Below is a list of current CERT and Citizen Corps programs in Florida. Please contact the organization directly to learn more about current service opportunities.
| Organization Name | Type | County | Program Description | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Bay County Division of Emergency Management | CERT | Bay | Bay County Division of Emergency Management, through the Citizens Corps Program, provides volunteers, training, and equipment to operate their Pet Friendly Shelter. In addition, the Citizen Corps Program supports recruitment, training, and equipment for Amateur Radio Emergency Services (ARES). |
 | Charlotte County Emergency Management | CERT | Charlotte | Charlotte County CERT currently has over 440 active members who are utilized during planned and non-planned events. The volunteers are first aid support to Charlotte County Fire and EMS during planned events and fire rehabilitation during non-planned events. Our program has American Heart Association-certified CPR/AED instructors that provide first aid, CPR, and AED training to all CERT members at no cost for the class. CERT members are trained quarterly to work as call-takers during an incident to assist emergency management in recovery efforts. |
 | Citrus County Sheriff's Office | CERT | Citrus | The Citrus County CERT organization trains volunteers to acquire various skills presented through the FEMA curriculum. Members receive continuous training in search and rescue, Nation Grid, Point of Distribution (POD) and Shelter Management training. A small contingent of CERT members with medical backgrounds are Stop the Bleed Instructors, as certified by Tampa Bay General Hospital, and are utilized by various county agencies to conduct classes. |
 | City of Apopka | CERT | Orange | The Apopka CERT program is a newly adopted partnership for the Apopka Fire Department (AFD) with FEMA, and the citizens of Apopka. AFD is a combination Fire-EMS Department serving a first-response area of more than 34 square miles, making it the second largest in Orange County. AFD responds to fire protection, paramedic ambulance services, and hazardous waste and materials calls and can deploy a specially trained technical rescue team. |
 | City of Cape Coral Fire Rescue | CERT | Lee | Cape Coral CERT will conduct training for 22 active volunteers to receive their Certified First Responder - Dementia Trained (CFR-DT) Certificate. This training will further expand volunteers' knowledge and awareness of working with individuals of diverse populations. |
 | City of Miami Beach Emergency Management | CERT | Miami-Dade | Miami Beach CERT trainings, and Advanced CERT trainings, focus on disaster preparedness, Skywarn weather reporting, animal response, psychological first aid, moulage, poison control, flood response and other topics. Although City CERT members have been trained in skills applied to disaster preparedness, response and recovery, they also participate in "blue sky" events, such as COVID-19 response efforts. |
 | City of Pensacola Fire Department | CERT | Escambia | Pensacola Fire Department plans to utilize Fire Corps members in a coordinated capacity to directly support training initiatives developed by the City of Pensacola’s Fire Department to provide hydration and rehabilitation services (cooling, warming, feeding, and monitoring) for their personnel. These iterations will serve as direct support in training in addition to direct support training Fire Corps volunteers for future emergency situations. The intent of the Fire Corps’ Fire Rehab mission is to provide for the immediate protection and welfare of first responders in mitigating the dangers of heat injury and sustainment of human resources and technical skill investment each individual responder represents. |
 | City of Tampa - Tampa Rescue | CERT | Hillsborough | The Tampa CERT Program is a new CERT Team looking to enhance and expand the preparedness and response capabilities of the Tampa Office of Emergency Management, intending to train a minimum of 70 volunteers in its first year in shelter management, stop the bleed, and canteen operations, working in unison with community first responders and local utilities to create a comprehensive and effective response. Volunteers will be utilized to advance public outreach efforts and community relations as well. |
 | East Lake Fire District | CERT | Pinellas | The East Lake CERT Program has taken advantage of consistent training, online courses, and background expertise, including advanced medical certifications, advanced medical life support, first responder experience, advanced SAR training and capabilities, military, critical incident communications, NIMS/ICS, advanced CERT, CERT First Responder, POD Dist/Disp, CPR, crowd control, forklift training, and chainsaw safety. East Lake CERT also provides emergency communications to local area fire district and County EOC's using their own repeater system. During activation East Lake CERT provides assistance to evacuate at-risk citizens, as well as conducts SAR and damage assessments. |
 | Escambia County Emergency Management | Citizen Corps | Escambia | BRACE (Be Ready Alliance for Coordinating Emergencies), designated the Citizen Corps Coordinator by Escambia County Emergency Management, coordinates the Citizen Corps Council by engaging local businesses, churches, organizations, and agencies to get involved in disaster preparedness and emergency response-related activities. These activities include participating in training opportunities, developing community readiness plans, assessing possible threats, and identifying local resources. |
 | Gulf County CERT | CERT | Gulf | Gulf County CERT was just beginning to be established right before Hurricane Michael impacted the entire area in 2018. Gulf County EM has recognized the importance of having a trained group of volunteers. Gulf County Emergency Management has decided to re-establish the CERT program and provide training to volunteers and residents to ensure community resilience. Gulf County Emergency Management Department will be hosting a CERT training before December 2022. Gulf County Emergency Management and local volunteer agencies will partner for skill and disaster response training. Gulf County will utilize the Gulf County CERT for search and rescue, disaster response and preparedness, damage assessment, event managing, and ham radio operations. |
 | Jefferson County Sheriff's Office Division of Emergency Management | CERT | Jefferson | Jefferson County CERT is a core group of individuals who regularly meet and train to better assist in activities that help members of their community who may not have the means or funds to help themselves. They support the Jefferson County Fire Rescue with fire fighter rehabilitation, support a local group building ramps for individuals to safely exit their homes, collect food for animals and assist with monthly food distribution to families struggling with COVID. |
 | Nassau County Board of Commissioners | CERT | Nassau | Nassau County Emergency Management is a whole community program that operates as an organizational division of the Sheriff's Office in a jurisdiction of approximately 90,000 residents. Key partners in the Emergency Management Program include the departments of public safety (law, fire, health) and public works, and the school district; but stakeholders include elected officials, area businesses, civic and faith-based organizations, as well as the general public. The EM Program's mission is to increase resilience to local hazards, primarily through educational outreach programs like CERT/CC. NCEM has partnered with several local organizations to provide CERT disaster preparedness and response courses to their members. The local Eight Flags Jeep Club and Church of Latter Day Saints now have active CERT-trained teams that hold their own in preparedness drills and have been called upon to assist professional responders with missing person searches. |
 | North Collier Fire Control & Rescue District | CERT | Collier | The North Collier Fire Rescue (NCFR) CERT program has been in existence since 1999; we have trained over 2500 community members to help themselves and their neighbors when facing a disaster/emergency scenario. The #1 goal of the NCFR CERT program is to develop a disaster-resilient collier county. Our program is catch and release and a catch and capture program. Upon completion of the CERT basic training, attendees have the option to take their knowledge back to their homes and not continue additional training, or they can continue with monthly training meetings, countywide and statewide training exercises, and other special events. The attendees can return to their communities and start their own CERT teams. NCFR does not determine boundaries or recognize them as official CERT teams; however, we provide assistance and guidance, including invitations to our training opportunities. |
 | Orange County Emergency Management | CERT | Orange | The Orange County CERT Program began in 1999 with the first CERT Team located at Hunter's Creek. This team is still active and conducts monthly meetings plus advanced and refresher classes. There are total of six active CERT Teams in Orange County, with at least three neighborhoods to be trained within the next year. |
 | Osceola County Office of Emergency Management | CERT | Osceola | Osceola County CERT volunteers provide day-to-day assistance to Office of Emergency Management with resource management, training, disaster drills, exercises, deployment, and Special Needs database upkeep. Volunteers fill multiple leadership roles in the Emergency Operations Center during past and present activations including hurricane and COVID-19 response. Their experience includes the role of Support Branch Director, Supply Unit Leader, Transportation Unit Leader, and Facilities Unit Leader. Other duties include maintaining the Emergency Management Resource Center that houses a cache of personal protective equipment, portable generators, shelter kits, pallets of water/MREs, sleeping cots, traffic cones, barricades, and other deployable assets in good working condition. |
 | Pasco County Emergency Management | CERT | Pasco | Pasco County has two newly certified CERT trainers, as well as a staff person charged with reinstating the CERT program and holding CERT courses for residents and businesses with the goal of training 10% of the county population. |
 | Santa Rosa Department of Emergency Management | Citizen Corps | Santa Rosa | Santa Rosa Citizens Corps Teams are engaged in massive efforts to support mobile feeding stations and COVID-19 testing and vaccine sites. Volunteers are specifically trained and requested to support response in various ways, such as performing damage assessments, wildfire responder rehabilitation support, hurricane shelter or pet-friendly shelter staff support, and serve as post-disaster Points of Distribution workers. Santa Rosa County collaborates with Escambia County BRACE through MRC and our COADs. CERT Teams also participate in pre-planned community events year-round, to include recruitment, traffic and crowd control, and distribution of water. |
 | Suwannee County Sheriff's Office Division of Emergency Management | CERT | Suwannee | Suwannee CERT has trained and supported a team of 25 volunteers to support the county during recent disaster response and recovery, as well as COVID-19- related food drives and disbursement of PPE equipment. The CERT Team is consistently involved with local community events and assisting with traffic. |
 | Taylor County Sheriff's Office Division of Emergency Management | CERT | Taylor | The Taylor County CERT assists the county in the following areas: damage assessments after storms, manning shelters during and after storms, traffic direction during community events, assisting registration during COVID clinics, parking direction and set up, assisting the Sheriff's Office with search and rescue operations, and contacting special needs patients for follow-up. |
 | Town of Davie Fire Rescue | CERT | Broward | Since 2009, the Davie Fire Rescue CERT has trained almost 600 in the basic FEMA 20-hour CERT G317 program and conducted over 50 advanced classes. Their instructors are G428 qualified instructors and the Program Manager is G427 qualified. All members are trained in NIMS IS-100, hurricane preparedness, shelter in place and are trained in cities readiness initiative to assist in POD distribution. They have utilized the CERT members at safety fairs, point of dispensing (POD) exercises, incident command system training, mass casualty incident (MCI) exercises. Members have also participated in, and assisted with radio communications during, annual hurricane exercises. |
| Town of Davie Fire Rescue | Citizen Corps | Broward | The Davie Fire Rescue Citizens Corps Program started the youth fire corps program in 2014 and has expanded to 20 members with several pursuing careers in the fire rescue service. Volunteers meet weekly and participate in field experience riding in fire engines or ambulances. The fire corps volunteers are trained in the basic FEMA 20-hour CERT G317 program, in basic firefighting, and basic medical care. Volunteers are utilized at large fire scenes to assist with firefighter rehabilitation, provide fire prevention education to the public, community safety fairs, and conduct mass casualty incident exercises. |
 | Walton County Emergency Management | CERT | Walton | The Walton County CERT Team utilizes county facilities for training purposes and public safety entities to assist in training new and existing CERT members to assist in the Citizen Information Center in the EOC, answering requests for information from the public. They also assist with Rapid Impact Assessment post disaster and provide staffing at fairs, parades, etc. for incident management. CERT volunteers have been staffing the COVID call center, as well testing and vaccination sites. In times of disaster, CERT volunteers assist with damage assessment, EOC support, and other duties, as well as deploying in times of need to assist other counties. |
 | Washington County Emergency Management | CERT | Washington | As a small, rural county, Washington County relies on volunteers to serve as firefighters, to assist at organized events with traffic control, and to feed responders and victims when a disaster occurs. Through the CERT program, we believe there will be a more organized and better trained base of volunteers that will create a coordinated partnership with EM, Response agencies, and the community. Our goal is to make the local CERT the lead agency for volunteer and donation management. CERT will be listed in the Washington County Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan as the Lead agency for ESF-15-Volunteers and Donations. In emergency situations, CERT members may be called on to transport meals and hydration to field teams. Additionally, CERT volunteers assist at PODS, in the EOC, manage donations and volunteers, etc. |
