First responders, victim advocacy groups, field counselors and school, university and hospital personnel are encouraged to take advantage of a free training session on family reunification after a crisis.
The seminar will take place from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. on April 5 at Monongalia County Health Department.
The training will be led by John-Michael Keyes, co-founder and executive director of Colorado-based I Love U Guys Foundation. Keyes named the foundation after the last text he received from his daughter, Emily, who was shot and killed by a man who took seven teenage girls hostage at Platte Canyon High School in Colorado in 2006.
“This program is to train the trainers,” said Capt. Danny Camden, Office of Emergency Management and University Police Department Support Services at WVU. “What this will do will be to give them access to resources and information so they can go back to their home departments and create their own family reunification programs.”
The seminar teaches the Standard Reunification Protocol (SRP) and Standard Reunification Method (SRM), and attendees also will participate in a tabletop exercise and a practical exercise. They will be taught how to plan and execute a live, practical reunification exercise and be provided with tools to conduct these exercises.
SRM fills a critical void in school safety planning by providing training on how to reunite students with their parents after a crisis. SRM Basic introduces the concepts and history of SRM and how to implement the program from a district perspective.
This training also can be used in other types of incidents, including natural disasters such as tornados and floods, in addition to traumatic events initiated by a shooter or a terrorist.
Each of those who complete the training will receive a certificate of completion as well as authorization to use resources
at their home unit, Williams added.
Register for the free course online at monchd. org/course-offerings.html. Anyone with questions on the course can contact Williams at Randy.L. Williams@wv.gov or 304-598-5154.
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