National Preparedness Month – Week 4: Get involved

(Graphic courtesy of Ready.gov)

Story courtesy of Ready.gov

WASHINGTON (Sept. 24, 2017) — There are many ways to get involved, especially before a disaster occurs. The content in this article will guide you find ways to take action in your community. Community leaders agree the formula for ensuring a safer homeland consists of trained volunteers and informed individual taking action to increase the support of emergency response agencies during disasters. Major disasters can overwhelm first responder agencies, empowering individuals to lend support.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

Support your community by participating in FEMA’s individual and community preparedness programs: Citizen Corps, Community Emergency Response Team, Prepareathon, Youth Preparedness

Citizen Corps

The Citizen Corps mission is accomplished through a national network of state, local, and tribal Citizen Corps Councils. These councils build on community strengths to implement the Citizen Corps preparedness programs and carry out a local strategy to involve government, community leaders, and citizens in all-hazards preparedness and resilience.

Citizen Corps asks you to embrace the personal responsibility to be prepared, to get training in first aid and emergency skills, and to volunteer to support local emergency responders, disaster relief and community safety.

Community Emergency Response Team

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program educates individuals about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations.

Youth preparedness

As of May 2014, according to the National Center for Education Statistics there is a total of 69.6 million children in school or child care in the U.S. Emergencies and disasters can happen at any time, often without warning, where you may not be together with your children.

Starting or getting involved with a youth preparedness program is a great way to enhance a community’s resilience and help develop future generations of prepared adults.

Until Help Arrives

You Are the Help Until Help Arrives (Until Help Arrives), designed by FEMA, are trainings that can be taken online or in person, where participants learn to take action and, through simple steps, can potentially to save a life before professional help arrives. The program encourages the public to take these five steps during an emergency.

  • Call 911 (in Europe, 112)
  • Protect the injured from harm;
  • Stop bleeding;
  • Position the injured so they can breathe; and
  • Provide comfort.

Prepareathon

FEMA’s Prepareathon motivates people and communities to take action to prepare for and protect themselves against disasters. Its chief goals are to increase the number of people who:

  • Understand which disasters could affect their community
  • Know what to do to stay safe
  • Take action to increase preparedness
  • Improve their ability to recover from a disaster
  • Learn more about Prepareathon
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