There are no dues or membership fees associated with being part of Santa Rosa County Citizen Corps, just an interest in helping others, be excited to learn new skills, and participate in activities supporting our community. Volunteers must complete a minimum level of training and participate in our nets, activities, and trainings. Once your initial training is completed a member can be assigned to support communications or other activities at our Emergency Operations Center, hospitals, PODS (points of distribution) and hurricane shelters.
“Official” membership is not required to attend any of our meetings, activities, or training sessions. Completion of the below training is only required if you wish to officially volunteer for activation during an incident or deployment. We can always use home based amateur radio volunteers to help relay information between nets!
If you’re interested in participating as a volunteer, please fill out this registration form. Anyone wishing to volunteer will require a basic background check. While we are working towards it, we do not have a teen CERT program. At this time, we are unable to have minors (under 18) participate in our CERT classes, volunteer at events, or accompany parents at an event due to liability coverage & concerns.
Required Training
All required training is free. As a matter of fact, our Citizen Corps volunteers that complete their CERT training receive a free basic CERT kit. We encourage our volunteers to obtain their Amateur Radio technician license so they can assist with ARES as well as communicate during activations. Any of our Santa Rosa County Citizen Corps volunteers that wish to get their license will receive the course/book, license test, and a basic handheld ham radio for FREE ($75+ value.)
The below courses are the basics required if you wish to be deployed inside Santa Rosa County. Most courses may be completed from your home, on your own time using your computer. These courses aren’t required to attend our meetings or events, only for activations. Our goal is to have our volunteers trained in both CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) basics as well as Amateur Radio so that our volunteers can participate in any capacity needed. All the FEMA online courses require you to create a FEMA Student Identifier (SID). You can register for a SID online using this link.
- Both ARES & CERT (all online)
- IS-100.C – Introduction to the Incident Command System
- IS-700.B – An Introduction to the National Incident Management System
- Recommended additional training but not required (all online)
- ARES Specific
- ARRL EC-001 Introduction to Emergency Communication
- Amateur Radio Technician License – In person test. Class self study or in person
- CERT Specific
- IS-317.A: Introduction to Community Emergency Response Team (CERTs)
- CERT Basic Training – In person, offered twice a year
- A typical training session consists of learning about emergency medical operations, light search and rescue, fire safety, disaster preparedness, communications, team work, and much, much more. The class takes place over the course of two weekends, and culminates in a “live” exercise (a simulated disaster) and a brief graduation ceremony.
As you complete courses, we recommend uploading your completion certificates to Florida’s SERT TRAC system so that you can easily access your transcript and also find in person courses available inside the state.