Youth Leadership Program

In 2019, we will launch our Youth Leadership Program to train high school students in the essential components of emergency response and disaster-relief deployment. Youth will graduate the program proficient in emergency response, leadership skills, and the readiness to serve the community. While meeting community-service hours, youth will also be shown numerous career paths in disaster relief and public health and safety. This civic exposure will benefit the individuals while creating a distributed network of trained cohorts countywide.

The Youth Leadership Program will instruct participants in the essential components of emergency response and effective deployment, including: 

• CERT (Community Emergency Response Team) training in alliance with the Santa Barbara County Fire Department CERT program to educate volunteers in disaster preparedness, fire safety, and light search and rescue.
• Training in the fundamentals of public health and safety, including basic first aid, CPR, AED, hazard assessment, and Cottage Hospital’s Stop the Bleed.
• Disaster-relief deployment and leadership training for effective field leaders capable of volunteer recruitment, organization, and deployment.