I'm going to attend a CEPA class that is sponsored by my city. I had never heard of CEPA before--Community Emergency Preparedness Academy.

Apparently it is a bit different in its aim than CERT (Community Emergency Response Team). From the short email I got when I inquired about the upcoming CERT training, the program coordinator briefly summarized by saying that CEPA's aim is to train city residents to take care of ourselves and our neighbors while CERT is more aimed at developing an informal reserve of people who can assist the formal emergency responders. It's a fine line, I suppose. The course outline looks basically the same as any of the CERT course outlines that I have seen in the past.