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Volunteers and chief urge scaling up NERT training after donations boost program
Summary
At the Fire Commission's April 6 special meeting, Chief Joanne Hayes White and multiple NERT graduates described the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team's curriculum, recent corporate donations and calls from volunteers to expand staffing and outreach to daytime workers and lower‑income neighborhoods.
Chief Joanne Hayes White and NERT volunteers told the Fire Commission on April 6 that the Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) has become a core piece of San Francisco’s preparedness strategy and that sustained funding and expansion remain priorities.
"To date we've trained approximately 15,000 members of our community and 9,000 remain active," Hayes White said, noting classes offered in English, Cantonese and Spanish and a goal to train another 1,500 residents in 2006. She said recent private contributions — "Johnson and Johnson company contributed $100,000" and Fireman's Fund contributed $100,000 — have helped keep classes free to the public.
Why it matters: The fire department emphasized that in a large‑scale disaster, city response times and resources can be overwhelmed and trained neighborhood volunteers increase resilience and immediate survival capacity.
What volunteers said
Several NERT graduates urged expanding the program and funding. Lynn Jacklewicz, a NERT graduate, told commissioners the program should be scaled up dramatically: "We need to scale up on what I would call a Richter scale response, not just in increments of 1s and 2s," she said, arguing for far greater staffing and resources for NERT coordinators.
Volunteer and community recommendations included:
- Expand outreach to daytime workers and downtown employees so those who commute into the city are included in neighborhood response plans. - Increase corporate partnerships to supply emergency kits and underwrite expanded training in lower‑income neighborhoods. - Integrate NERT concepts into school curricula so children can connect families to neighborhood coordinators.
Department support and program design
Hayes White described the NERT curriculum (six 3‑hour modules that cover earthquake awareness, utility control, disaster medicine, tabletop planning and, in the post‑9/11 environment, terrorism preparedness) and said the city funds a single coordinator position but relies heavily on volunteer instructors and neighborhood coordinators. She said the department hopes to improve caches of equipment and to distribute some donated medical supplies to transit stations.
What comes next
Commissioners and volunteers urged long‑term budget commitments. The department said it will pursue corporate and grant support and continue bilingual training; no new funding appropriation was taken at the special meeting.
