FEMA Independent Study Courses

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) offers free disaster preparedness and emergency management classes, many of which are held online and may only take a few hours to complete. We encourage volunteers with RedRover Responder to take advantage of these free courses.

RedRover Responders volunteers are required to complete IS-100.c: Introduction to Incident Command System.

You can find more information about these courses and online registration by visiting FEMA’s Emergency Management Institute Web site.

See below for courses that are recommended and required for RedRover Responders volunteers and volunteer leaders.

Canadian Volunteers

As a Canadian resident, you may complete the Incident Command System training requirement by taking the free online FEMA course. However, you will be unable to receive certification for completing the course. For RedRover’s purposes, we do not need you to be officially certified — taking the online FEMA class and learning the information is sufficient. If you want to be certified, you can take an equivalent class through the Justice Institute of British Columbia for a small fee.

About NIMS Compliance

The Department of Homeland Security requires all agencies to be compliant with the National Incident Management System (NIMS). NIMS sets national standards for major emergency incident operations — in areas like communications, resource management and technology — so that during disaster responses, agencies from different jurisdictions and disciplines can “speak the same language” and work together effectively.

Some jurisdictions will require NIMS certification of all responding volunteers. When this happens, RedRover will only be able to deploy RedRover Responders volunteers who have completed the four NIMS compliance classes indicated below.