For Immediate Release
Contact: DHS S&T Press Office at (202) 254-2385
FEMA News Desk at (202) 646-3272
WASHINGTON -- The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) and FEMA awarded funding to the not-for-profit National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH) to deliver free, lifesaving trauma training to high school age students.
The funding, potentially up to $2.3 million over three years, is to help establish the School-Age Trauma Training program, or SATT, a public/private partnership that offers students guidance regarding how to tend to traumatic injuries and control severe bleeding until first responders arrive on the scene.
NCDMPH was selected from a competitive grant process held earlier this summer with more than 20 applicants.
“We need to acknowledge that during a disaster, individuals in impacted communities are the first responders,” said FEMA’s Daniel Kaniewski, Deputy Administrator for Resilience. “Young people live through the same disasters as adults, and we want to empower them with lifesaving skills to help speed response and recovery efforts.”
With guidance from DHS S&T and FEMA’s Individual and Community Preparedness Division, NCDMPH will work with the American Red Cross and HOSA-Future Health Professionals to develop a training curriculum, outreach strategies and plans to implement SATT nationwide.
The training will complement other FEMA citizen responder initiatives such as the “Community Emergency Response Team” program and “You Are the Help Until Help Arrives.”
The team will work with public and private schools, youth-oriented not-for-profit agencies, faith-based organizations, and civic associations to ensure that the maximum number of students have access to this critical training.
“This has the potential to save countless lives by empowering our high school age students with critical first aid knowledge they can carry with them throughout their lives, so they can tend to those in distress until help comes,” said William N. Bryan, Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Under Secretary for Science and Technology.
The funds, made available over three program phases, will cover development of a research-validated age-appropriate curriculum, online tools including study aids and collateral materials, as well as mechanisms to track program metrics.
For more information about SATT, please contact first.responder@hq.dhs.gov.