The Kansas Department of Agriculture will host a one-day emergency response training workshop in Wichita on Thursday, Jan. 11, for individuals who are interested in participating in the Kansas Agriculture Emergency Response Corps. The workshop will walk through an emergency response orientation for volunteers who would like to participate in the new response corps program.
The workshop will be held at the Sedgwick County Extension Education Center at 7001 W. 21st St. N. It will go from 8:30 a.m. until 4:00 p.m., and lunch will be provided to those who RSVP. It will include completion of some FEMA training courses related to incident management. There is no cost for the workshop, and it is open to anyone interested in learning more about responding to agricultural incidents; you do not have to be signed up for the volunteer corps already, but participants will receive more detailed information about the program.
The new agriculture emergency response corps began in 2017 as a comprehensive volunteer corps to address agriculture emergency response. It is made up of volunteers representing a broad range of skills who will be trained and prepared to respond rapidly and efficiently to an agricultural emergency. Additional training workshops will be held in other regions of the state throughout 2018. For more information about the Kansas Agriculture Emergency Response Corps, go to agriculture.ks.gov/KAERC or contact David Hogg, KDA assistant emergency management coordinator, at 785-564-7468 or David.Hogg@ks.gov.