Volume 1 | Issue 3 ����� ���������© 2006, Rural Sociological Society Community Emergency Response Teams: From Disaster Responders to Community Builders By Courtney Flint and Mark Brennan In brief... Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) – local residents trained as first responders to natural disasters – can also be used to help build community capacity before disasters strike. The CERTs framework for pulling together localities to prepare for disasters can also be mobilized to focus attention on other pressing issues in local areas. In communities with less capacity, CERT programs can provide a roadmap for how people and organizations can organize themselves to address important local issues and challenges To be effective in developing community capacity, CERTs must: • Involve diverse groups of residents and ensure balanced community representation • Get back to basics – CERTs have lately focused almost exclusively on major natural disasters and terrorist acts. However, they were originally designed to respond to a variety of local emergencies and serve as a broad-based conduit for community development and civic engagement. • Update training: Community development and civic engagement training should be the cornerstone of all CERT programs • Expand the view of what constitutes a disaster: rapid economic decline or environmental change can also be disastrous for rural areas The federal government should: • Re-evaluate the role and position of FEMA and the CERT Program within the Department of Homeland Security • Re-evaluate the 2000 Disaster Management Act in light of rural community vulnerability , Rural Realities is published by the Rural Sociological Society 104 Gentry Hall, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211-7040 http://www.ruralsociology.org ur ica ra So l S o io ie lo R og ur l ra So oc o ol y io ur u ica ra So l S o io ie lo R og ur l ra So oc o ol y io u R og Ru al ra l S oc oc cio ty iol R ica Ru l l S l S oci iet oc R y R og 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