Mission of Wake Citizen Corps
The mission of Wake Citizen Corps is to harness the power of every individual through education, training, and volunteer service to make Wake County communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to the threats of terrorism, crime, public health issues, and disasters of all kinds through:
Preparing the public for local risks with targeted outreach
Engaging voluntary organizations to help augment resources for public safety, preparedness and response capabilities
Integrating the whole community and integrates nontraditional resources to ensure disaster preparedness
The Wake Citizen Corps program is similar to the Citizen Corps national network of over 1,200 state, local, and tribal Citizen Corps Councils that bring together local government, business, and community leaders who work to prepare their communities for disaster and to make them more resilient. Councils harness the power of every individual through education, training, and volunteer service to make communities safer, stronger, and better prepared to respond to the hazards and threats facing their community.
Wake Citizen Corps encourages Wake County citizens to engage in personal preparedness, training and volunteer service to help prepare themselves and their communities by volunteering through the four (4) core programs:
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) /
Search And Rescue (SAR) Corps
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) / Search and Rescue (SAR) program educates people about disaster preparedness and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, and disaster medical operations. Using their training, CERT/SAR members can assist others in their neighborhood, school campus, or workplace following an event, and can take a more active role in preparing their community. This program is administered by FEMA but administered locally through CERT/SAR units throughout the county. Wake CERT/SAR aims to field deployable CERT and SAR units throughout Wake County as needed in support of civil needs and situations.
Medical Corps
The Wake Medical Corps program provides the structure necessary to deploy healthcare personnel and non-medical personnel in response to an emergency or disaster. Wake MC is comprised of trained and credentialed individuals who are available and ready to respond to emergencies. Medical Corps volunteers work in coordination with existing local emergency response programs and also supplement existing community public health initiatives such as outreach and prevention, immunization programs, blood drives, case management, care planning, and other efforts.
Signal Corps
The Signal Corps, aims to unite Wake County law enforcement agencies, private organizations and individual citizens in a localized effort to reduce crime and improve local communities throughout the county with an ever-advancing Communications Network and Neighborhood Watch Alert System.
Keeping our Citizen Corps connected with communications is the key mission of Signal Corps.
Citizen Police Corps
The Citizens Police Corps program provides support and resources for Wake County law enforcement agencies interested in developing or enhancing a volunteer program and for citizens who wish to volunteer their time and skills with a community law enforcement agency. CPC works to enhance the capacity of local law enforcement through the utilization of local volunteers.
Wake Citizen Corps encourages you to embrace personal responsibility to be prepared; to get training in first aid and emergency skills; and to volunteer to support local emergency responders, disaster relief and community safety.
• Personal responsibility
Developing a household preparedness plan with disaster supply kits, observing home health and safety practices, implementing disaster mitigation measures, and participating in crime prevention and reporting.
• Training
Taking classes in emergency preparedness, response capabilities, first aid, CPR, fire suppression, self-defense, marksmanship and search and rescue procedures.
• Volunteer Service
Engaging individuals in volunteer activities that support first responders, disaster relief groups and community safety organizations. Everyone can do something to support local law enforcement, fire, emergency medical services, community public health efforts and the five (5) stages of emergency management: prepare, prevent, respond, recover and mitigate.
