Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training of High-Risk Teens in the Community of Watts, South Los Angeles, 2013-2014.

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) concept was initially developed for adult members of the community to help prepare for disasters and minimize damage when disasters occur. CERTs also served as a tool for building community capacity and self-sufficiency by supporting a diverse group of people working together in dealing with challenges affecting their communities. The novel approach to CERTs described here sought to involve high-risk youth from low-socioeconomic status communities in CERTs and first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training to help them build ties with communities, stay off the streets, and become leaders in the community. It also helped to provide different perspectives on life, while building more resilient communities better prepared to minimize damage when a disaster strikes. After the successful launch of the first high-risk teen CERT cohort in Watts (27 CERT-trained and 14 first aid/CPR-trained), the project was expanded to other community groups and organizations. Seven additional cohorts underwent CERT and first aid/CPR training in 2013 through 2014. This initiative increased CERT visibility within South Los Angeles. New partnerships were developed between governmental, nongovernmental, and community-based organizations and groups. This model can be used to expand CERT programs to other communities and organizations by involving high-risk teens or other high-risk groups in CERT training. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:605-609).

Reaching the unreached: Building resilience through engagement with diverse communities.

The Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-based & Neighborhood Partnerships (DHS Center) is one of 13 federal centres whose mandate is to engage faith-based and community groups with governments in the delivery of human services. Working alongside local jurisdictions, over the past five years, the DHS Center developed the Building Resilience with Diverse Communities (BRDC) engagement process to improve relationships with faith-based and community organisations and to 'reach unreached' populations in emergency preparedness, response, recovery and mitigation. BRDC works to improve community resilience by engaging the 'whole community' through its seven-stage process. The BRDC process has been successfully implemented in Los Angeles, California, Lakewood, New Jersey and in varying degrees in other communities. The initiative demonstrates that emergency management can adapt the BRDC process to effectively integrate faith-based and community groups into their plans and processes, leverage existing resources and, by doing so, increase resilience with some of the hardest to reach and unreached populations in their jurisdictions.