Talking Points

BACKGROUND

  • CERT is an all-volunteer nationwide program developed by FEMA to help communities become more resilient by teaching emergency preparedness and developing skills necessary to prepare for, respond to, and recover from everyday emergencies up to large-scale disasters. There are over 3200 CERT programs nationwide.
  • According to FEMA, the amount of money spent on preparation and mitigation yields beneficial results after a disaster by six times the amount spent.

FAIRFAX COUNTY CERT’S NATIONAL AND REGIONAL REPUTATION

  • Fairfax County CERT, “The Gold Standard for CERT”, is recognized both regionally and nationally as an exceptionally robust program setting an example for other CERT programs. For example, we offer eight to ten CERT Basic classes a year whereas most other programs only offer two.
  • As an active participant in the National Capital Regional CERT Consortium and National CERT Conferences, Fairfax County CERT has provided instructors, leadership, and countless hours supporting the CERT community.

FAIRFAX COUNTY CERT’S LOCAL CONTRIBUTIONS

  • Locally, Fairfax County CERT volunteers donate close to 20,000 hours of time per year educating residents in emergency preparedness, providing service to the public and first responders, and training to be better able to respond. Based on the county’s own valuation, the 20,000 hours given by CERT members last year were worth over one million dollars. The value provided outweighs the cost of $34,000 by a factor of twenty-nine to one.
  • CERT contributes to Fairfax County in three different ways. It educates, it provides service, and it stands as a ready reserve of members that are vetted, trained, and equipped to help respond to emergencies/disasters of all sizes.

CERT EDUCATES

  • CERT teaches the public emergency preparedness, response, and recovery. It offers this free training through classes, outreach events, and speaker presentations.
  • The free public classes CERT offers include the 28-hour CERT Basic Class (which teaches fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, disaster medical operations (basic first aid), and other topics), Stop the Bleed®, Stroke Smart®, Surviving an Active Shooter, Emergency Preparedness, and Opioid Awareness.
  • CERT trains its members in skills including incident management, CPR, radio communications, and traffic and crowd management, among others. During the year, CERT will teach over 100 Classes to the public and CERT members. This is where the vast majority of the CERT budget is spent.

CERT PROVIDES SERVICE TO THE PUBLIC

  • CERT partners with the fire department’s Community Risk Reduction unit and other organizations to offer free installation of smoke detectors and Smart Burners in vulnerable communities.
  • CERT helps teach hands-only CPR in middle schools.
  • CERT provides traffic and crowd management services at parades, festivals, and other public events.

CERT PROVIDES SERVICE TO FIRST RESPONDERS

  • CERT owns and operates two canteen vehicles which provide nutrition and hydration to first responders on the scenes of major incidents and training exercises. The CERT canteens cover incidents across the county and recently responded to the January 2025 helicopter/airplane crash at Reagan National airport.
  • Last year CERT canteens responded to more calls than all other canteen units in the county combined. There are currently five fire department canteen vehicles in the county. Elimination of CERT would also mean the loss of 40% of those vehicles and significantly degraded services for first responders.
  • CERT helps first responders by offering vetted role players with whom to practice their life-saving and medical treatment skills.
  • Vetted CERT members, as actors, provide a realistic simulated rioting crowd to help train police civil disobedience units.
  • Our moulage team applies makeup and prosthetics to role players to simulate injuries at EMT testing, police training, fire and rescue exercises, and mass casualty simulations at Reagan and Dulles Airports.
  • CERT acts as an initial training ground for many future Emergency Medical Technicians. Over one hundred CERT-trained members have become EMT’s in the county.

CERT OFFERS A READY RESERVE OF MEMBERS THAT ARE VETTED, TRAINED, EQUIPPED, AND ORGANIZED TO RESPOND.

  • In the case of a very large-scale disaster, first responders will be overwhelmed with the requests for aid far outpacing their ability to answer. Trained CERT members will act as a force multiplier to assess disaster sites, help where feasible, and report the results, alleviating first responders of some of these basic tasks.
  • Two of the first things the Los Angeles Fire Department did when the recent wildfires broke out were that they recalled all firefighters who were not already on duty, and they activated CERT. They quickly recognized the need for the additional trained and organized reserve that CERT quickly provides.
  • During the COVID-19 pandemic, in cooperation with Supervisor Lusk’s and Supervisor Smith’s offices, CERT supplied assistance through planning, logistics, and personnel to provide over four million pounds of food to families in need.
  • CERT follows the Incident Command System, the national standard, to organize response efforts and CERT maintains a well-designed organizational chart for our daily operations as a volunteer organization.