This Citizen Corps News Digest is provided by FEMA's Individual & Community Preparedness Division to highlight community preparedness and resilience resources and activities recently announced by federal agencies and Citizen Corps partners.

On Thursday, January 19, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), in partnership with the White House, honored seventeen local leaders for spearheading creative and effective initiatives to better prepare their communities for disaster events. In the process, each has helped to build a more resilient and secure homeland. The honorees, selected as recipients of this year's Individual and Community Preparedness Awards, were recognized as White House Champions of Change.

I had the honor of sharing in this special event, alongside more than 150 White House attendees including Secretary Janet Napolitano, Special Assistant to the President on Homeland Security Richard Reed, and countless online viewers as we listened to the honorees share their experiences, ideas, and solutions, as well as their advice for how other citizens and organizations can emulate their success and make their communities stronger and more prepared for disasters. From the efforts of Herman Schaffer and the New York City Citizen Corps Council to engage the disaster volunteer community to the work of John Solomon that inspired so many of us to learn more about preparing ourselves, our families and our communities for disaster events, I could not be more proud of these remarkable individuals and organizations working on the front lines of their states, their cities and their communities to build a stronger, more durable nation. As Secretary Napolitano stated, “ We commend the innovative practices and achievements these individuals bring to the field of emergency management in order to make our communities safer, stronger, and better prepared."

We know disasters can strike at any time and that being prepared for these and other unexpected events is critical to saving lives. Each one of us has a responsibility to understand the risk natural and man-made disasters pose to our communities, and to recognize we each have a role in preparing for these events and a duty to build a Culture of Preparedness in which our neighbors, families and friends are ready for any disaster event.

I strongly encourage each of you to learn more about the great work and contributions these Champions have made and continue to make. I also encourage each of you to persist in building a Culture of Preparedness through local businesses, schools, faith-based, and other community organizations.

Be sure to check out each of our Champions today:

For more information about how you can make a difference visits us at citizencorps.gov or if you have questions regarding building a Culture of Preparedness in your community, please contact citizencorps@dhs.gov

Paulette Aniskoff

Director, Individual and Community Preparedness

The National Office of Citizen Corps
FEMA Individual & Community Preparedness Division

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Citizen Corps News Digest

Youth Preparedness Coming to a Town Near You, CERT Webinar Reminder and FEMA's Online Community – it's Where Ideas Come to Life!

This Citizen Corps News Digest is provided by FEMA's Individual & Community Preparedness Division to highlight community preparedness, resilience resources and activities recently announced by federal agencies and Citizen Corps partners.

This week's News Digest includes:
Webinar Reminder - New CERT Training Tools
FEMA's Online Community – Where Ideas Come to Life!
Youth Preparedness Coming to a Town Near You

DHS and FEMA Updates

New Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Tools

***WEBINAR REMINDER***

FEMA's Community Preparedness Webinar Series Presents…

New CERT Training Tools

Register Now for this webinar

Join us today, Tuesday January 24, at 2:00 PM, EST to learn more about the new Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training tools now available to State and local CERT programs and sponsoring organizations across the nation. Topics for Tuesday's event include:

• G428: CERT Train-the-Trainer Course
  
  
• G427: CERT Program Manager Course
  
  
• CERT Basic Training in Spanish
  
  
• CERT Basic Training in Braille
  
  
• CERT Basic Training in Screen Reader Version

State and local CERT program coordinators/managers and CERT sponsoring organizations are encouraged to attend to ensure each have the current CERT training materials and information.

Registration is FREE and is required for this event. If this is your first time registering for a webinar in the Community Preparedness Webinar Series, register is easy and can be accessed quickly. If you previously registered, you can use your current login information to access Tuesday's session. If you have any questions regarding the webinar, please contact citizencorps@dhs.gov


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Citizen Corps Partners and Affiliates Updates

FEMA's Online Community – Where Ideas Come to Life!

FEMA wants to hear your ideas and suggestions on how to improve the emergency management system at all levels. We recognize the best solutions to the challenges we all face are generated by the people and the communities who are closest to these challenges. That is why we are asking for input on a variety of emergency management issues, such as how as we prepare for, respond to, recover from, or mitigate against all types of disasters.

Join your colleagues in viewing, contributing, and commenting on conversations about emergency preparedness, disaster response and recovery, and other emergency management topics. Don't miss out – check out FEMA's online community today -- it's where ideas come to life!

A few discussion topics include:

• Amateur Radio in Disaster Preparedness
  
  
• Incorporate Preparedness in School Curriculum
  
  
• "Be Prepared" campaign

Youth Preparedness Coming to a Town Near You

Leading educators and scholars in the field of preparedness education consider our nation's youth to be the best envoy for taking preparedness messages home to their families. In order to better prepare our nation's youth to bring preparedness home, FEMA is providing technical assistance workshops to state and local practitioners who support youth-based programs and who are interested in integrating preparedness education into their offerings.

The next workshop is scheduled for Tuesday, January 31, 2012 at the Orange County Emergency Operations Center in Winter Park, Florida. For more information please contact, Peggy Cadeaux immediately.

Future tentative workshops include:

For more information about integrating preparedness education into your local youth programs, send a message to citizencorps@dhs.gov .

FEMA's mission is to support our citizens and first responders to ensure that as a nation we work together to build, sustain, and improve our capability to prepare for, protect against, respond to, recover from, and mitigate all hazards.