About Us
The Campus Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a group of student volunteers, trained as Advanced Medical First Responders though St. John Ambulance. These responders provide medical response and first aid to the University of Ontario and Durham College campus and are on-call 24 hours a day, seven days week. CERT also offers coverage for groups holding special events on campus. CERT works closely with Health Services and Durham EMS to ensure the health and safety of students, faculty and staff on campus.
In the event of any emergency on campus, CERT should be contacted through campus security at (905) 721-2000 ext. 2400 or by dialling 2400 from any campus phone.
From our constitution:
The St. John Ambulance Campus Emergency Response Team (hereinafter referred to as SJA CERT, or CERT) is a student run, not-for-profit volunteer organization and a Community Services Unit (Division) of St. John Ambulance. The UOIT-DC CERT is CSU 1206 of St. John Ambulance, and received its official charter in April 2007. Its goal is to provide basic life support and first aid services to the school, community and to uphold the mandate of St. John Ambulance: for the service of humankind. CERT serves to complement emergency services at the campus and to support the staff of Security Services, Athletics, and special events. The team strives to make the campus a safer place for students, staff, faculty and visitors by acting as an intermediary between the university/college community and local Emergency Medical System professionals. As first responders, CERT acts to promptly activate the Emergency Medical System and to provide assistance before the arrival of ambulance services. SJA CERT also administers first aid to individuals in instances where minor injury requires attention, but an ambulance is not deemed necessary.
CERT was founded in fall 2005 by Robert Nayer, with help from Robert Thompson. During the academic year of 2005-2006 the two wrote required documentation and acquired funding from the University of Ontario, Institute of Technology and Durham College. The team began its first day of operations on September 2nd, 2006 with 8 members covering special events. Throughout the year the team grew with a mandate to provide on-call coverage of the campus 24/7 and maintain a team of over 50 responders. CERT aims to provide involvement and leadership opportunities to students and to continually adapt its training and resources to meet the growing needs of the community.
