There are many training opportunities available and many organizations and agencies want volunteers to have a basic level of understanding before they join their organization. FEMA offers many online courses to get volunteers started and more advanced trainings are also available.

FEMA courses available online for beginners

• IS-100.a http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is100a.asp
• IS-200.a http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is200a.asp
• IS-700.a http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is700a.asp
• IS-800.a http://training.fema.gov/emiweb/is/is800a.asp
• There are literally 100s of online FEMA courses that cover many different areas of Disaster recovery. The IS-0026 deals with Points of Distribution (POD) for instance.

FEMA course IS-300 and IS-400 - These courses are usually available at your local county Emergency Management Office and together are one week in class courses. These are generally taken if a Volunteer wants to advance and take on a leadership role.

Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) - training is offered in many different time sequences but for the most part is an 8 week course one night a week. These Classes are performed by your city of county Fire Departments and cover a variety of different Life saving and life safety issues.

CPR/AED - trainings are offered in many different locations and by many different organizations. This is a fairly simple certification to acquire and usually only takes 3 or 4 hours. From the American Red Cross to at least one of our local churches.

Compassion Fatigue Training/ Care for the Care Giver - Compassion Fatigue training is offered by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) and is recommended to all involved in the Mission field.

• Care for the Care Giver training is recommender for Pastors and anyone in church leadership (Deacons and Elders). This training helps those in a care giving role how to take care of them selves while constantly caring for others in a disaster situation and helps limit burnout.