New Citizen Corps Council in Sussex

We would like to welcome our newest Citizen Corps Council, Sussex County. This CCC is sponsored by Joe Thomas and the County Emergency Management in Georgetown. Their initial efforts will focus on Community Emergency Response Training and working with the local towns to help form new councils throughout Sussex. Their POC is Carl Davis. (See Councils for more information).

Good Luck Ed and Bill!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank both COL (Ret.) Ed Smith, the Delaware Homeland Security Advisor and Chaplain Bill Williams, Pastor to Cedar Church of Christ for their volunteer service to our Citizen Corps Programs. Both of these men have accepted positions that will take them out of Delaware. Ed, will be assigned to FEMA and Chaplain Bill has accepted a position in Florida. They have contributed much to Citizen Preparedness and these contributions are worthy of recognition. We will miss them!!! Good luck and thank you for your service.

Boy Scouts from Crew 610 help Coordinator prepare for CERT

A group of young scouts and their leader Taft McConkie, assisted Marny McLee, State CERT coordinator by preparing Student Manuals in preparation for upcoming training classes. This is part of an Eagle Project Taft is heading up, he is also a Sophomore at Goldey-Beacon College where he is helping McLee to coordinate a CERT Class to be held on Aug 22 at the campus.

August National Newsletter

National Citizen Corps has released their May/June 2007 Newsletter! You can view it here:

http://www.citizencorps.gov/pdf/newsletter/cc-newsletter-august2007.pdf

Bank of America Business CERT Training

On July 11th, the Delaware Citizen Corps State Community Emergency Response Team and the Wilmington Office of Emergency Management taught a Business CERT Course in Wilmington to the Bank of America. Twenty Managers and Supervisors attended the course which was very well received. Plans are now being developed to make the program available to the employees of Bank of America.

American Legion and Citizen Corps Update

Latest update on the American Legion and Delaware Citizen Corps partnership:

1. American Legion and Citizen Corps are affiliated partners

http://citizencorps.gov/programs/affiliate.shtm

2. The American Legion has been invited now sits on the State Citizen Corps Council.

3. A training program is being developed to provide a train-the-trainer for the Legion on Community Emergency Response Training (CERT).

4. A briefing on the CERT program was provided at Legion Post 2 on May 21 in Dover, DE.

5. MOU is under development and will reinforce the commitment between Citizen Corps and American Legion with regard to Citizen Preparedness.

As more information is released, it will be posted here on current events.

Program In Case of Emergency

Recent history has demonstrated that persons not prepared to deal with emergencies are more likely to end up becoming victims.

It takes a average of 5 hours and 51 minutes for family members to be contacted in an emergency. When you program an emergency contact into your cell phone under ICE - In Case of Emergency- you provide critical information to emergency personnel.

During these turbulent and uncertain times, we as citizens have been called upon to actively participate in preparing for our safety and survival.

If you, your family or group have special medical or support needs, it is important that you to take the time NOW to ensure they are addressed instead of wasting precious time during the chaos of a crisis. This is where ICE ( In Case of Emergency) can help. Just program ICE next to the name of the person you would want to be contacted then emergency workers will be able to contact them.

For more information, contact: Kathleen Aviles, Governor's Commission on Community and Volunteer Service Email: kathleen.aviles@state.de.us or Phone:800-815-5465