I don't know if it is universal like the CERT curriculum, but I'm in the middle of an 8-week program called the Community Emergency Preparedness Academy (CEPA). Our city sponsors CEPA while other neighboring jurisdictions have the traditional CERT programs. I've never taken a CERT course, but the curriculum overlaps signficantly with CEPA so my comments probably apply to both.

I would say that if you are already preparedness-minded and have already educated yourself about various topics, much of the information in CERT training could be quite basic for you. Of course, some speakers are much more interesting than others, so even basic information can be presented in an interesting way. However, beyond just the information, there is no substitute for actually doing certain things.

For example, we just had CPR with AED training last week. It's been 15 years since I pounded on one of those CPR dummies, so I think the practice was well worth it. I also have never gotten any hands-on time with an AED, so that was a good thing for me. One other hands-on thing so far was practicing with dry chem extinguishers which was also kind of fun.

CEPA has made me more aware of the various public safety agencies around me because these are the folks leading many of the lectures. Before now, I really never had much contact with law enforcement or fire folks around here, but we also have lectures from people from the local hospital, the Red Cross, or reps from the local utility companies. Plus, I've met some nice fellow residents, so I look forward to the weekly classes.

We have a couple families and I think that's wonderful. There's one woman and her two teenage kids who come every week. I think that sets a great example for the next generation.

I heard CERT mentioned on the local news the other day. The first time I think I've ever heard the word mentioned on TV, actually. During our first Santa Ana winds of the season, there was the Sesno fire near the Porter Ranch gated community. The fire started mid-morning, so lot's of folks were hurrying back from work to go home and grab stuff but the authorities did no want any vehicles going back into the community. So the folks standing out in the roadway at the main gate telling people that they couldn't drive back inside were CERT volunteers and the news reporter actually mentioned it. I thought that was pretty cool, but only viewers who had any idea what CERT was would have any clue what that meant.

Oh, if you're wondering why there is a CEPA and a CERT program, I learned that one main goal of CERT is to create a reserve corp of residents who can assist first responders in times of need. CEPA is more about educating people to be able to take care of themselves and their neighbors when public services are swamped, so we get most of the same training as CERT, but we aren't going to be "called up" after an earthquake to help search a neighborhood or whatever other million things that CERT folks might assist with. We're just ordinary folks who have had some disaster preparedness training.