October 2024

CERT Auxiliary of Santa Cruz Country

CERT Auxiliary Calendar

Donate

CERT BASIC FOR CERTS AND NON-CERTS

CERT Basic Training - open to all

A great review for all CERTs. Tell your non-CERT friends and families about the training as well.

Central County CERT Basic Class

When: Four Thursday evenings. October 24th, November 7th, 14th, 21st. The final full training day and hands-on assessment will be held from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. November 30th .

Where: Central Fire District Administration Building and practice yard, 930 17th, Live Oak.

CERTs are trained in responding to emergencies in their neighborhoods and develop life-saving skills with emphasis on decision-making ability, rescuer safety, and doing the greatest good for the greatest number of people. All sessions are required to become a CERT volunteer. Spanish-language materials available. CERT Training is a no-cost, FEMA-certified course available to Santa Cruz County residents.

To sign up for the class, CLICK HERE. You will receive an email confirmation within 5 minutes.

Instructors and Instructors-in-Training

Stop the Bleed - sign up and tell non-CERTs about it

Open to CERTs and non-CERTs, teens and adults. Accidents happen. Chainsaws can slip and horses can kick. A person with a life-threatening bleed can bleed out in 5 minutes! This is a training every community member should take.

In this STOP THE BLEED course, you’ll learn three quick techniques to help save a life before someone bleeds out:

(1) Direct pressure

(2) Packing a wound

(3) How to correctly apply a tourniquet.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER For Nov 6, 6-8 PM in Ben Lomond

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER For Dec 8, 10-Noon in Live Oak

CLASSES FOR CERTS

Advanced Bandaging

(AKA CERT Arts and Crafts Pt 2)

Saturday, October 26th, 10-12, Live Oak

On your average day, if you cut your hand while chopping veggies, you head to urgent care or call 911 and let the first responders take care of you. But in a large disaster such as a 7.5 earthquake, help may not come. Your cut hand or the leg that ran into the chainsaw, will not take priority. That is where we as CERTs can help out. Bandaging becomes an advanced first aid skill when help is delayed.

In this 2-hour class we will practice bandaging the injury using a variety of techniques including Israeli bandages for leg, shoulder or head wounds, and immobilizing an impaled object.

For details and to register, CLICK HERE.

Incident Command System:

FEMA IS-100 & IS-200

Saturday, October 26th, 1-3 pm (IS-100)

Saturday, November 17th, 9-12:30 (IS-200)

Struggling to complete the Santa Cruz County CERT required FEMA IS-100 & IS-200 courses?

Let's work together. The FEMA course slides will be projected on large screen and as a group we will complete the required course.

Students bring their personal computers and will then take the required test independently. Students will need to set up/retrieve a FEMA Student ID prior to attending.

For details and to register:

CLICK HERE FOR IS-100

CLICK HERE FOR IS-200

Series of 4 Advanced Trainings

You may have noticed a few CERTs with DSW badges that say "ADVANCED" across the top. All CERT DSWs are encouraged to take this series of 4 classes after taking the Basic Training course.

What should a CERT member know before they are activated as a Disaster Service Worker (DSW)? The Basic Training course teaches us how to support ourselves, family and neighborhood in the event of a disaster but does not teach all the skills needed to operate with local government agencies or first responders. We have developed four modules to teach a DSW about the organization that they work under, personal safety, effective communications, and emergency medical skills.

Module 2: Understanding your role as a DSW. 10/22, 7-9 PM. Taught by John Collins, Planning Chief in Live Oak
Module 3: Effective assessment and communications.11/19, 7-9 PM. Taught by John Collins in Live Oak.
Module 4: Managing a Medical Emergency. 12/5, 7-9 PM. Taught by Mary Edmund and JoMarie Faulkerson, RN in Live Oak

All CERTs who complete the full series will be recognized with an "Advanced" designation on their badge. Join the 13 who have already earned the new badge, like Mary!

Module 1 will be repeated again in 202

CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO AND TO REGISTER

CERT Phone Applications

Presenters: Paul Garcia, and Jenni Gomez of the County's Geographic Information System (GIS) department.

This training over Zoom will provide you with access to the Santa Cruz County GIS Team’s mobile applications.

The SCsurf app will be a new tool in CERT’s toolkit. CERTs may report damage assessments (aka Windshield assessments) in their neighborhoods to help close the information gap within the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) during activations.

The Knock & Talk app will be used to document public outreach as directed by the EOC with real-time reporting of area evaluations and contacts.

Note: This class is being repeated to allow all active CERTs to attend a session. Click a date below to register.

Thursday, October 10, 7-9 pm via Zoom

Saturday, October 19, 10 am - noon via Zoom

There will be an upcoming exercise to practice using these apps. Read on below.

Upcoming Exercises for DSW CERTs

CERT SCsurf Phone Application Exercise

(and Pizza Debrief!)

WHEN: Sunday, October 20, 2024 from 10 am - 1 pm

Where: Central Fire Admin Building, 930 17th, Live Oak

This exercise will allow you (as an active DSW CERT) to practice using CERT’s damage assessment phone application —SCsurf—before an actual disaster! Scenarios will take you out into a neighborhood for two hours and practice using the application by entering data, capturing pictures and uploading the information.

Our county's Geographic Information Service (GIS) will receive your disaster information in real time and give feedback at an After-Action-Review (AAR) over an hour lunch with pizza. Yum!

If not already taken, it is recommended to attend one of the upcoming trainings (10/10/24 or 10/19/2024 on Zoom,

Click here to Register) and have the application installed on your phone. (Survey 123) However, just-in-time training will be available on exercise day, 1 hour before. Those without the application loaded in their phones need to arrive at 9AM to learn about and load the application.

Click here for more info & to Register

MURS Radio Exercise

WHAT: MURS Radio training and exercise

WHEN: Sunday, October 27, 2-4 pm

WHERE: Anna Jean Cummings County Park (Blue Ball Park), 461 Old San Jose Road, Soquel

PRESENTER: Roberta Roberts, Communications Officer

This will be an in-person, hands-on class, for those who may be new to CERT, unfamiliar with our MURS radio or uncertain about how to use it, or want a refresher. Those who have more experience using MURS radios are welcome to attend, refresh their skills and assist with those who are new.

Click here for more info & to Register

Neuroscientists have found that making a donation makes the brain's reward circuitry light up more than receiving a gift. Moreover, the joy of giving a gift lasts longer than the fleeting pleasure of accepting it." - Fast Company,

Science explains the surprising benefits of gift giving