If your life is not in jeopardy for what you believe, you’re probably on the wrong side!
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Personal, Family, and
Business Preparedness
Get Involved
There are many ways to Get Involved especially before a disaster occurs. The content found on this page 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:
- Volunteer and receive training to support disaster and preparedness efforts in your community.
- Teach preparedness curriculum in your school. Download everything you need for grades K-12 through our Ready Kids program.
- Promote preparedness online by sharing preparedness tips on your social media account with Ready’s online social media toolkit or public service announcements
- Take a free online independent study course through FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute and gain more knowledge to help your community become more prepared.
Support your community by participating in FEMA’s individual and community preparedness programs: Citizen Corps, Community Emergency Response Team, Prepareathon, Youth Preparedness.
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, potentially can save a life before professional help arrives. The program encourages the public to take these five steps when there is an emergency.
- Call 9-1-1
- Protect the injured from harm
- Stop bleeding
- Position the injured so they can breathe
- Provide comfort
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.
- Find Your Nearest Citizen Corps Council
- Register Your Local Citizen Corps Council
- Follow Citizen Corps on Twitter
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
The 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. For five years, Wood county had a vibrant and active CERT program. However, the Wood County Commission and Wood County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, in their infinite wisdom, decided that having well-trained and able-bodied volunteers helping their neighbors in the event of a disaster was not in the best interest of the community. The Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department sponsors a CERT program, but will only respond to Health Department Emergencies. There is no currently-active program to respond to non-health-related disasters in the county. I urge you to petition both offices to reverse their previous decision and re-institute the CERT program.
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 United States. 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.
- Download the Youth Preparedness Fact Sheet
- Subscribe to the Children and Disasters Newsletter
- Become a National Strategy for Youth Preparedness Education Affirmer
- Learn about FEMA’s Youth Preparedness Council
- Find a Program
- Start a Program
- Request Technical Assistance
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