First Responder & Community Defense

Training Program

Beginner and Advanced Emergency Medicine and Community Safety Trainings for Anti Racist Movement Organizers across Kentucky

With your support, we will equip 1,000 anti-racist organizers across Kentucky in hemorrhage control techniques, patient assessment systems, how-to move injured people, deescalation techniques, physical security planning, tactical emergency decision making, assessing and accessing local resources outside the state, and values-aligned ways to communicate with local, state, and federal crisis response agencies.

"The more allies and partners that are trained in this basic set of skills, the safer I will be on the frontlines and the more effective we can be as a united front."

- Anice C.

Louisville Community Defense Network

Training Tracks

Beginner Training

This is training is 3 hours long and intended for activists and organizers of all ages, experience, and skill levels. This training covers the three pre-hospital methods everyday people can use to stop life threatening bleeding: direct pressure, wound packing, and tourniquet application.

This training also includes fundamental skill building in personal safety planning. Every training begins with conversation about the political context in which these skills are useful and offers next steps for further skill development. Those who attend this training will walk away with:

  • Tangible Stop the Bleed Skills and certification

  • Tools for Personal Safety Planning

  • Combat Approved Tourniquet (CAT) to take home

Advanced Cohort Training

This is an intensive 20 hours of training over 5 months. It is intended for organizers looking to deepen their first responder and community defense skills and who are already part of groups or organizations who are working to keep more and more people safe, without relying on the state, such as policing or punishment. The cohort series includes:

  • Stop the Bleed and Personal Safety Planning

  • Preparing for Active Shooters and Defense of Spaces and Places

  • Emergency Casualty Care and Safety Team Development

  • Principles and practices to navigate the Incident Command System (state response to crises)

  • Mass Casualty Incident Simulation to put all of these skills together

  • On-going coaching for your and your team between each training session

This training is for motivated organizers looking to gain and apply skills to their work and in their lives. Those who complete this training take with them:

  • Historical and political case studies to draw from

  • Tangible Stop the Bleed Skills and certification

  • First Responder bags with necessary medical equipment, ready to use

  • Tools for Personal Safety Planning

  • VPN’s and other internet safety mechanisms

  • Safety protocols for commonly used spaces

  • Safety equipment for commonly used spaces

  • Communication devices relevant to group’s context and need

  • Mapping tools for resources in your community

  • Risk Assessment skills

  • De-escalation skills and practices

  • Triage and Patient Assessment Systems

  • Tailored and on-going support to integrate learning

Advanced Cohort Program Overview
Apply here!

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Your support will save lives.