Maine Township formed the Citizens Corps Council in March as a part of President Bush's Freedom Corp initiative. This program falls under the Dept. of Homeland Security. It is designed to bring local government officials, local emergency management agencies, and the private sector together to develop plans for the residents to become more self-sufficient during times of large-scale disasters.
It is widely accepted that in times of a major disaster or emergency, normal services such as police, fire and rescue personnel may be delayed in reaching all of the affected people in a timely manner.
"Our EMA is recognized as one of the vital emergency agencies in the area," said Township Supervisor Bob Dudycz. "Director Bob Cohen and his volunteers are being called on more frequently these days for everything from exploding houses to flooding and other disasters. They will be taking the lead in this new training initiative."
The training program is known as C.E.R.T. that stands for Community Emergency Response Team. Under the CERT program, individuals and groups in a community receive training in disaster preparedness, emergency medical operations, light duty rescue and extrication, fire suppression, traffic and crowd control, communications, and other areas. The purpose of this training is to better prepare individuals to help themselves and their neighbors until police and fire personnel can get through to them.
"This is an exciting program which involves the entire community," said Cohen. "With this training, our residents are trained to help themselves in the aftermath of a disaster and, if needed, to assist other local relief efforts."
Additionally, these CERT-trained individuals and groups would also be available to act as a backup to the local police, fire and emergency management agency so that overall relief efforts can be stronger.
The training program for CERT includes 20 hours of both classroom and hands-on training taught by the professionals in their fields. There is no charge to the individual or the township because the federal government covers all costs. Maine Township started its first round of training this fall, and expects to start another one by mid to late January 2004.
Additional programs that fall under Citizens Corps Councils are Neighborhood Watch, Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) and Medical Reserve Corps.
Interested individuals can call the EMA at 847-297-5911.