Classes and Training

The tragic Maui fires have been a jolting reminder that we all need to regularly practice emergency preparedness and response skills. Each of you provides a highly important and valued service for your neighborhood and our community. We need to train and practice, so we can help others in our neighborhoods learn and become better prepared as well. That will help us all in a disaster

RLA’s role in non-emergency periods is to promote emergency preparedness in Los Altos in at least three areas:  

1. Attracting and training new people to participate in emergency preparedness. Finding and training the almost 400 current citizen volunteers is to be commended; however, these volunteers represent only about 25% of the neighborhoods in Los Altos.

2. Ensuring that current volunteers remain active and engaged in their emergency preparedness roles. Unfortunately, changes in senior members of these groups and COVID have reduced engagement. RLA sees an urgent need to revitalize and reconnect with the Los Altos BATs, CERTs, and hams so that work already done will not be lost.  

3. Attracting and connecting other stakeholder groups that have been identified but remain unengaged from participating in emergency preparedness.

While the current focus of RLA is emergency preparation in the community as we know it, a larger goal is to mold the community in a more holistic vision where community-building is a consideration of many more aspects of Los Altos life.   The following Zoom classes/drills that we are now delivering:

• – BAT Leader Training
• – How to Complete a PSA Form (and what to do with it)
• – Radio Communications with FRS/GMRS for CERTs and BATs
• – Preparedness and Initial Emergency Response Actions for BATs, CERTs and Hams
• – Neighborhood Drills
• – Packet Radio for Los Altos Hams