Community Emergency Response Team

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) concept was developed and implemented by the City of Los Angeles Fire Department in 1985. They recognized that training citizens in basic disaster survival and rescue skills would greatly improve the ability of citizens to survive until first responders or other assistance could arrive.

This training proved to be so beneficial that The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) believed that the concept and the program should be made available to communities nationwide. In 1994 the Emergency Management Institute a division of FEMA expanded the CERT format to make it applicable to all hazards. In 2003 President Bush asked all Americans to volunteer in the service of their country.

The Citizens Corps program was created to spearhead an effort to harness the power of every individual through education, training and volunteer service to make communities safer, stronger and better prepared to respond to the threats of terrorism, crime, public health issues and disasters of all kinds. CERT was selected as one of the primary programs offered to the American public to meet this challenge.

The success of the CERT program in the City of Rochester has been noted by FEMA and The Rochester Fire Department was instrumental in rewriting the course curriculum which is taught nationwide. Our plan is to continue providing our citizens with basic CERT training and enhanced refresher training including CPR and Automatic External Defibrillator Operation.