TO: PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE AND FROM: Raymond Riordan
STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: COMMUNITY EMERGENCY DATE: March 6, 2024
RESPONSE TEAM PROGRAM
STATUS REPORT
Approved Date
RECOMMENDATION
Accept the status report on the City Manager’s Office of Emergency Management Community Emergency Response Team Program.
BACKGROUND
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is a nationally supported, locally implemented initiative that teaches residents how to better prepare themselves for hazards that may affect their community. CERT was first developed and implemented in 1985 by the Los Angeles City Fire Department after examining the civilian response to disasters in Japan and Mexico City. Since becoming a national program in 1993, CERT has trained more than 600,000 people across the nation in basic disaster response skills. 1 The ability for CERT volunteers to
perform these activities frees up first responders to focus their efforts on more complex, essential, and critical tasks.
The Federal Emergency Management Association (FEMA) is the authority on CERT at the national level; the California Office of Emergency Services (CalOES) oversees the program on a state level; and the local jurisdiction (City of San José Office of Emergency Management) ensures the implementation and standardization of the program on the local level. Ensuring that the CERT program meets federal and state standards allows CalOES to provide CERT graduates liability protection and workers’ compensation benefits under the Disaster Service Worker Volunteer (DSW-V) program. Another important governing body of the CERT program is the City of San José’s Emergency Services Council which is charged by CalOES for approving volunteer organization training and compliance with curriculum delivery. In addition, the 1 https://www.fema.gov/emergency-managers/individuals-communities/preparedness-activitieswebinars/community-emergency-response-team PSFSS COMMITTEE AGENDA: 3/21/2024
ITEM: (d)4.
3/14/2024
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE March 6, 2024
Subject: Community Emergency Response Team Program Status Report
Emergency Services Council approves how volunteer organizations, like CERT, are organized and integrated with City response.
Following the 2017 flood events, the After-Action Report (AAR) identified CERT as an untapped resource for disaster response. In December 2018, the City of San José Emergency Services Council approved the CERT program and curriculum, the first full-time CERT Coordinator was hired, and the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) added additional volunteer trainers by organizing the delivery of train-the-trainer opportunities. The CERT program has graduated a cumulative total of over 1,100 residents, distributed among every council district in the City. Since Fiscal Year (FY) 2017-2018, the Office of Emergency Management registers all CERT course participants as Disaster Services Worker Volunteers, so that the CERT members can be called upon to provide organized volunteer responses to incidents, and by the protection of CalOES, be protected from liability or receive worker’s compensation if injured.
With a $100,000 ongoing general fund budget to continue course delivery and the purchase of supplies, materials, and equipment; the overall goal is to train at least 1% of the entire population (i.e., 10,000 graduates).
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT
In FY 2022-2023, an additional $100,000 was provided as one-time funding to ensure delivery to vulnerable populations by delivering the course in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese (Mandarin). Also, Councilmember Foley drafted a Budget Document to purchase $85,600 worth of backpacks that include personal protective equipment that are given to each CERT graduate so they can respond immediately when activated by OEM. Councilmember Candelas also submitted a Budget Document to purchase $15,000 in disaster preparedness supplies and materials for residents in Council District 8.
In FY 2023–2024, the CERT program is receiving an additional $30,000 from the State Homeland Security Grant Program (SHSGP) through the Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Management to provide six CERT course deliveries in underserved communities and in multiple languages. The program is also receiving support from the Bay Area Urban Area Securities Initiative (BAUASI) in the form of additional CERT backpacks for graduates of the program.
PARTNERSHIPS
• Campbell CERT: provides support to the San José CERT program through funding of CERT courses by their Listos grant.
• Community Health Partnerships: provides additional disaster preparedness outreach to underserved communities through their Promotores outreach.
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE March 6, 2024
Subject: Community Emergency Response Team Program Status Report
• Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services – Project Hope: includes disaster preparedness questions in their surveys to their nine priority neighborhoods, which help to inform where outreach, education, and training should occur. • San José Fire Museum: provides space for the storage of CERT supplies and materials. • San José Neighborhood CERT: conducts outreach and education in the community and supports the organization of neighborhood CERT leaders. • San José Conservation Corps: provides a dedicated group of CERT participants to receive training as a requirement of their program.
• San José State University – School of Information Systems and Technology: created a CERT database and dashboard to help track CERT members, illustrate where they are within the city, and provide membership trends and forecasts
OVERALL ACHIEVEMENTS
• Increased CERT membership to over 1,100 members in total. CERT members continue to participate in community events by raising awareness about the CERT program and providing community preparedness information.
• Established ability to deliver the CERT course in English, Spanish, Vietnamese, and Chinese (Mandarin).
• Delivered courses to the underserved and marginalized communities in coordination with the Office of Racial Equity, Library Department, Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department, and other community partners.
• Completed the CERT Operational Plan, giving guidance on how CERT supports the City’s emergency response.
• Completed the CERT Program Guide, providing guidance on sustaining the CERT program.
CONCLUSION
CERT is about neighbors helping neighbors to do the greatest good for the greatest number. It is much easier to prepare for than to predict the next disaster. The CERT program is an invaluable resource to fundamentally protect the lives and livelihoods of those who live and work in San José.
EVALUATION AND FOLLOW-UP
Interest in the CERT program continues to grow, as evidenced by the current list of over 1,000 San José residents interested in learning more about the program and the availability of CERT trainings. In addition to the current 20-hour in-person and hybrid formats, San José OEM will add the CalOES/University of Utah self-paced online and in-person skills assessment format as another option for residents to take the training. OEM will continue to partner with San José
PUBLIC SAFETY, FINANCE, AND STRATEGIC SUPPORT COMMITTEE March 6, 2024
Subject: Community Emergency Response Team Program Status Report
Neighborhood CERT (SJNCERT) and other community-based organizations to focus outreach on underserved communities, as well as offer CERT trainings in other languages such as Spanish and Vietnamese to those communities.
San José State University student interns and other partnering organizations, such as Community Health Partnerships, and the City of San José’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services’ Project Hope team will continue to support the CERT Coordinator in all aspects of the program from marketing, communications, and outreach; data gathering and analysis; program planning, implementation and evaluation; and administration and logistics.
San José OEM is in the process of securing supplemental SHSGP funding from the County to continue to provide CERT trainings in underserved areas. OEM will also be posting a Request for Proposals (RFP) to secure a contracted training vendor, as the current vendor’s contract is scheduled to end on September 30, 2024.
In April 2024, the City Manager will reconvene the Emergency Services Council, which had been on pause since the COVID-19 response. At this meeting, the Emergency Services Council will be asked to review and approve additional CERT modules in order to expand the variety of trainings offered and keep CERT members engaged and updated on their disaster preparedness skills. In an effort to expand the program beyond a “catch and release,” OEM will explore additional training and exercise opportunities for CERT members, including partnerships with the Department of Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services’ Placemaking Team, which organizes planned public events like Viva CalleSJ and Viva Parks. These partnerships will allow CERT members to put into practice and keep refreshed, the skills that they learned through the program.
The Office of Emergency Management will provide an update to the CERT Program in the next Public Safety, Finance and Support (PSFSS) Committee Office of Emergency Management Annual Report.
COORDINATION
This memo has been coordinated with the City Attorney’s Office and the City Manager’s Budget Office.
RAYMOND RIORDAN
Director,
City Manager’s Office of Emergency Management
For questions, please contact Raymond Riordan, Director of the City Manager’s Office of Emergency Management, at (408) 794-7050.