"During his 2002 State of the Union address, President George W. Bush called upon every America to commit at least two years of their lives - the equivalent of 4,000 hours - to the service of others. Through the USA Freedom Corps, he wants to help every American answer the call to service by strengthening and expanding service opportunities to protect our homeland, to support our communities, and to extend American compassion around the world."
Coordinated by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Citizen Corps is the component of the USA Freedom Corps that focuses on opportunities for people across the country to participate in a range of measures to make their families, homes and communities safer from the threat of terrorism, crime and disasters of all kinds. Citizen Corps also brings together a community's first responders, firefighters, emergency health care providers, law enforcement and emergency managers with its volunteer resources.
The Citizen Corps effort will be coordinated at the local level by Citizen Corps Councils, which will bring together leaders from the relevant sectors of our community. The purpose of the Council is to have all decision makers at the table to manger existing volunteer resources, to leverage mutually supportive endeavors among the represented groups, and to direct the overall local plans to implement Citizen Corps in the community.
The Butler County Citizens Corps Council has voted to promote FEMA's Community Emergency Response Team program here for our citizens. CERT provides training in emergency preparedness and in basic response techniques to local trainers who in turn train citizens, enabling them to take a more active role in personal and public safety. The goal nationally, is to triple the number of citizens nationwide to 60,000 by 2004. Additional information on CERT is available at www.training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/cert
The Butler County Citizens Corps Council has applied for a federal grant to fund what is hoped to be the first of 4 training sessions on CERT for the people of Butler County for 2004-2005. We have partnered with Sedgwick County (who has begun training on the concept of CERT) in order to have experienced trainers for our sessions.
For more information, contact our administrative office at 316-733-9796.