Youth preparedness trainings should be designed and delivered using a youth-led, adult assisted process. All learning styles are utilized to present information, train students in skill development, and have them participate in hands-on exercises and activities to solidify their understanding of the material. Focus is given to leadership development, team building and youth engagement as they prepare their action plans and take an active role in making their schools or communities more prepared.

There are three main sections of the event:

1. Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training: All camp participants (including the adult sponsors) receive the full basic CERT course complete with certification of completion. This training includes lessons on fire safety, basic first aid, search and rescue, incident command system (ICS), and disaster psychology, among others. In addition to classroom-based lessons, youth are given ample opportunity to practice their skills through hands-on activities, tabletop discussions, and exercises. The CERT training culminates in a large full-scale exercise in which youth allocate resources, attend to live role-playing victims, and interact with real first responders.

2. Community Action Planning: Each group will develop a community action plan project related to school and/or community preparedness that the group and their adult sponsor will implement in their community when they return home from camp. During the planning process, groups will develop an objective, identify what is needed to achieve that objective, define the steps needed to complete the objective, and create a presentation to summarize the main points of their plan.

3. Leadership Development: Camp participants also participate in leadership development activities aimed at empowering youth to lead preparedness in their community. Participants will be given opportunities to present to large groups, speak publicly, and lead activities throughout the five days of camp. Leadership development is an important aspect of camp because it prepares participants to assume a leadership role in their community, which is necessary for them to be successful in responding to a disaster situation as well implementing their community action plan.