Effective Response to Community Needs

A network of Scientology volunteers in Los Angeles area are training in a special Fire Department program to provide effective help in times of emergency

Injured people lay strewn around the grounds of a collapsed school building; a fire burned in a coffee house once teeming with life. The grim scenario was neither a movie set nor a real disaster, but an adeptly portrayed example of the devastation that might result from a major earthquake in Los Angeles, presented by the Los Angeles Fire Department and volunteers from the city.

Into the “disaster scene” were called volunteers seeking certification to complete their Community Emergency Response Training (CERT); among them were more than a dozen members of local Churches of Scientology in Burbank and Glendale.

Throughout Los Angeles, more than 100 Volunteer Ministers from Churches of Scientology have enrolled on emergency response training, adding to the trained resources the fire department can call upon to help in disasters and in large emergencies.

The volunteers descended on the site, organized themselves and broke into teams. They applied first aid to the injured, extinguished the fire, and returned a semblance of order. All volunteers earned their CERT certification, adding to the trained resources the Fire Department can call upon in communities to help in disasters and in large emergencies.

Throughout Los Angeles, more than 100 Volunteer Ministers from Churches of Scientology have enrolled on CERT since September 11, 2001.

“It’s one of the best ways we could see to increase security for our communities and the city as a whole,” said Cat Tebar of the Church of Scientology Western United States, the Los Angeles based administration for churches in California and 23 more states.

Further volunteers were signed up at the recent “Something Can be Done About It” Street Festival held in Los Angeles by Churches of Scientology in partnership with the Hollywood Wilshire YMCA, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater LA, and more.