Mississippi Library Association

Community Emergency Response Team Training Hosted by Gunter Library

On June, 6, 7, and 8, twenty volunteers participated in Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory in Ocean Springs. Organized and hosted by Gunter Library head librarian, Joyce Shaw, the class was composed of librarians and other managers from the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast and Hattiesburg campuses, Red Cross volunteers, Gulf Coast Research Laboratory employees, representatives from the city of Ocean Springs Emergency Management office and the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

CERT is a U. S. Department of Homeland Security program that helps educate citizens and trains them in life saving skills so that they are better equipped to respond to emergency situations in their communities. The goal of CERT training is to give citizens skills to cope with an emergency disaster in the event that emergency responders are overwhelmed. During the 20 hours of CERT training, citizens learned:

Managing utilities and extinguishing small fires
Basic first aid and triage
Search and rescue
Managing volunteers
Information collection to assist emergency providers

Eddie Ivy, training coordinator for the City of Meridian Homeland Security Department, and Steve Baggett, Public Works Director for Decatur, MS, and a volunteer fire chief, provided the training. Participants who finished the training received a CERT kit which contained emergency supplies and tools.

Joyce Shaw, head librarian at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory’s Gunter Library, received the grant from the Mississippi Office of Homeland Security to provide the training.

Submitted by
Joyce Shaw
head librarian
Gunter Library

photo by Diane Ross

Edward McCormack, Interim University Librarian at the University of Southern Mississippi (USM) and Karen Shaw, USM-Gulf Coast Library staffer, learn to extinguish a small fire during CERT training. Trainer Steve Baggett is watching.

Entry Filed under: News
Posted on: July 8th, 2008