The Chapter Serving Muskegon, Oceana and Newaygo Counties specializes in teaching people how to prevent, prepare for, and respond to every day emergencies. In an effort to educate people, classes are provided and taught for individuals of all ages. Courses are offered at our Red Cross buildings, at your workplace, and other community locations.

The American Red Cross offers scholarships for our courses based on need. Call the Health and Safety Director at (231) 720-4238 if you feel you may qualify and need information.

---

 
Please visit the web pages for any courses of interest. You will find them listed in the index below.
 
CPR and First Aid Courses
AED Courses and Information
Youth Courses
Preventing Disease Transmission/Bloodborne Pathogens
Aquatics
Workplace Training
Instructor Courses
How to Register for Courses
Class Schedule

CPR and First Aid Courses

Everyone should know what to do in an emergency situation. Recognizing and caring for breathing, cardiac, and life-threatening emergencies, such as severe bleeding and sudden illness, are the first steps in knowing what action to take if an emergency does arise.
 
Choosing to take an American Red Cross CPR and First Aid course will not only make you aware of what to do in case of an emergency. It will also make you feel comfortable in your ability of knowing what to do and to perform the proper skills to saves someone's life.
 

AED Training and Education

Automated External Defibrillators (AED's) save lives. AED's are a new generation of defibrillator. They are not like the bulky machines you see in hospital dramas.
 
These light weight, portable devices are made to be used by lay persons. Many safety experts believe they will become as commonplace in the work site as fire extinguishers.
 
Already many CPR and First Aid instructors are incorporating AED training into their courses.
 
The Chapter Serving Muskegon, Oceana and Newaygo Counties of the American Red Cross hopes to help you recognize the need and benefits of AED's. In addition to this; how the heart works, and how to use specialized equipment properly.
 
Future classes will be posted.
 

Youth Courses

Babysitting
Babysitting is an exciting course designed for children 11-15 years old. The course is designed to instill confidence in participants to care for infants and school aged children. Within the class the participants are taught how to respond to emergencies, what to do in case of illness, first aid , rescue breathing, decision making skills, communicating with parents, recognizing safety and hygiene issues, feeding, diapering, and caring for infants.
 
Basic Aid Training (B.A.T) - Age: 8-12
Children learn emergency response skills, rescue breathing, ways to prevent and care for choking, wounds, nosebleeds, falls, and animal bites. Also may be included are responses for fire safety, poisons, water accidents and more.
 
First Aid For Little People - Age: 5-7
This course is designed to comfort young children with their capabilities of helping others in an emergency situation. This is an informal course that encourages active participation by the children through discussion and sharing of experiences.
 
Call for information on these and other youth programs.
 

Preventing Disease Transmission

This course helps to build awareness of bloodborne pathogens and teaches exposure-prevention skills. This course also includes emergency follow up plans and responding to exposures.
 

Workplace Training

Workplace training includes adult CPR, infant and child CPR, First Aid, and AED courses.
 
In addition there are injury and prevention control modules that can be supplemented into your workplace-training program. These supplements include; ergonomics, slips, trips and falls, back injury prevention, managing stress, and a course on heart health.
 
Preventing Disease Transmission (Bloodborne Pathogen Training) is also available and is consistent with OSHA guidelines.
 
These services can be scheduled at your work place at times that are convenient for you. Small employers may wish to combine employees to make classes feasible. There are some restrictions regarding minimum size of class.
 
We can also train your employees to be Red Cross instructors for a more cost affective way to deliver our causes to your employees.
 

Aquatics

We work with local swimming pool facilities to provide training for life guards and water safety instructors.
 
Once every year in May, we sponsor our own training before the summer season. Other times of the year, please contact your local pool for information about:

• Lifeguard training
• Water safety instructor training or
• Other water safety courses, including learn to swim

The Muskegon YMCA is a good community resource (231) 722-9322 for Aquatics Information.
 
Call us at 231-726-3555 for prerequisites and other information on becoming a Red Cross instructor in one or more of our courses.

Instructor Courses

We not only offer courses on health and safety, we offer the classes to certify you to teach these courses.
 
The Red Cross is always looking for skilled instructors to help expand our programs.
 

How to Register:

Contact the Health & Safety Department for pre-registration
(231)726-3555. Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.