Are you joining in with the growing number of citizens who realize that in a disaster, you’ll be looking around to see . . .
How prepared are the people around you?
This includes two main groups: neighbors and co-workers.
(We’ve labeled some of these groups as CERT groups, because the formal Community Emergency Response Team training provides much of the inspiration and direction for everything we do. But your group doesn’t have to be a formally CERT-trained group. In fact, it’s more likely that only some of your team members will have taken that training. No worries. You can make it work!)
Building a Neighborhood CERT Group
One of the things we’re most proud of is the neighborhood volunteer Emergency Response Team that we’ve been a part of for over 15 years.
Over this time, we’ve discovered – again and again actually — that creating a team of neighbors is really different from getting your own household in order!
It takes serious planning, constant enrollment and on-going motivation.
Is your neighborhood group in any of these stages?
If so, perhaps some of the resources listed below will be useful.
Initial Planning
Finding and Enrolling Group Members
Ongoing Motivation
- Holding Great CERT Meetings
- Developing More Leaders
- Hold good meetings!
From the trenches . . .!
We synthesized much of the information we have on these topics into a 56 page downloadable book. Then, a couple of years later, we added a second volume! If you are serious about building your neighborhood group, please consider purchasing them to have all the information at your fingertips.
Find out more here about our handbooks on CERT Meeting Ideas !
Building a Workplace Group
In the workplace, an effective team won’t be made up of volunteers. If your efforts are successful, all employees will take on a role, approved and required by management.
Here are some resources for small business owners or workers.
First, review this discussion of the role of emergency planning in the survival of the business.
Take a look at this simple flyer, designed to get a discussion started:
And finally, get your own copy of our special report on how to build a . . .
Six Steps To a Simple Plan
This 8 page report gives you an overview and lists many different resources, most of them available online at no cost, that will help you build a plan for your business. Because a business may have liability if it DOESN’T have a plan, we will follow up with several worksheets and checklists to be sure your business puts something really useful in place.
For us, preparing one family at a time is too slow!
Our goal is to build group after group wherever we can plant the seed. If you agree that the more people prepared, the better — share this information as widely as you can.
Thanks.
Virginia and Joe
Your Emergency Plan Guide Team
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