The Community Disaster Preparedness Foundation was formed by several active LAFD CERT Battalion and Bureau Coordinators to help other Coordinators and Neighborhood Community Emergency Response Teams build and develop.
The LA City Fire Department (LAFD) created the CERT program in 1986 and oversees CERT in the City of Los Angeles. LAFD trains approximately 2,000 people a year in CERT and has one of the most active and largest programs in the entire United States. With a city population of over 4 million, logistically, this creates a problem for the fire fighters LAFD's CERT Unit.
Most smaller CERT Programs have a 501(c)3 to help raise funds, own equipment and supplies.
For legal purposes, the Community Disaster Preparedness Foundation is not officially affiliated with either LAFD or the CERT program. However, we are run by CERT Coordinators and our goal is to support Disaster Preparedness planning, promotion of the CERT program, and development of Neighborhood Teams.
We can own property and are working on building an array of radio repeaters in LA City for communities to use to augment disaster communications. Several Neighborhood Councils have expressed interest in investing in emergency supply bins but the City of LA has ruled that currently Neighborhood Councils cannot own or manage these bins. Because we can own property, we're looking to partner with these Neighborhood Councils to take a custodial role and help get these emergency supply bins into the communities and accessible by local CERT teams.