The Pequannock Township Office of Emergency Management is establishing a Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) which is part of the Office of Homeland Security's Citizen Corps program. Volunteer CERT teams have been created at the local level across the United States with the cooperation of county and state Offices of Emergency Management.
CERT members may be asked to give critical support to first responders in emergencies, provide immediate assistance to victims, organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site, staff an emergency shelter for displaced residents, distribute disaster response and relief information to the community, and collect disaster intelligence to support first responder efforts.
CERT members will receive basic level training free of charge, including materials and equipment, in the following areas:
- Basic first aid
- Family disaster preparedness
- Disaster fire suppression
- Medical triage operations
- Light search and rescue operations
- CERT operations
- Basic radio communications
- Terrorism awareness
- Disaster mental health
- American Red Cross Shelter Operations
- Basic emergency management
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training program prepares citizens in basic emergency preparedness and response skills with instruction from the Town’s professional emergency services personnel. This will enable trained CERT members to reduce the likelihood that they themselves would become victims during an emergency. This by itself is one of CERT’s primary missions and could help to reduce the strain on emergency responders during a crisis.
Future training opportunities are being organized and will include the areas listed above. At the conclusion of the training program, a field skills exercise will be given and successful graduates will receive a disaster tool kit.
Applicants must be at least 21 years of age and must reside or work in the Township of Pequannock. Those who are accepted will receive approximately 20 to 30 hours of training over a period of several weeks. Should you have any questions about the program, please contact OEM Deputy Coordinator Tom Cantisano at 973-835-5700 ext. 128 or email him at tcantisano@peqtwp.org.
Join the Township of Pequannock CERT: CERT Application (2nd page of PDF)