Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)

Lowcountry CERT Logo

The purpose of the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training is to provide residents with basic disaster knowledge to assist themselves, their family, and neighbors in the initial phases of a disaster. Charleston County provides two CERT Basic and CERT Train-the-Trainer (Instructor) classes per year, typically late spring and winter unless otherwise noted. CCEMD does not conduct additional classes past these two.

The CERT program is administered and managed at the most local level, through community groups, homeowner's associations, municipalities, and other recognized groups. CCEMD encourages participation in the CERT Instructor course to be able to provide the program to your local community in addition to the bi-yearly classes provided by the CCEMD.

CERT Training

Classes conducted by CCEMD are listed below.

CCEMD last completed CERT classes in August 2025. Please check back for our next offerings in January or February of 2026. Courses offered by other counties can be found at www.SCEMDLMS.org.

CERT Basic classes are required to have a minimum of 20 students at the beginning of class, and CERT Instructor must have 10.

Please note that to be eligible to be a CERT Instructor you must have completed a CERT Basic Course within the last 5 years, and provide a letter from your sponsoring organization/affiliated group confirming their support of your attendance in the course (i.e. elected/appointed official, HOA President, employer, etc).