Podcast – From Compassion to Capability: John Gantt on CERT and Community Preparedness

In this podcast episode of Domestic Preparedness: The Podcast, host Nicolette Casey Phillips speaks with John Gantt, a longtime emergency management volunteer and CERT leader dedicated to turning everyday neighbors into trusted partners for first responders. They discuss volunteerism and the critical roles volunteers play in disaster preparedness and response. This conversation was recorded live on May 28, 2025, at the Texas Emergency Management Conference.

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Nicolette Casey Phillips

Hello, and welcome to Domestic Preparedness: The Podcast, where we bring you the Voices of Preparedness. I am your host, Nicolette Casey Phillips, and in this episode, we’re diving into the critical issues of the emergency preparedness field. We are talking to leaders in the field, experienced practitioners, and dedicated officials who are shaping policies and practices to strengthen community preparedness across the country.

Now with me today is a true problem-solver and emergency management volunteer, Mr. John Gantt.

John Gantt

Hi, welcome!

Phillips

Now, I’m really excited because you seem very kind-hearted, which makes a lot of sense for the topic of this conversation, which is volunteerism.

Gantt

Volunteerism—the definition of volunteerism is, somebody who wants to help. I mean, that’s what a volunteer is. And so, you know, the kindheartedness, I think that’s a trait that runs through most volunteers. They’re there, they want to help; they want to do something for somebody else.

Phillips

Right. I can definitely agree with that. We all equally want to collaborate for the greater good.

Gantt

Absolutely. And when you think of emergency management, there are some sayings that kind of go along with the industry, but most of them are very true. It’s like, you meet people on the worst day of their life, and so having that compassion for them, the ability to sort of empathize with what they’re doing, it kind of goes hand in hand with being able to help people in those situations.

Phillips

Right. Would you say when it comes to volunteerism, would you say there’s a typical profile for the type of person that wants to contribute in this way? Or does it just kind of surprise you sometimes?

Gantt

You know, it varies a lot. I’m surprised a lot of times. You see somebody, you think, oh, well, okay, so they do heavy labor in some industry, and so they’re very focused on building houses or framers or something like that. So there are kind of work ethic pieces, and you think, well, they’re probably very focused on that. So, they might not be a very good volunteer. And then you meet them, and they’re like, “Well, yeah, I’d like to help with that. What can I do for that?” So you can’t ever judge.

If it’s a job, then, and they’re getting paid for it, then there’s that kind of, “well, I’m being paid for this, so I should do this work whether I like it or not.” Versus, if you’re a volunteer, you’re only there because you like it. If they don’t like what they’re doing, they’ll go away.

Phillips

Right.

Gantt

So it’s important, it’s one of the key factors in using volunteers in general, but specifically for emergency management where they might be involved in a disaster or something like that. You need to find things they can do that are rewarding for them, that help feed them, that make them feel like they’re doing something and accomplishing something. Otherwise, it’s just a job, and you know, they can go get paid somewhere to do a job.

Phillips

That’s right. That makes plenty of sense. Now, Mr. Gant, what is CERT?

Gantt

So, CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. It’s a program that was developed and initially launched in 1993 in California, and FEMA took it, you know, adopted it as a platform they use. It’s designed for two major purposes. The primary purpose it was originally set up for was to train individuals in a community so that, if there is a disaster, if it’s going to be an hour or two hours or three hours before first responders can actually get to them, then they can 1) be sure they’re taken care of, 2) be sure their family is taken care of, and then 3) once those were in place, then to look at their community, their neighborhood, and see what could I do to assist here until the first responders get here. CERT requires certain FEMA training. It’s 24 hours of classroom training and it’s required across all CERT organizations, and that culminates at the end of that 24 hours of classroom with a practice exercise. So you learn all these skills in class, and then you do an exercise to actually practice and demonstrate that you know what you’re doing.

One of the benefits of that is that, you know, many communities have CERTs. Many communities don’t have CERTs, but if you have a community CERT and there is a major disaster where you don’t have enough people, another CERT can come in and you automatically know they have this level of training, this base level of information. So it’s easy to integrate those teams together and sort of know what’s going on.

Phillips

Amazing. Now, was there a moment that really sparked your passion for engaging with volunteers?

Gantt

I think that for me it started many, many years ago.

Phillips

Many moons ago!

Gantt

Many, many moons ago. There was an art festival that goes on here in Fort Worth each year called the Main Street Fort Worth Arts Festival. And it’s four days. Nine blocks of Main Street are blocked off and, in that four days, if we have good weather all four days, we’ll have 300,000 people pass through. So it’s a big event. And I got started volunteering with it, just kind of to help out. It was designed originally to promote downtown and build downtown back up from a place that was like, you go to downtown to work, and you go home at 5:00, and there’s nobody else downtown after 5. They wanted to revitalize the downtown. So I started with that. But once I got into it, the more I was there and saw things going on, I was like, this isn’t working right, or you know, we’re set up and then a windstorm comes through and blows everything down. So what are we going to do? So that sort of sparked my … we need to plan better for this. We need to understand what could happen. And then when it does, what do we do to respond to it? And that’s a basic definition of emergency management.

Phillips

I was going to say that’s putting on your emergency management hat if I’ve ever heard it.

Gantt

Yeah. So that’s kind of where I got started with it. It was from that perspective. And, then we built a team out to, you know, as we took on more and more responsibility, and learned more about emergency management and planning and what needed to be done. And interfacing with the different groups that might be involved, whether that’s the fire department, the police department or whatever it is, we sort of learned those skills and what was needed and built out plans for that. It was several years later that I actually discovered there was an emergency management field, like, “Oh hey, people do this for a profession.”

Phillips

Yeah, I know. I think everybody kind of has that Aha! moment. And then once they realize what goes into that, then they start to realize that they can contribute in a certain way. And that’s when, you know, I think volunteerism comes to play.

Gantt

It absolutely does, and it’s, you know, working with volunteers. There are some sort of standard things that go on regardless of what your organization and what your focus is from that. But for emergency management, it’s particularly important that volunteers, as I said, they want to help, they want to do something. If you don’t have something to keep them busy, then they’ll go somewhere else and do something else. So if you’re focused on responding to disasters, fortunately we don’t have that many disasters.

So you need to come up with plans and programs to keep them busy during the year doing the things so they learn the skills, they get additional training, they get refresher training, but they have an opportunity to practice that and do something. Many times, many of things that we do for CERTs is we do community events.

So we might provide First Aid at a community event, county fair, bicycle race, or whatever it is, we would provide First Aid for something like that. A lot of times the cities do 4th of July celebrations. We’ll be there to help, kind of keep the crowd controlled out of the fireworks area or…

Phillips

I was gonna say, fireworks.

Gantt

Yeah, or, yeah, or help with parking, or even, you know, other things that we might be, you know, directing people around to get into the area. Another option that we have that many CERTs do is, we’ll do rehab services for the fire department, for example. Firemen go out there, they have a structure fire, they’re going to be in this heat for hours, working on a structure fire, trying to put it out. Firefighters can only fight for, can only participate for so long, before they have to get out and cool off and refresh so they can go again.

If we can come in as CERT and throw up a pop up a tent, have cold water, have cooling towels for them, a seat for them to sit in, a fan to keep blowing on, they can come, sit, refresh, get rehab for that, drink some water, stay hydrated, and then go back into the firefighting piece of it. That’s a real opportunity for us to do something on a regular basis.

Kind of the flip side to “There aren’t that many disasters,” unfortunately, there are frequently structure fires, and so fire departments have a need for that on a regular basis. That’s an area we can help out.

Phillips

I like the idea of reframing the concept, because for me, when I think volunteerism or just volunteers, I think of people who have the desire to protect their community, but the idea of those who want to help support those who are protecting our communities is essentially what you’re saying you all do, and I don’t think I would have looked at that unless you would have explained it to me in that way. So thank you for that.

Gantt

Well, you’re welcome. And that’s one of the key things about CERT, is, while we’re typically looked at as first responders. The reality of it is, is that we’re kind of an augment to those professional first responders.

If there is a disaster, say, if a tornado comes through and there are a lot of homes damaged and they need to cordon off the area and restrict access, well, it’s not a real efficient use of, of police officers to put them at a barricade in the street to keep the street closed. They have other things they could do, so we can backfill and kind of do that for them. We can man a barricade if you need.

Phillips

Without that training, which is yeah, okay.

Gantt

That’s the key, the training for it is to train the volunteers so they know what to do. They’re comfortable with what’s going on. They can act professional in that role. It gives them that feeling of, “I’m doing something to help the community,” which feeds the volunteer piece of it. But it also ensures, because we require the training, that they do it in a professional manner and that they’re safe in doing it and protecting someone else.

Phillips

Beautiful. okay, now how would you define volunteerism in the emergency preparedness space? And you kind of touched on that. Is there any way you can kind of emphasize that for our listeners?

Gantt

Sure, again, the key is finding areas where the volunteers, whether they’re CERT, whether they’re [Citizen] Fire Academy, whether they’re the MRC [Medical Reserve Corps], they’re volunteers for that. It’s finding something that they can do in that area that they have an interest in and then plugging that into serving the community, doing something for that. Those are key things, training them on Stop the Bleed. So if there’s a disaster, if there’s something, structural damage, something people could be injured. People could be bleeding. They can stop, can come in. They understand how to effectively put on a tourniquet or stop the bleed, so people don’t die from bleeding out. Well, that’s great. And it’s an important skill to have in a disaster. But what happens if you happen to drive down the highway and you see an accident and you just get out and see and somebody’s injured in an accident? You had the training and the ability then to go ahead and jump in and provide that help until the first responders can get there, until the paramedics can get there to help the person.

Phillips

These are superheroes out here, unrecognized. How impressive.

Gantt

Recognition is maybe another one of those key points I’d point out in volunteerism. Not only do you need to keep the person busy, give them something to do, but they need to get recognition for it. And in most of the cases, the person they’re delivering the service to, the help to, isn’t going to be providing that recognition back. Because again, it’s the worst day of their life. So they have other things going on. So having your organization have a program where you recognize people for the work that they do, whether it’s volunteering in the First Aid booth at an event, whether it’s providing training, whether it’s, you know, whatever it is that they’re doing, going out and doing rehab for the fire department. Finding some way to recognize those people to sort of let them know that they are appreciated, that people recognize the work that they’re doing to help their community.

Phillips

I’m wondering, how do I find these people to talk to so that I can be a part of helping my community? Like, where would I go? Where would I start?

Gantt

And, the answer to that is, as with most things, it depends. A lot of it depends on where you live and what’s going on. I would start out with the, the age-old tradition of, do a Google search for “Community Emergency Response Team” or CERT, and you may find “CERT near me,” you know, and find one. There are thousands of CERT teams all over the country because it’s a national program. But most major cities will have a CERT team somewhere in that area, or they may have a, a slightly different flavor of it. It may be a citizen’s fire academy, you know, that does that or a citizen’s police academy. So those are areas that you can get into that help, you know, they’re focused on helping neighbor, helping individuals outside.

Phillips

Wow, that’s great to know. Now what makes a good emergency volunteer? And how do we help people get there?

Gantt

So, it takes a certain amount of being, you know, that desire to help people that has to be fairly strong, because you’re going to see bad things. You’re going to see people having a hard time and being willing to commit yourself to helping those people is kind of a key piece of it. It’s also important that you, as you’re looking for volunteers, recruiting volunteers, to understand, why are you joining? Why are you wanting to volunteer? Well, I want to do it because I get to wear a nifty uniform and maybe not the most, the best motivation for, for that….

Phillips

Right. That’s a good point. Like, what is the criteria?

Gantt

Yeah. And it, you know, it varies by individual in terms of what they’re doing. I have 17 years of experience in volunteer firefighting, and so volunteer firefighters, when we recruit people for that, one of the things is, you know, why do you want to join? Well, I want to put lights and siren on my car. Not the right answer. You know, I want to help protect the community. Yes, that’s what we want for the volunteers.

Phillips

That’s more like it.

Gantt

So it’s looking at those kinds of things. But you also want to be careful not to, to just exclude people to say, “I only want this type of person.” Because volunteers come in all different flavors and sizes and with all kinds of different motivations for that. So just because they’re not what you think of as a typical person or the typical volunteer doesn’t mean they wouldn’t be good for your organization or work well.

Phillips

Or can’t be, yeah. Can’t be used in another way that maybe someone, I mean, I’m sure it’s it’s caterable. There’s got to be a place for everybody who’s willing to…

Gantt

Yeah, and one of the things about emergency management is, it covers a wide spectrum of things, you know? You could be, your interest could be in communications and using a radio and talking on the radio. Well, great, you know, we need people to do that during a disaster to provide the communication support, to run the base station and collect all the information on the radio and manage that. It could be that you like First Aid and doing those kinds of things, but you’re not motivated to go do a career as an EMT or a paramedic. You’ve got a different lifestyle that you want to work toward, but you could still learn the First Aid and those kinds of things, and do that. You might be somebody who just likes to organize things. You know, having somebody who can come in and organize your supplies, your logistics, all those different kinds of talents, all feed into emergency management, and they’re all great opportunities for people to volunteer.

Phillips

Now say I have a specific skill that I think would be welcomed in a certain scenario, but the majority of the people there who are volunteering have also decided they have a certain skill. Now do you turn away people because you kind of got this handled? Or is the idea that we’ll just find another fit?

Gantt

As long as the volunteer has the right motivation, you don’t really want to turn away volunteers.

Phillips

It’s all about the motivation.

Gantt

It’s all about the motivation, and a lot of that, at least in CERT and in many of the other emergency management areas, a lot of that comes down to, are they willing to put in the effort to get the training to do the job they want to do?

Phillips

Okay.

Gantt

You know, I can’t put somebody in First Aid if they don’t want to learn the basic requirements of First Aid. You know, you can’t put somebody in a, “we’re going to go look for survivors” if they’re not willing to spend any time to learn the search and rescue techniques. So if they’re willing to spend the time for the training, then great. They should be a good volunteer. And you can find a use for them.

Phillips

Okay, that’s wonderful. Are there qualities that you look for in someone that’s new to CERT?

Gantt

I look for a couple of things. I like the idea of, you know, are they willing to put in the time, as I’ve been saying? You know, in our group, we require two sets of training as an entry level volunteer in CERT. The first is we have four online courses that are FEMA courses in Incident Command System and National Incident Management System. If they’re willing to spend—it’s about two hours per course online self-paced stuff—if they’re willing to go complete those four courses, that to me indicates that they have some buy-in to the program, and they’re willing to spend the effort. Then it’s worthwhile for me to send them to the 24 hours of the classroom training and provide them with the equipment that goes with that. Because you know, if you’re going to respond in CERT, typically what we do is once they complete the basic training, we’ll give them a backpack which has basic First Aid supplies in it, some basic tools in it, basic protective equipment like hard hats and safety vests. So that’s an investment of our money in terms of outfitting the person to do the job.

You can’t send them out to do the job without the equipment, but if they’re not willing to put in that initial training and the initial effort to do it, then maybe it’s not a good fit for them and they should look somewhere else.

Phillips

That makes a lot of sense. Now just to wrap things up here, I am very curious, what’s one piece of advice that you would share with someone who is interested in volunteerism that maybe you would have wished to have learned earlier in your career?

Gantt

That’s a hard question. That’s a hard question. I would say, think outside the box.

Phillips

I like that.

Gantt

You know, just because you see what a paramedic does or what an EMT does when you see him in an ambulance or on a scene or on TV or whatever it is, you know, that’s one phase of it. But there are other things that are involved with it. So you know, think outside the box, think what else can I do, or what would make sense to me? What would make me feel good to do? And how can I use that to help someone else?

Phillips

That is so beautifully said, Mr. Gantt.

Gantt

Thanks!

Phillips

Awesome. Okay, so that’s a wrap for this episode of Domestic Preparedness: The Podcast. Until next time, stay safe, stay ready, and thank you for listening.