Emergency Response Training Being Offered By City of St. Charles Adult & Community Education Program

June 25, 2012 - PRLog -- The Adult and Community Education program, through the St. Charles School District, is offering an Adult and Teen CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training course to assist local emergency services and the communities of St. Charles and surrounding areas in case of an emergency or a disaster.

The training is being delivered by the Mid America TEEN CERT program to anyone who is at least 12 years old, including adults.  Mid America was recently named one of the top three emergency preparedness programs in the nation by FEMA and has been honored with numerous awards by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, school districts, faith-based organizations and municipalities in Missouri, Illinois and Ohio.

Classes will be held at the Lewis & Clark Career Center, located at 2400 Zumbehl Road in St. Charles, beginning Saturday, October 6, 2012 and continuing four consecutive Saturdays through October 27.  Each class will last from 8:00 am until 2:00 pm.

Disasters can strike anywhere and at any time. In a disaster, traditional “911” and first responder capabilities such as fire, police, paramedics, and utility personnel will be overwhelmed and unable to immediately assist individuals. Professional emergency response may be delayed for hours, even days.

CERT training promotes a partnering effort between emergency services and the people that they serve. The goal is to train members of neighborhoods, schools, community and faith-based organizations, or workplaces in basic response skills.  Graduates can then be integrated into their area’s emergency response capability.

If a disastrous event overwhelms or delays the community's professional responders, CERT members can assist others by applying the basic response and organizational skills learned during training.  These skills can help save and sustain lives following a disaster until help arrives.  The skills learned also apply to daily emergencies.

Basic training is designed to cover several key areas, such as Disaster Preparedness, Fire Safety, Disaster Medical Operations, Light Search and Rescue, Team Organization, Disaster Psychology, Special Needs Considerations, and Terrorism.  The course concludes with a final exercise, which is a hands-on practical simulation to demonstrate the comprehensive skills learned during the course.

To sign up for the class, please contact the Adult and Community Education program at info@stcharlesae.org or call (636) 443-4043.  Anyone wanting more information about CERT/TEEN CERT training can visit https://midamericateencert.samariteam.com/ or Facebook http://www.facebook.com/groups/MIDAMERICATEENCERT/.