Resilient Los Altos

Resilient Los Altos (RLA) is dedicated to improving the resilience of the community of Los Altos and adjacent areas.

Resilience requires a robust relationship of stakeholders who are ready to support the community in the event of significant need. Those stakeholders should include, but not be limited to, the Los Altos Block Action Team members, the Los Altos CERT members, Los Altos Amateur Radio Emergency Service (LAARES) members, Los Altos School District (LASD) representatives, Mountain View Los Altos High School District (MVLA) representatives, faith-based community representatives, allied health representatives and representatives from the business community.

Resilient Los Altos is one stop for all your preparedness needs. If you are a CERT, BAT, Ham, an employer/employee of one of our many businesses, part of a non-profit or interested resident or just interested in being current on emergency preparedness in Los Altos, we encourage you to register in the Resilient Los Altos Member Data Base. 

Community resilience refers to the ability of groups of people to respond to and recover from adverse situations, such as natural disasters, acts of violence, economic hardship, and other challenges to their community.  In a significant emergency, traditional support structures will likely be overloaded or unavailable in the short term. Neighborhoods of Los Altos and surrounding areas need to be prepared to cope with these situations. 

The Core Resilient Los Altos Groups

Block Action Teams (BATs) are the “feet on the street.” These are small neighborhood groups led by a volunteer BAT leader who have come together to work as a team after a disaster. But BATs aren’t just about emergencies, they are about building stronger neighborhoods. This is accomplished by neighborhood get-togethers such as block parties, cookouts and other social events. They also hold neighborhood preparedness meetings where they exchange ideas such as building an emergency go-kit, developing a family plan and much more. Starting a BAT is easy: your neighborhood would need to come together with someone as the main focal point (called the BAT Leader). For more information, see the page at www.losaltosbat.org. It’s easy to get your BAT started.

Community Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) are residents who have taken the next step in preparedness. The volunteers have taken training that educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. In Los Altos, CERT members will help their local BATs in performing damage assessments, performing light search and rescue as well as providing basic first aid. CERT training is available throughout the year at little or no cost to the participant. For more information see www.losaltoscert.org.

Ham Radio Operators are licensed individuals who can provide communications services when other services such as telephone and text are unavailable. In Los Altos, hams help by transmitting neighborhood damage reports to the city so the city can effectively allocate their scarce resources (police, fire, medical). Hams also provide a communications path from the city to residents for local updates. Obtaining a ham license is easy to do. For more information refer to www.laares.org.