My insurance says that I should be covered, but would try to seek compensation from the organization. Good luck with that : p

I do not know any details about the insurance and what not. Except for the following information:

CT Statues: Title 28, Section 14 - Compensation for death, disability or injury

Perhaps I should find out for myself... I also am a volunteer for a specific city, so, it's possible that I would only be protected under the city workman's compensation coverage.

I joined CERT in our community in the Seattle area. The training included light search and rescue I knew nothing about, and how to organize others, and actual practice extinguishing fires and with a simulated disaster. We do not have a critical mass yet, so in a major disaster are expected to stay put and if our family is OK, organize our neighbors for self-help. I was very pleased with the training and think it would make all the difference in my attitude in a major disaster--in the PNW read earthquake with no warning or advance preparation time like with a hurricane. Not standing around wondering what to do wishing the government was there to help, and at least feeling like I knew how to get my neighbors working together to help ourselves. I never asked about the injury thing because there was so much emphasis on identifying and avoiding potential injury situations that I did not think about the chance of being injured nontheless.

There's 28 people in this class that I am in, with more interested in attending the next. It's being given by the director of the emergency services for this area and seems to be a revival of lapsed CERT for this county.

I just finished the 8 week CEPA program I wrote about earlier. The certificate of completion is sitting on my desk in front of me now. I'm normally not that sentimental about stuff but looking at that certificate actually puts a little smile on my face. Partly, it's knowing that I was doing something that may help me, my family, and neighbors, but I guess I also smile because I genuinely enjoyed going through the course and enjoyed meeting the other people every week. We had all ages, from teenagers to folks in their golden years, various knowledge levels from could-teach-this-course to never-thought-of-preparedness-before types. I think there's something of value in it for everyone.

So, going back to the original question of whether CERT (or CEPA) training is worth attending, I would definitely say, "Yes".

thanks to cutbacks, my city has discontinued the program.