DART (Disaster Assistance Response Training)

January 13, 2012

Hands down, one of the best training programs you can attend, that will prepare you and your team to survive and thrive in war zones, disaster areas while assisting and helping in humanitarian interventions.

One week course will be hosted in Calgary, Alberta Canada June 18-22nd 2012. Please see the short informational video below.

Forty-three class hours that may also be used for Continued Education Credits.

Course offerings include but are not limited too:

Disaster Assessment

Before one can truly assist when entering an area of humanitarian need, including disaster areas, the situation must be evaluated. Assessment helps with setting priorities in order to best be of aid to those who are suffering. This course provides hands-on understanding of the assessment process.

Humanitarian Assessment

The cornerstone of all DART training, this series equips you with the tools to recognize, analyze and plan for more effective humanitarian aid. Throughout the week, the conference builds on this initial training and culminates with group briefings on given disaster scenarios.

Personal & Mission Protection

This course will aquaint you with potential terrorist threats while providing steps you can take to avoid or survive these situations. This type of training is a must for anyone wanting to work in disaster or war-torn areas. For those leading teams or receiving teams on the ground, this training will equip leaders and team members who to stay safe and avoid potential problems by establishing “red lines” that all team members will know in advance. You will be equipped to respond to various threats against your team and or individuals to keep safe, stay safe and ways to get out of the complex problems presented while working in unsecured areas.

Land Mine Awareness

Many humanitarian disasters take place in nations that have thousands of unmarked minefields. It has become increasingly important that international aid workers are trained in recognizing and avoiding land mines. This realistic training takes place outdoors in a mock minefield, from which you will have to successfully extract yourself.

Cross Cultural Communications

With any foreign disaster comes a foreign culture. Understanding our own culture first is key to understanding foreign cultures. This course provides the guidelines from which to understand other cultures based on U.S. counterpart values.

Survival in the Field

This course will cover all aspects of survival in the field, including avoiding crises and incidents, surviving in adverse conditions, situational awareness, and surviving without food for an extended period of time.

Humanitarian Aid / Lessons Learned

This is a panel discussion, staffed by SWI team members and partnering organizations. This informal panel has no set parameters but is an opportunity for attendees to ask any questions they may have for us, based on our experience.

Mission Preparedness and Planning

A brief introduction to those considering mission work in disaster areas. Whether you are considering short term or long term missions, this presentation contains important basic information to consider. Subjects covered include: spiritual preparation, travel tips, culture and preserving the experience, fundraising and creating a support network.

Dealing with Trauma

One of the major issues in dealing with any disaster is trauma. The objectives of this course are to help the helper, by providing tools to take care of themselves as well as the trauma victims. Topics include: traumatic stress awareness, compassion fatigue, group debriefing techniques, negative coping behaviors, and models for dealing with grief and loss. Regardless of what kind of disaster relief you may do, this course is an excellent overview in how not to become a casualty yourself.

Biblical Storying/Orality of Scripture

In many of the places that require significant humanitarian aid assistance there will oftentimes
be people groups who have high illiteracy rates. Bible Storying is a unique method of communicating the scripture to those who cannot read. Approximately two thirds of the Bible is a narrative and therefore lends itself to communicating orally. Jesus taught by telling stories and was himself an oral communicator. You will find this presentation fascinating because it gets at the heart of the matter of effectively reaching with Biblical teaching.

Preventative Medicine

This course focuses on providing practical information on how to avoid potential health problems before they become debilitating. Personal and specific preventative measures against certain diseases and other travel related problems will be covered. Topics discussed will be focused on those areas of world that present the biggest challenge to travelers from a Western nation. Designed to equip you team to be as self-contained as possible. When infrastructure in your area of operation has failed, it is up to your team to provide for the team. This course teaches you the basics so minor issues will not become major issues.

UN and Peacekeeping operations

The United Nations provides military peacekeeping forces around the world. Many people have heard of the problems of the UN, but most do not understand the challenges and limitations these forces operate under. This presentation is designed to give you an overview of a real peacekeeping operation faced in Somalia and other countries from a first hand experience. The objective is to familiarize you with the challenges and complexity of these types of operations. Equip your teams to interact and coordinate when needed.

Understanding Insurgencies

Everyday we hear about insurgent attacks in Iraq but few understand the challenge and complexity of trying to reduce or eliminate this type of threat. This presentation is designed to give the student an overview of how an insurgency works and what the opposing force needs to do to combat this threat through counterinsurgency operations. This type of warfare is important to understand since the majority of humanitarian aid efforts take place in nations suffering from internal insurgencies or counterinsurgencies.

Documenting and reporting: Photography-Video-Journalsim

Conveying vision and information designed to impact your base of support and inform your team. Video and photography training that will associate you with the “ethics” and keep you from voyeurism of pain to vision based communications designed to impact without exploiting. This class will help you with important photography issues and questions like: What type of camera should I use? How should I take care of my camera? What types of pictures are most effective? How do I take pictures of people without offending them? Learn how to take pictures powerful enough to make others pray for those who are suffering and join in supporting future trips and projects.

Note* Not and exhaustive list but designed to communicate mandatory and elective courses.

Come and attend DART training in beautiful Calgary Canada in Partnership with First Alliance and get equipped to be a part of the solution in Complex Humanitarian Disaster.

Who should attend

Mission leaders, Long and short-term International workers, Individuals wanting to be certified in Disaster Response, relief/aid staff and volunteers. NGO and Non-Profit groups responsible for team safety and contingency management planning for staff, teams and volunteers

Due to advance sign ups and limited attendance for class to teacher ratio, this course is extremely limited and will fill up fast. This is not a sales pitch, this is a fact.

Call our U.S office at 918.336.8400 for cost, information and or check back on the web sites listed for further information.

Testimonials

“I have used so many practical and spiritual “tactics” this past year as a result of what I was taught and shown at SWI. SWI was the foundation upon which we have been building our lives this past year in preparation for present and future mission work. Just a quick update on the three of us: Amanda has one more year to go in Israel and Allison leaves in August to begin bootcamp with the Army Reserves Officer Candidate School in Ft. Benning, GA. I am in my last two years of nursing school and will be going to Israel in October. We are working on finalizing some trips soon and will let you know as soon as plans are complete because we want your prayers to be before us and with us. We’re always listening for your name to pop up in our area as a guest speaker–as soon as we hear you are in the area, we’ll be there.”-Tracy

“Given the unique nature of your goals, you need a unique Vision statement like: ‘The needs of the many depend on the courage of a few and God who does the impossible.” -Volunteer from SWI disaster team

I want to share a very small part of the mission that you probably have not even thought of, however the scene crosses my mind daily……………Just before leaving Nairobi for Nakuru we stopped to exchange money. We were all standing outside the bank taking turns going inside. We were all introduced to a prominent business man, blanket business I believe. He said multiple times that we should not stay in Nakuru, that it was too dangerous, and we should stay at the Park. You just stood there with your hands in your pockets and a smile on your face. I was panicking inside and the words “listen to him, listen to him” kept going through my head… The day we left Nakuru just before going over the last hill in the Wildlife Refuge we stopped and watched the fires erupting in the city. It was at that spot that a teammate thought we were leaving the very people we were there to help and it was at that spot that the scene in front of the bank played through my mind. Your obedience in listening to the Lord and not let a “person” sway your thinking really left an impact on me and is a daily blessing to me now. I think of all the employees of the hotel that were ministered to by the team ,and all the people we met there in the Nakuru Hotel, I know that we stayed exactly where God had wanted us to stay. Even with the black smoke hovering over the city I thanked God that He led such a Godly man to light a fire in my heart. -Gail

Training opportunity brought to you by Strategic World Impact in partnership with First Alliance Calgary.

First Alliance and Strategic World Impact (c)

“Assisting the church in a strategic response for a strategic harvest”