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ERUE COPY <br />:,ERTIFICATION ON LAST PAGE. <br />S.R. SMITH, CLERK <br />PROGRAM NARRATIVE <br />A. Implementation plan for the program. This should include the: <br />i. Strategy and methodology for recruitment; <br />ii. Plans to utilize members in emergency situations; <br />iii. Any additional programmatic information specific to the program. <br />B. Identify the emergency management and partner organizations, or the targeted population <br />area whose emergency management needs will be directly benefited by this program. <br />CERT of Indian River County — Ambassadors of Preparedness <br />Vision — Prepared and Resilient Indian River County Neighborhoods <br />Mission — Using Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) volunteers as "Ambassadors of <br />Preparedness", promote and increase personal and community emergency readiness and disaster <br />preparedness within Indian River County neighborhoods in order to improve resilience to likely hazards <br />and speed recovery from disasters. <br />Strategic Imperatives — These three_ imperatives shape and influence the approach used in building the <br />program and achieving its goals. <br />o Take a whole -community approach to emergency readiness and disaster preparedness <br />® Be resident -centric in developing and delivery of the program <br />o . Foster. knowledgeand empowerment for all county residents. <br />Priorities — There are two priorities for this revitalized CERT of Indian River County Program that <br />exemplify our most critical needs. <br />e Priority 1— Educate, motivate and empower neighborhood residents in preparation for disasters <br />or emergency situations. <br />o Priority 2 — Build a capability to respond in individual neighborhoods to disasters and <br />emergencies <br />Overview <br />A community's ability to respond to or recover from a disaster depends on the level of preparedness of <br />every member of the community. However, in a complex disaster, first responders and emergency <br />workers may not be able to reach everyone right away and utility providers may not be able to restore <br />critical services, sucteas power, immediately. It is therefore in the best interest of each individual, <br />household, and neighborhood to be as prepared as possible so as to minimize potential hardships and <br />recover quickly when faced with emergencies, disasters or other hazards. <br />Previous efforts and activities to improve preparedness in individual county neighborhoods using the <br />Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program have focused primarily on training a small team <br />of volunteers to conduct limited, immediate emergency assessment and response operations until <br />professional emergency responders, such as fire, police, EMT, etc., arrive �n the scene. Theeffort was <br />at first met with great enthusiasm, but after the Toss of key volunteer leaders and a lack of a clear <br />