The City of Dallas Office of Emergency Management (OEM) is offering another round of Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) classes for neighborhoods, community organizations and workplaces starting Feb. 18. The free classes are taught by OEM emergency personnel and cover basic emergency response skills.

“Community leaders, particularly those working with homeowner associations may wish to build more community spirit and enhance cooperation when disasters happen – such as a public health emergency and severe weather events,” said Director of Emergency Management Rocky Vaz.

CERT training sessions will cover disaster preparedness, light search and rescue, team organization, disaster psychology, terrorism and CERT, fire safety, disaster medical operations and more.

Here’s the schedule of classes:

Saturday, February 18
Dallas Fire-Rescue Training Academy, 5000 Dolphin Road
8-10 a.m. | Unit 1 Disaster Preparedness
10-11:15 a.m. | Unit 2 Fire Safety
11:15 a.m. – noon | Lunch
12-5 p.m. | Unit 3 Disaster Medical Operations Part 1
Unit 4 Disaster Medical Operations Part 2

Saturday, February 25
Dallas Fire-Rescue Training Academy, 5000 Dolphin Road
8 a.m. – 12 p.m. | Unit 5 Search and Rescue
12-1 p.m. | Lunch
1-2 p.m. | Unit 7 Psychology
3-3:30 p.m. | Unit 8 Terrorism
3:30-5 p.m. | Unit 6 CERT Organization

Saturday, March 4
Dallas Fire-Rescue Training Academy, 5000 Dolphin Road
8 a.m. – 12 p.m. Unit 9 Course Review & Disaster Simulation

Classes can also be designed for a specific neighborhood and scheduled at convenient days, times and locations. Each class must include at least 10 participants; appropriate time to complete all sessions is 20 hours and all sessions are required to be completed for certification.

To learn more about CERT and to sign up for a class visit: http://dallascityhall.com/departments/officeemergencymanagement/Pages/CERT-Training.aspx