NOVA Crisis Response Team Training™ Program Overview

 

NOVA Crisis Response Team Training™ has over thirty years of evidence-informed and field-tested best practices as a crisis management utility that includes trauma mitigation and education protocols. With over ten thousand trained in North America and internationally, NOVA CRT training is an effective tool that can be instantly scaled-up for mass-casualty critical incidents.

A NOVA Crisis Response Team is a group of individuals specifically trained to provide trauma mitigation, education and emotional first aid in the aftermath of a critical incident, either small-scale or mass-casualty. NOVA CRT™ members each have a minimum of twenty-four hours of skill-based, field-tested training. Most teams have extensive training and experience in the widest range of traumatic events, from mass shootings to natural disasters. Since 1986, NOVA has been involved in hundreds of both small-scale critical incidents as well as mass-casualty disasters. NOVA CRT™ services that have been requested include hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, mass shootings, and as large as the four sites of 9/11 all done in an effort to help stabilize members of their respective communities.

Download the CRT Brochure

 

---

Training Overview

 

BASIC Level, NOVA CRISIS RESPONSE team TRAINING™

NOVA’s Basic CRT training consist of twenty-four hours of techniques and protocols for providing crisis intervention to traumatized individuals. The training focuses on the fundamentals of crisis and trauma, and how to adapt to basic techniques to individuals and groups in this area also known as psychological first aid. Thousands who confront human crisis – victim advocates, law enforcement officer and others – have completed the course and recommend it to others. View sample agenda.

The Virtual Basic CRT Training will consist of 20 hours of online instruction (4 hours a day, over five days) and 4 hours of Self-guided Learning.

Advanced Level, NOVA Crisis response Team training™

This course helps those who have completed the Basic CRT course better understand the intellectual foundations of the NOVA Crisis Response Team Training™ model and perfect necessary skills in applying the model. This twenty-four hour  Advanced course builds upon the essential NOVA CRT protocols with current best practices and in a ‘refresher’ training context. View sample agenda

---

For additional information on NOVA Crisis Response Team Training™, please contact the CRT Training Desk, at (703) 535-6682 ext.135 or email at crt@trynova.org.

Our Mission, Vision and Values in the Crisis Response Program

NOVA provides disaster relief to victims of crime, victims of mass causalities, or survivors of natural disasters in the form of crisis response.  The goal is to assist victims and survivors to understand and normalize their reactions to increasingly abnormal situations and allow them to begin their physical and emotional recovery.

Crisis response is a key element of fulfilling NOVA’s mission to champion dignity and compassion for those harmed by crime and crisis. Trauma has common reactions but the cause of the trauma, from wide-area natural disasters to multiple victim crimes of violence, have different layers and dimensions. There are organizations that focus on crime victim advocacy and others that deal with disaster relief. NOVA is unique in that it incorporates extensive skill and experience in training a vast network of responders in a broad range of needs that stem from criminal, man-made and natural crisis victimization.

Since 1975, NOVA has provided many services to assist victims of crime and crisis in the United States. The most prominent service NOVA provides is its training for caregivers in the techniques of “community crisis response” and to deploy those trained professionals as volunteers, upon request, to communities impacted by a mass casualty or natural disaster. NOVA-trained Crisis Response Teams respond with critical education and emotional first aid for a community with the hope and expectation that should there be recurring incidents, the community will be better prepared to cope with the tragic psychological effects.

---

NOVA’s long term goal for the continued stabilization of an impacted community entails three primary tasks:

1. Provide direct services through individual and group crisis intervention sessions as well as family companioning during the immediate aftermath of a mass casualty or natural disaster;

2. Assist local officials and other decision-makers to plan for immediate and long-range care, comfort and assistance for victims, first responders and survivors within their communities.

3. Train and support local community caregivers who may be called upon to provide long-term assistance to their communities after NOVA has departed, enabling the community to be self-sustainable.

---

For additional information on NOVA’s Crisis Response Team Training™, please contact the CRT Training Desk, at (703) 535-6682 ext.135 or email at crt@trynova.org.

Training and Registration for the Crisis Response Team

Since 1986, NOVA Crisis Response Team Training™ has been the standard for evidence-informed and field-tested best practices for instruction relating to trauma mitigation and education protocols. With over ten thousand NOVA-trained Crisis Responders, NOVA CRT™ training is an effective tool that can be instantly scaled-up for mass-casualty critical incidents.

NOVA-trained responders represent a wide range of contexts and vocations. NOVA CRT training is used by tribal communities, mental health professionals, first responders, school counselors, prosecutors’ offices, human resource departments, and victim advocates, just to name a few.  For school districts seeking a crisis response protocol, NOVA’s Basic Community Crisis Response Team training provides extensive preparation for trauma mitigation and education, consistent with the Department of Education Guide for Developing High-Quality School Emergency Plans (pg. 52-53).

CRT: Commonly Asked Questions

---

Interested in a training for your organization? Fill out the CRT Training Request Form. Please click and download the pdf. Once completed, please save the file name as your organization.

Want to order a CRT Manual? Please complete the CRT Manual Request Form.

---

PLEASE NOTE: Due to the current pandemic, our training dates have been subject to change or cancellation. We are not certain when we will be able to resume in-person trainings. However; we are conducting our Basic NOVA Crisis Response Team Training® virtually. Please check below for open virtual classes. We apologize for any inconvenience and as soon as we are able to safely resume face to face training we will post it here.

---

2024 Basic Level Crisis Response Team Training Registration

The Virtual Basic CRT training will consist of 16 hours of online instruction (4 Hours/4 days), 5 hours of Guided Learning, and 3 hours of group work.

Date	Location	Registration
January 23-25, 2024 Mental Health & Recovery Services Board of Lucas County – PRIVATE	Toledo, Ohio
January 30-February 2, 2024 NOAA – PRIVATE Training Details Pending
February 27-29, 2024  Waymakers, Inc. – PRIVATE	Irvine, CA
March 5-7, 2024 HHSC Health and Human Services Commission – PRIVATE	Austin, TX
March 13-15, 2024 Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (OhioMHAS) Training Details Pending
April 10-12, 2024  University of Maryland – PRIVATE	College Park, MD
June 25-27, 2024 Safe & Just Organization	Chicago , IL

---

2024 Advanced Level Crisis Response Team Training Registration

Interested in attending a Virtual Basic or Advanced Crisis Response Team Training? Please join our waitlist!

Join CRT Waitlist!

Contact the CRT Training Desk for additional information|Phone: (703) 535-6682 ext.135 |Email: crt@trynova.org.

Frequently Asked Questions

 What is a CRT?

A Crisis Response Team is a group of individuals trained to provide trauma mitigation and education in the aftermath of a critical incident, either small-scale or mass-casualty, scaling the response to the need, from one individual to thousands (i.e., the “Walking Worried”).

NOVA CRT training participants have a minimum of twenty-four hours of skill-based, field-tested training. These teams could be state coordinated (e.g. out of a state attorney general’s office) or local teams (e.g., a school district). Most teams have extensive training and experience in the widest range of traumatic events, from shootings to natural disasters.

How Are NOVA CRTs Trained?

In over twenty-six years of providing crisis response training, service and management consultation, NOVA has trained over ten thousand people to provide basic crisis response services. While NOVA’s Basic Community Crisis Response Team training is twenty-four hours, there is an extended forty-hour program that some prefer. There is also an Advanced CRT program that is twenty-four hours. All official NOVA training has to be provided by a NOVA-approved trainer.

NOVA-trained responders represent a wide range of contexts and vocations. NOVA CRT training is used by tribal communities, mental health professionals, first responders, school counselors, human resource departments and victim advocates, just to name a few.

How Are NOVA CRTs Deployed?

A more precise question is, how are NOVA-trained individuals deployed? With thousands of trained responders all over North America as well as other parts of the world, NOVA-trained crisis responders are likely present in many mass-casualty crises around the nation. NOVA-trained responders are commonly involved in one of three ways:

1.) In their professional response roles (first responder, public official, etc.), using skills from the NOVA training

2.) By responding with the state or local NOVA-trained Crisis Response Team.

3.) By official deployment from the NOVA headquarters. NOVA only deploys with an official invitation from an authorized individuals. Most invitations are referred back to a state or local team with expressed support for mutual aid if needed. Some national deployments, because of the scale, scope, media exposure or expertise specifically requested, are coordinated through NOVA’s national office. While the level of need dictates the
response, the National Crisis Responder Credentialing Program is often on the first-call list.

How can I host a CRT Training in my state?

There must be enough registered to cover the costs for NOVA, usually between 10-15 trainees Regional Training Hosting for Basic CRT. The way to have a NOVA regional CRT training is for a local agency to act as local host for the following:

– Finds a site to hold the training for hopefully no cost to NOVA;

– Provides equipment to conduct the training (power point lcd, easel(s) and chart paper plus markers;

– Helps to advertise the training in local area;

– Provides information about local hotels, at least for trainer(s);

– Provides a place where materials can be shipped;

– Assists trainer(s) to get to training site;

– Provides coffee and/or some refreshments during training, if possible,

– Provides information on local restaurants for lunch.

How can I order a CRT Manual?

To order a manual, please complete this form and submit it to NOVA via email (crt@trynova.org), fax (703-535-5500) or mail (510 King Street, Suite 424, Alexandria, VA 22314).