Another five people are now CERT-ified having completed the City of Goleta’s second Spanish Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) earlier this month.

This class was unique in that an entire family — two adults and their two high school students — participated in the eight-week course.

Additionally, in an effort to better simulate an actual disaster situation, the final disaster drill featured victims and participants from both Spanish CERT and English CERT. During the drill, participants needed to develop strategies to communicate with strangers who may or may not speak the same language. This presented a new challenge for our Goleta CERTs and proved to be highly successful.

CERT training prepares community members to become educated in the area of emergency preparedness. CERT participants are trained to serve as part of neighborhood or workplace response teams in the event of a major disaster, when emergency services may not be available and when residents may have to rely on each other for life-saving and life-sustaining needs.

“We are pleased to have had a number of Goleta residents complete this latest Spanish CERT course. Each one of our graduates has now received important training in preparing for and responding to, major disasters and assisting their families and neighbors,” said Vyto Adomaitis, director of Neighborhood Services & Public Safety.

The City of Goleta will continue to look for opportunities to strengthen the partnership between the city and its Spanish-speaking community members through future outreach and training.

For more information in English or Spanish, please contact Luz Reyes-Martin, management analyst in the Neighborhood Services and Public Safety Department, at 805.961.7558 or lreyesmartin@cityofgoleta.org.

— Valerie Kushnerov is a public information officer for the City of Goleta.