-4733.

Palisadians can contact Cohen at Certla9@gmail.com or call (424) 272-1669. Read this 2012 letter from Cohen featuring CERT volunteer Nancy Dolin.

If you are interested in becoming CERT certified, please also visit http://www.cert-la.com or call (818) 756-9674.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's crisis response team (CRT) program is managed by the Mayor's Office of Homeland Security & Public Safety and is operated in collaboration with the city's fire and police departments. That program is particularly in need of volunteers with bilingual capability in Spanish or Korean.

Volunteers must be at least 21 years old and in good physical condition. CRT volunteers participate in 48 hours of intensive training designed to help them develop the skills, knowledge and relationships necessary to function effectively in the field. The eight-week training sessions begin on March 4 and runs until April 17 on Monday and Wednesday evenings at LAPD headquarters in downtown L.A.

Residents interested in learning more about volunteering for the CRT should contact Jeffrey Zimerman at 213-978-0697 or by e-mail at LACRT@lacity.org .

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