The Hanover County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a volunteer organization under Hanover County Fire/EMS. CERT is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that teaches the public how to better prevent, prepare for, and safely respond to local hazards in the community.

CERT is comprised of residents who have completed standardized training in first aid, fire safety and suppression, light search and rescue, emergency preparedness and response, and incident command organization.

In small scale situations, this provides essential response coordination and triage until professional responders arrive. In large scale disasters, the use of trained CERT members frees up professional responders to focus their efforts on more complex and critical tasks.

In addition to responding to emergencies, Hanover County CERT members hold emergency preparedness classes for the public. CERT also serves the public during local incidents and events in different capacities such as safety patrols, information collection, sheltering, etc.