Be Ready Utah is the emergency preparedness outreach campaign of the State of Utah Division of Emergency Management (DEM), and it has been around since April 6th, 2006. Be Ready Utah is not a stand-alone organization but is a program housed completely within DEM. Be Ready Utah is a section of the Preparedness and Outreach Bureau.

Purpose: The purpose of the Be Ready Utah campaign is to help individuals and families, schools, businesses, and communities become better prepared to respond to and recover from disasters. Be Ready Utah seeks to help Utah’s residents become more aware of the importance of emergency preparedness and to take some action towards achieving emergency preparedness.

We do this by educating people about the four main tenets of emergency preparedness: Make a Plan, Get a Kit, Be Informed, and Get Involved. Those four areas of preparedness are promoted within the four pillars of Be Ready Utah: Be Ready Family, Be Ready Schools, Be Ready Business, and Be Ready Community.

• Be Ready Families is the focus of the bulk of our outreach efforts. Families are the main recipients of our emergency preparedness materials on our website.

• Be Ready Schools partners with the American Red Cross to help educators implement emergency preparedness lessons in the classroom.

• Be Ready Business provides businesses with the 15 Points of Business Continuity Planning. It also brings together the public and private sectors with the Private Sector Preparedness Councils (PSPC) which provide training, information, and networking.

• Be Ready Communities is the culmination of all of the Be Ready Utah efforts. Prepared families, schools, and businesses equate to prepared communities. We also promote the volunteer opportunities including Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Community Animal Response Teams (CART), Medical Reserve Corps (MRC), Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS), Neighborhood Watch, and Fire Corps.

The purpose of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program is to provide basic training to improve community self reliance in the event of a major disaster. During recent major disasters across the world, it has become evident that people are often on their own for up to several days until outside assistance arrives.

 The Layton City CERT course offers basic training in the areas of disaster awareness, CERT team organization, fire suppression, disaster first-aid, search and rescue, disaster psychology and terrorism awareness. The course concludes with a simulated mock disaster where participants apply the skills learned in the course. We now offer the online CERT course, you will complete the lecture portion at home and then complete the hands on portion in a classroom with other CERT members.

 Cost of the course is $25 and includes a comprehensive manual, CERT helmet, safety glasses, gloves and some basic first aid supplies. To view scheduled CERT courses, please see the CERT Course Schedule below by clicking CERT. For more information, please call (801) 336-3940.