Being prepared for life’s disasters, can help get us thru many storms.  Learning to be prepared as a youth impacts you for a lifetime.  

The Harlan County Agriculture and Natural Resources Agent along with Harlan County Emergency Management created the Harlan County Youth Preparedness Program.  Eight Students from Harlan County High School applied and were accepted into the after-school program to learn more about disaster preparedness and how to react during those events.  During the 19 session course, students responded to disaster scenarios where they developed experience to face issues and leadership skills thru the Citizen Emergency Response Team (CERT) curriculum.  Each week, they acquired a new skill set that included disaster preparedness, medical operations, search and rescue, weather awareness, fire safety and utility control, crisis awareness, smoke alarm placement, amateur radio communications, search and rescue, SKYWARN Spotter training, and CPR/AED usage.  Six students completed an extra assignment with online FEMA certifications in IS-100 and IS-200. Students interacted with professionals in the fire service, public safety, emergency management and medical response and discovered career opportunities.  As part of the certification process, each student had to help their family build an emergency preparedness kit they also had to identify and teach five other families how to build an emergency preparedness kit.  Due to this course, 48 families created emergency preparedness kits to aid each of them when the time comes.  These eight students gained valuable life skills thru leadership development along with preparedness.  

Students were asked to give an Impact Statement on what they learned from the program. Here are a few quotes. 

"...I'm also glad to learn and practice things that save lives."

"it helped me out in my job, where CPR and first aid training is required."

"...I also helped my mamaw learn the basics of CPR because my grandpa has heart problems."

"It has officially helped me be more prepared for disasters."

"It taught me life skills and how to react in a serious situation."

"It made me fully think about how to prepare for any situation, and be ready for any situation."