Other guests included class members themselves. This was historic, as it marked the first time this important material had ever been offered to regular community members. Many law enforcement, military, first responders, hazmat folks and other government employees have gone through the class before, but its never been taught to just "people" .. ordinary citizens.

I use the term "ordinary" .. but frankly the people who were involved as my classmates were far from ordinary. Perhaps the majority who attended were members of CERT (the Community Emergency Response Team volunteer program offered locally and under fire departments all over the country) which we have supported and publicized since our launch. Several others were from the Medical Response community and the Red Cross. Still more represented the Citizen's Academy at either the DEA or the FBI. Still others were from law enforcement. One had a Civil Air Defense program background and many were ham radio enthusiasts and licence holders.

I was there representing you for our grassroots non profit, LA Community Policing.

One of the CERT people, Marcelle McCullough, also runs an organization, Protection At Location (PAL), which offers a line of prepackaged in-room safety kits and staff emergency response training that may offer hotels and other hospitality providers the competitive edge they’ve been looking for to get ahead in today’s market. She also promotes CERT (as we do). Here's more about:Protection At Location

As I said to our teachers, each of these community members represented but a small number of the potential contacts fort the WGT 310 training. Like the example of Ms. McCullough above, as activists we're often involved in multiple efforts that served the community or help improve the quality of life. Each one will easily be in almost immediate contact with 20, 40 100 or more people .. in LACP.org's case we might reach thousands! |

The obvious enthusiasm and appreciation expressed by my classmates should go a long way toward convincing DEA and FEMA that the community should be involved and included in future trainings of WGT 310 and other similar programs.

After all .. in the event of a disaster, it's local residents, "ordinary" people .. community members .. who will be on the ground, and responding, first.

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Learn about how participate in the "Community Matters" radio talk show at www.LACP.org .. the web site of the grassroots non profit organization, Los Angeles Community Policing.  Started as a reaction to the attacks of 9-11, the web site now has almost 2000 pages of articles and information.  Until recently a strictly regional effort, LACP has now branched out and covers events of National significance.  "Community Matters" the daily radio talk show which streams live over the Internet at 6:00 pm Pacific Time (9:00 pm Eastern) is becoming more popular now, and reaches an even International audience.  All the episodes are recorded as they air, and are later available to hear "on demand" on the LACP web site through the "blogtalkradio.com" network.

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"Community Matters"

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6 pm Pacific
9 pm East Coast

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Join us on the AIR !!

Dedicated Call-in phone:
(646) 595-2118

or use the chat room !

see: www.LACP.org

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