​September is National Preparedness Month, a time to ensure that our families, our communities, and ourselves are prepared for emergencies and disasters. As is often said, all emergencies and disasters are local and, therefore, so is the response. While assistance from first responders and communities is coming, being able to take care of oneself and those you may be responsible for improves community resiliency and recovery.¹  That makes National Preparedness Month a perfect time to take preparedness training and build preparedness knowledge.

Second only to personal preparedness is the training and readiness of response personnel. Public health is one of several aspects of preparedness and response. With the development of the Public Health Preparedness and Response (PHPR) Core Competency Model in 2010 through a collaborative effort between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response (OPHPR) and the Association of Schools of Public Health, a measure of skills beneficial to professionals tasked with the public health side of response was established. Courses, trainings, and preparedness activities can focus on developing and refining these skill sets in order to build overall community preparedness.
TRAIN has a lofty goal: 3,000 courses completed in September that build one or more of the Public Health Preparedness and Response Core Competencies.

In 2012, OPHPR collaborated with Public Health Foundation to integrate the Public Health Preparedness and Response Core Competency Model into TRAIN, the nation’s most comprehensive learning network for professionals who protect and improve the public’s health. This integration allows training providers on TRAIN to identify which competencies their trainings meet and for everyday professionals to select and complete trainings based on those competencies.

Since January 2013, about 1,500 courses per month were completed on average through TRAIN that build one or more of the Public Health Preparedness and Response Core Competencies. Through increased training, the public health community can achieve a higher standard of preparedness. For National Preparedness Month, the TRAIN community invites professionals responsible for public health preparedness and response to build their skills and knowledge through TRAIN’s free preparedness trainings.

​There are several ways to help meet the training goal:

1. Search and complete courses by PHPR competency on TRAIN
2. Encourage your organization to post its PHPR competency-based trainings to TRAIN
3. Follow TRAIN’s Facebook and Twitter feeds and the #PHPR hashtag for highlighted trainings
4. Share preparedness courses you find useful in the comments below – and use the #PHPR hashtag

There are many other activities to engage in during National Preparedness Month. You can attend events occurring all across the country or even order preparedness materials to your door through PHF’s Online Store. Remember, community recovery and preparedness starts with you – share your plans and comments below and through social media using the #PHPR hashtag.