Post by RickS on Aug 13, 2015 16:19:45 GMT -5
Some of you may be asking 'What next?' after taking this CERT training. There are a lot of options out there to pursue, so don't think this is the end of the line. While some may be perfectly satisfied with what they learn from this course, there are some of you who will want to be of more service and here are some ways to do that.
I found an interesting site from Sacramento Fire's CERT Team, regarding how they have set up various levels of CERT training, Level III being the one we are now taking, and continuing with Level II training by taking several courses from the American Red Cross in Disaster Services and Shelter Fundamentals, and also by taking the FEMA Self-Study courses in Incident Command, NIMS, and NRF (see description on their page). Their highest level, Level I adds advanced First Aid training, CPR, and above.
I personally have taken the IS-100, IS-200, Is-700 and IS-800 classes from FEMA and they prepare you to work with and understand how your local, state, and federal disaster communities work together in any size of emergency to efficiently get the job done. We will be exposed to a little bit of that in a later lesson, but these courses go into great detail about how things really are supposed to work in a disaster.
Sacramento CERT Training Levels
Also, if you also have a Ham Radio license, you can participate in the various training nets that are on the air, and train with the various groups that work with the emergency agencies, such as ARES, RACES, SKYWARN, the Hospital NET, MARS, etc. (I will be adding more info on these in the Ham Radio board section later).