Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carolyn Burleson on August 20, 2012 at 2:53pm

1-I chaired the committee in my neighborhood council to develop our Community Emergency Plan.

2-I've hosted numerous CERT Community meetings for which I've developed various presentations and table-top exercises

3-Hosted CERT booths at community events. Just yesterday I hosted a CERT info/community preparedness booth at our complex community mixer. The purpose was two-fold: 1- To hand out our newly developed Community Emergency Plan and preparedness materials and 2- To alert residents of our upcoming CERT Training to begin this Thursday.  

4-Fortunately the only disasters I've had to respond to have been training exercises..

Permalink Reply by David Dejewski on August 20, 2012 at 3:35pm

Carolyn, this is awesome! It sounds to me like you're using your training to help others understand the risks and get prepared. Your community is fortunate to have you. :)

How did you get your neighborhood council to agree to developing a Community Emergency Plan? How did that project work out?

Permalink Reply by Carolyn Burleson on August 20, 2012 at 9:46pm

I asked to be put on the agenda at our neighborhood council meeting. I started my presentation by asking everyone a series of questions:

• How many have Family Disaster Plan? 
• Family emergency Kit? (What’s in it?) (3-7 days?)
• 1^st Aid Kit (Do you know how to use it?)
• Home inventory with pictures?
• Go bag for each family member? 
• Copies of important documents?
• Emergency kit in car?
• Emergency kit at work?
• Place to take your family if your home becomes uninhabitable?
• Extra Cash on hand in case of an extended power outage 

Very few people in the room responded affirmative to these questions.

Then as I made my way to the back of the room, I asked what would you do if there was a earthquake right NOW! (and I turned off the lights and asked, Who has a flashlight?)  Only one person beside myself light a flashlight.  

After a brief discussion on the need to be prepared for emergencies, I asked. Does YOUR COMMUNITY have an emergency plan to help one another through a disaster?  The answer was "NO, but we need to work on that."  A committee was formed that night. We set a date for a meeting and proceeded to researching and developing our community emergency plan. It was adopted in June along with a resplution in support of Community Emergency Preparedness and CERT.  You can view it at http://rvnc.org/ready_RV.htm.

This week we are beginning a CERT basic training at our local police station (Conducted by the Fire Dept.)

Permalink Reply by David Dejewski on August 20, 2012 at 11:18pm

Wow. Impressive that you took this to them and had such a positive effect. You are a real success story, Carolyn.

Permalink Reply by Rod Abbott on August 21, 2012 at 7:44pm

I'm about to join the leadership of my CERT Neighbor Team Program (NTP) (http://ntp-la.com/ntp.html), and next month we'll be hosting weekly preparedness events for National Preparedness Month (http://ntp-la.com/national-prep-month.html). 

I'm an internship with the Los Angeles Dept of Public Health's Community Resilience Unit working with UCLA, RAND Corp, CERT, et al. Although this is not a CERT event proper, the 3-year pilot program will test community resilience emergency management (http://www.laresilience.org/) which CERT will aid and benefit from. 

I'm most excited about my graduate thesis work that will examine CERT training motivation(s), assess leadership strengths and weaknesses, and most importantly understand barriers and motivations to post-training participation.

Great work, Carolyn!

Permalink Reply by David Dejewski on August 21, 2012 at 10:55pm

Rod - I'd love to hear about how those programs work for you guys. Success stories are awesome, but solid, hard-working people like yourself make it all work.

National Preparedness month is a big deal in our community. I'm doing a membership drive with free prizes to the members who bring in the most new members during September. I'm hoping the Prepared Community will grow as a result. Help us to get the word out and expose more people to the Preparedness message. Sending invites is easy! I'll post the details soon.

Can we see your thesis when your done with it? I think that would be very cool.

Permalink Reply by Rod Abbott on August 23, 2012 at 11:53am

Thanks, David! Yes, please keep us posted about your outreach work and results, and I'll definitely share my thesis. I think (hope!) it will provide tools that will enhance community resilience and community participation. 

Permalink Reply by Carolyn Burleson on August 21, 2012 at 8:43pm

Thanks Dave and Rod.

Rod, your Battalion 18 Coordinator has been keeping us posted on the great work you guys are doing.  I'm the Coordinator for Batt-11, and we are trying to get a similar program instituted as well. CERT is a force multiplier for the first responders, and the neighborhood teams are force multipliers for CERT.  

Good job!

Permalink Reply by David Dejewski on August 21, 2012 at 10:56pm

Well said, Carolyn! Let us know how it spreads!

Permalink Reply by Rod Abbott on August 23, 2012 at 11:58am

Carolyn, 

Definitively well said, and it's nice to hear you're in L.A.

I'm excited to be part of a NTP (Neighborhood Team Program; to those curious http://ntp-la.com/). 

Thanks!