The good news:  Since 2006, Eastern Michigan University, along with its partners at Citizen Corps and the Department of Homeland Security, has been able to conduct Teen CERT Instructor Training around the Country.  Over 900 instructors nationwide have affected the lives of over 10,000 youth by enabling them to respond to crisis and events that require an advanced level of disaster response capabilities.  Through this enablement process, students have empowered themselves to respond to events, and have thus rescued individuals trapped under debris after a tornado, saved lives of individuals caught in a rip tide, and provided medical first responder skills in numerous instances.  In my opinion, through the actions of these trained youth, many people owe not only their lives to the student responder and the skills learned in Teen CERT, but these students eased the pain and suffering of individuals who were victims of accidents.

Now, the bad news: Teen CERT did not receive funding for 2010.  Our start-up support for schools and individual support for backpacks and student manuals have been expended.  It is now up to the individual states to continue supporting this most valuable training.   Our team, Leanna, Brenda, Jillanne, and I will still be available to continue instructor training and support through the Train-the-Trainer program.

We have placed all of our materials on the website for you to download. The CERT Instructor Guide and Student Manual are located under the “downloads” menu.  Also, any additional resource materials we have will be posted there.

We wish all of you good luck with Teen CERT, and hopefully we will find funding to continue your support in the future.

Respectfully,

Professor Skip Lawver , Director, Eastern Michigan University

Hi! I’m Jill Stevens, Miss Utah 2007, I recently attended Eastern Michigan University’s TEEN CERT Train the Trainer in Provo, Utah.   What an incredible training! The last 3 days have been wonderful. This train the trainer fits right in with my platform, “Emergency Preparedness”. This train the trainer focuses on Teen Community Emergency Response Teams (TEEN CERT) and how to get this youth program started in High Schools. This program is empowering for youth and is so needed in our education system. I have learned so much. Its great how we can help each other out, as I am now going to help "spear-head" TEEN CERT nation wide! I am so excited. I truly believe in what this program can do in teaching our youth life saving skills for emergency situations, that can and may very well happen in our society.

For the past 6 years, Jill Stevens has been serving in the US Military as a Combat Medic in the Utah National Guard, while earning her degree in Nursing at Southern Utah University.  In November 2003, Jill was deployed to Afghanistan, returning home in April 2005.  She has earned 5 medals for her outstanding service, and was the first female finisher of the inaugural Afghanistan Marathon, making a total of 12 marathons she has completed together with earning the highest Fitness award during Army Basic Training.  In representing the Army National Guard, Sergeant Stevens recently addressed Generals from 40 different nations gathered at Hill Air Force Base.   Jill will be competing for Miss America in January 2008!