Registration is now open for Kirkland’s eight-week Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training program.

The program is scheduled to begin Sept. 17 and continue for eight consecutive Mondays from 6-9 p.m. To register, visit www.kirklandwa.gov/cert. Registration is $35 per person and that includes a manual, hardhat, vest, backpack and emergency supplies. Classes will be held at Kirkland Seventh Day Adventist Church, 6400 108th Ave. N.E.

In this FEMA-developed curriculum, participants will learn how to support their neighborhoods and their community by preparing for and responding todisasters. Specifically, they’ll learn skills relating to disaster preparedness, fire suppression, triage and basic first aid, search and rescue, disaster psychology and team organization. The program culminates on Nov. 11 with a simulated disaster.

“The purpose of the class is to help create a resilient community, a community less impacted by a disaster because residents are prepared,” said Helen Ahrens-Byington, Kirkland’s deputy fire chief. “A prepared community is prepared at the individual level and, at the same time, is developing a team of people who are ready to assist others after a disaster when emergency response is likely to be overwhelmed.”

This class is possible through the sponsorship of Kirkland Seven Day Adventist Church in partnership with the City of Kirkland Office of Emergency Management and the volunteers who actively support this program and Greater Kirkland Citizen Corps Council.

To sponsor the winter 2013 Community Emergency Response Training class, or to request more information, contact Karen with the Greater Kirkland Citizen Corps Council, klightfeldt@comcast.net.