Town officials from all over New Jersey are looking to residents to pull their share as the volunteer-based Citizen Corps emergency response initiatives become active in municipalities.
Personal responsibility, training, and volunteer service are the cornerstone of the civilian emergency preparedness initiative put forth by the federal Department of Homeland Security.
Police, fire, and emergency service leaders, as well as town officials, gathered for an organizational meeting at Secaucus Public Library and Business Resource Center recently, where they were briefed on the structure and purpose of Citizen Corps.
“The county Department of Emergency Management worked along with the state in putting together this information session to work with local towns on how to implement the Citizen Corps program,” said Deputy Mayor John Reilly.
The programs
“It’s about community,” said Jack Burns, Coordinator for the Hudson County Office of Emergency Management Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). “It’s training neighbors to take care of themselves, their family, and their neighbors.”
Funded by the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management and the Federal Department of Homeland Security, Citizen Corps consists of four programs.
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) trains citizens to provide support to first responders during emergencies, help victims, and assist with crowd control and traffic direction.
Secaucus has an Office of Emergency Management (OEM), led by Vincent Massaro, to handle routine emergencies. In addition to the 40 existing OEM members, CERT volunteers will be called upon to handle larger-scale disasters.
“OEM would respond to more than the Citizen Corps,” explained Reilly. “They’d only be called in for disaster, not everyday things. Larger-scale emergencies [are] major hurricanes, major fires, or terrorist attacks.”
USAonwatch.org is the national guideline for municipalities looking to instate a neighborhood watch program. The program teaches law enforcement officials how to help train citizens to protect the neighborhood by identifying and reporting suspicious activity. Police are encouraged to prompt citizens on what kind of information police need to investigate questionable happenings.
The Medical Reserve Corps consists of health professionals such as doctors and nurses. The volunteers are ready to provide support when an emergency occurs and the extra help is needed.
The last piece is the Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) which provides office support for police, so that every officer can be in the field when they are needed. Citizens can assist in roles from part-time clerical work to full-time volunteering.
A state and federal network
Citizen Corps programs are run by individual municipalities under the tutelage of the County OEM and the State Citizen Corps Council.
“The county is just overseeing it,” said Reilly. “The hands-on will be done by each individual town. Secaucus will run and organize their own.”
New Jersey has 21 County Offices of Emergency Management. The state has standardized the training, equipment and logistical costs of programs, and uses the combined needs of the counties to exercise greater purchasing power based on larger quantities of materials.
In 2004, New Jersey will receive $879,000 in grant funds for the Citizen Corps programs. All counties will be eligible for funding support. The state also received $527,375 in 2002 and $472,144 in 2003 specifically to develop CERT initiatives.
Secaucus hasn’t provided any CERT training yet, but according to Councilman Robert Kickey, Massaro hopes to set up CERT classes as soon as possible, and has registered VIPS with the police department. Kickey, who is Deputy Coordinator of the Hudson County OEM attended a “Train the trainer” seminar last week, so CERT training will be available soon.
Weehawken graduated a CERT class of approximately 25 people last week, the first in the state, according to Captain David Flood.
Reilly said the city hopes to have programs running in a couple of months.
To find out more about the national program, call (877) CERT-411. To find out more about Secaucus’ programs, call (201) 330-2000. The website for the state initiative is www.state.nj.us/njoem.