Georgetown’s Office of University Safety will offer four three-day training sessions to students, faculty and staff during the academic year as part of the D.C. Community Emergency Response Team program.

The course, taught by local firefighters, paramedics and police officers, will include disaster preparedness, fire safety, medical operations, light search and rescue operations, terrorism and campus preparedness.

According to an e-mail sent out on August 18, Georgetown is hoping to attract over 100 students, faculty and staff for the CERT training.

“The most prepared communities are those that embrace the connected nature of all its members. We believe that preparedness begins at the individual level and that by increasing personal preparedness within our community, we will inherently have a more prepared community and institution,” said Whit Chaiyabhat, the director of emergency management and operational continuity at Georgetown.

Georgetown is starting the CERT program with the hope of creating a more secure campus while promoting involvement from all members of Georgetown’s community.

“A significant benefit will be that students and the larger community will be able to make a real contribution to improving personal emergency preparedness,” Chaiyabhat said. “The C-CERT [Campus CERT] program has raised awareness on college campuses nationwide on the topic of disaster preparedness and promotes an interest in emergency management among students, faculty and staff.”

The CERT program on campus is funded by an Emergency Management for Higher Education Grant from the U.S. Department of Education along with a District of Columbia CERT program. Georgetown hopes to continue to offer the training every few years in the future.

Georgetown’s CERT program will function as a pilot program in Washington, D.C., with the possibility of leading to a city-wide CERT program that would be offered at area colleges on a rotating basis. Georgetown joins over 3,500 CERT teams nationwide.

For students on campus, CERT serves as a reassurance of their safety. “I think it’s very necessary to have CERT on campus because it insures that we’ll be able to respond more efficiently to a disaster if we need to,” said Emma Furino (NHS ’11), a former GERM staffer.

“The C-CERT program best meets our needs at this time as it provides curriculum spanning a wide range of emergency response topics, but can be completed in a relatively short period of time,” Chaiyabhat said.