The Impact of Teen Community Emergency Response Team Training

摘要

A study of 481 high school students who completed Teen Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training using the Federal Emergency Management Agency CERT curriculum was conducted over a five-year period, with the objective of identifying the impacts of that training. Through both quantitative and qualitative data collection, the researcher found that a highly engaging emergency response curriculum has multiple positive impacts on teens completing the course. Those impacts include explicit knowledge and skills of emergency preparedness and response, college and career goal orientation enhancement, as well as enhancement to self-efficacy, self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-concept. Replicating such curricula and comprehensive training program at other secondary schools could have a very positive impact on the emergency preparedness and response capacity of communities where it is implemented.