This follows the ICS principle of span of control until the ideal distribution is achieved: one or more teams are formed at each neighborhood within a community.

Some CERTs form a club or service corporation, and recruit volunteers to perform training on behalf of the sponsoring agency.

When not responding to disasters or large emergencies, CERTs may:[citation needed] Some sponsoring agencies use state and federal grants to purchase response tools and equipment for their members and teams (subject to Stafford Act limitations).

A team member may self-activate (self-deploy) when their own neighborhood is affected by disaster or when an incident takes place at their current location (ex.

They should not hear about an incident and drive or respond to an event unless told to do so by their team member or sponsoring agency (as specified in chapters 1 and 6 of the basic CERT training).

In other areas, relays of bicycle-equipped runners can effectively carry messages between the teams and the local emergency operations center.

[citation needed] In the short term, CERTs perform data gathering, especially to locate mass-casualties requiring professional response, or situations requiring professional rescues, simple fire-fighting tasks (for example, small fires, turning off gas), light search and rescue, damage evaluation of structures, triage and first aid.

In some areas, (such as California, Hawaii and Kansas) registered, activated CERT members are eligible for worker's compensation for on-the-job injuries during declared disasters.

Additionally, members may need to adjust team roles due to stress, fatigue, injury, or other circumstances.

While state and local jurisdictions will implement training in the manner that best suits the community, FEMA's National CERT Program has an established curriculum.

For this reason, cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training is not included in the core curriculum, as it is time- and responder-intensive in a mass-casualty incident.

Facilitating instructors also perform set-up and tear-down of the classroom, provide instructional materials for the course, record student attendance and other tasks which assist the professional responder in delivering their unit as efficiently as possible.

The CERT curriculum (including the "Train-the-Trainer" and program manager courses) was updated in 2019 to reflect feedback from instructors across the nation.