Hi and welcome to the CERT San Diego information page!
CERT San Diego is the City of San Diego's local program (different than the County of San Diego). We train citizens in disaster preparedness and readiness and do this through a number of methods:
"Train and Retain" (volunteers complete the 5-day CERT Basic Academy and choose to become active members),
"Catch and Release" (the general public who complete the 5-day CERT Basic Academy, but not interested in ongoing training required to become an active member),
"Listos Aware and Prepare" (a one day, 8 hour course delivered in Spanish), and
"Community Outreach Workshops" (one and two hour workshops that discuss core preparedness principles).
For the "Train and Retain" and the "Catch and Release" academies, we conduct a final drill. Volunteer Patients are needed to play people injured by a disaster of some sort (like an earthquake, tsunami, wildfire, chemical exposure, etc...). Role players to bring a reality to our practice disaster response that using injury cards cannot deliver. If you want to spend a fun Saturday or Sunday wearing moulage make up, being rescued, and getting snacks and cake at the end of your shift, then CERT San Diego Volunteer Patient is the right volunteer opportunity for you!
CERT San Diego puts on live action drills at the end of each academy to give academy graduates a chance to practice the new skills they learned during the academy. The role a Volunteer Patient is very important because it provide a new layer of complexity for new CERT San Diego graduates.
We welcome kids 13 and above to participate (anyone under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian) and can provide a certificate for the time they participated. Groups such as Girl and Boy Scouts, sports teams, and after school programs are ideal.
Here is what an average drill day looks like for our Volunteer Patient participants:
Arrive at 9:00am: Volunteer Patients arrive, sign in, and have moulage make up applied to simulate various injuries and given a script on how to behave based on their injury. Application takes about 15 minutes per person. Small snacks, waters and juice are provided. Be prepared to wait--bring a phone charger, extra snacks, or a book to occupy your time. Wait times vary based on the number of Volunteer Patients and the number of moulage artists we have.
10:30am: Volunteer Pictims are taken to their disaster location. It is important Volunteer Patients stay in the assigned location.
11:00am: The drill starts, the graduates should arrive quickly, conduct a search, then rescue Volunteer Patients, and finally provide treatment. If graduates do this quickly, we will reset the disaster location, re-stage the Volunteer Patients, and run the drill again. We may also change or expand the disaster locations.
Between 1 and 2pm: The drill ends. Volunteer Patients are welcome to join the graduates and firefighters in Building 608 for pizza, cake, and to provide feedback to students about what you experienced while being rescued and treated. *If Volunteer Patients choose to leave at the end of the exercise and not participate in the graduation ceremony, they must still go to Building 608 in order to sign out and receive their letters or signatures for participation.
3pm - 4pm: The graduation ceremony should be completed, all volunteer victims should sign out, and this will end the day.
*Please note these times are estimates. As with any large event responding to a disaster, many factors can impact the timing. Volunteer Patients are able to excuse themselves at any time, but must *ALWAYS* notify the CERT Program manager and sign out before leaving the facility.
Joining CERT San Diego begins with the academy. CERT San Diego hosts two full academies yearly. Each academy is up to a total of 24 hours. Scheduling is over 5 days, all on the weekend, one day a week. Classes start at either 9am or 10am (depending on room availability) and finish at approximately 3pm each day. Attendance at all class days is required for course completion.
| Activity | Shifts | Start | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Academy 51-Registration OPEN | 5 | 9/7/2025 | 9/27/2025 | |
| 2025 HYBRID Academy 50-Registration OPEN | 13 | 7/17/2025 | 8/24/2025 | |
Are you interested in learning disaster preparedness skills that may help you prepare for and recover from a major natural disaster? Please consider signing up to be notified of when the next CERT SD Academy dates are announced.
Priority registration is given to those who live in the city of San Diego. However we invite our out-of-town students to create a profile and come on the first day of class. If there are seats available, out-of-town students are welcome to join our academy.
As you consider this opportunity, here is a description of the requirements.
Students must be at least 18 years old.
Attendance on all four days of the academy is mandatory for graduation.
Classes are held on two consecutive weekends (on both Saturday and Sunday) from approximately 9:30am until 4pm each day. Classes will start promptly at 10am. The location of the training will be provided upon successful registration. There is no cost for the training and we provide safety gear and classroom materials.
| Activity | Shifts | Start | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Future CERT Academy Email Sign-Up | 1 | |||
The one-day 8-hour classes delivered in person. Often in conjunction with County of SD Fire. Can be in English or Spanish.
| Activity | Shifts | Start | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 Listos Aware and Prepare Training Classes | 2 | 12/1/2025 | 12/1/2025 | |
These roles include "Volunteer Victim" and "Moulage Artist".
| Activity | Shifts | Start | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Academy 50 VOLUNTEER PATIENT | 1 | 8/24/2025 | 8/24/2025 | |
| Academy 51 VOLUNTEER PATIENT | 1 | 9/27/2025 | 9/27/2025 | |
| Volunteer Patients | 1 | |||
This is to collect names and emails of people who are interested in attending a one or two hour workshop on disaster preparedness and other topics of public interest. This does not commit them to attend the class, but just be notified when they are scheduled.
| Activity | Shifts | Start | End | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Upcoming 2025 Disaster Preparedness Workshops | 1 | 1/1/2025 | 12/31/2025 | |
Do the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
