The Maine Township Citizen Corps Council was originally started to help us create programs that would reach out to the community and help prepare our residents for preparing for and recover from disasters.
The first program we started was CERT (Community Emergency Response Training). The CERT program originally started in California, but its premise applies to anywhere in the country. At the time of a large disaster, it could take professional firefighters and rescue workers as long as three days to reach all of those affected by the disaster. CERT trains ordinary citizens how best react in teaching them various skills that would allow them to take care of themselves, their family, their neighbor and their community until the professionals can arrive. Attendees of the 20+ hour course learn about disaster psychology, small fire extinguishing, basic first aid, mass casualties, basic search and rescue and so much more. We are proud of the fact that we have trained over 350 area residents in the CERT program.
This program also gained national prominence when President Bush acknowledge the program as an example to all of the programs like it in the State of Illinois.
Members of our first CERT groups responded in 2004 to Utica Illinois following a series of deadly tornados. The members of the groups had not ever met before that day, but when they were given a task to do, they did so like they had been working together for years. All because of the training. Even seasoned professionals that were there were amazed at the professionalism exhibited and the amount of work that we accomplished.
Later in 2004, based on this response, the National Office had an unprecedented activation of Citizen Corps to assist FEMA with the recovery in Florida following a string of hurricanes. 2500 volunteers were recruited based on our response in Utica.
In 2003, as local communities were palnning on how to distribute pharmaceuticals in case of a pandemic outbreak, officials quickly determined that all of the communities combined could not handle the task with their staffs. They turned to Maine Township Citizen Corps to develop a Regional Medical Reserve Corps that would span all of the communities in the planning group. Today we have such a group with representation from seven communities plus other officials on the board. The Regional MRC covers Des Plaines, Park Ridge, Morton Grove, Niles, Rosemont, Lincolnwood and unincorporated Maine Township. These communities represent a population in excess of 250,000 people. The Regional MRC is designed to basically take over the distribution of pharmaceuticals if the need arises at up to three dispensing sites.
The RMRC is made up of volunteers from every field of the medical and dental community as well as mental health and non-professional residents.
Our RMRC has also gained national recognition for its programs and many of its concepts are now published by the National MRC office as Best Practices. Our formula for the program dvelopment has been in great demand both nationally and internationally by sending over 650 copies of our program plans and concepts to new and existing units ranging from Highland Park to London, England to Australia.
We are always looking for volunteers for the RMRC as well as continue to offer CERT Training. Feel free to contact us for a current CERT Class schedule or an application for the RMRC.
