WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — State professionals are coming to teach public safety skills in Houston County for the first time.
The Houston County Emergency Management Agency is partnering with Georgia Emergency Management & Homeland Security Agency to give two free public safety courses.
Southside Baptist Church agreed to host people programs. The classes will take place in their main auditorium on their Warner Robins campus.
One pastor says church safety has changed drastically in the past several years.
"In our world today, we have to be a vigilant. It went from most churches not doing much to realizing you got to do something," Billy Andrews said.
Andrews says nothing dangerous has happened at Southside, but they still want to be prepared.
"Even if nothing happens now, which we hope nothing ever does, we are able to share that information with other churches as well, and so, the more we know and the better prepared we are, the more we can share with other places. It's always good to have a blueprint and plan of action, and having conferences like this kind of allows you to take your blinders off to see more and hear from professionals and their concerns. Then, you are able to take that information and kind of map it out," Andrews said.
The first program is for church members who want to learn more about keeping the congregation safe.
The second program offers an overview of how to identify a possible active shooter and how to respond. It'll also go over the history of active shooter events.
"It's not just somebody giving a lecture. It's somebody that has real world experience, dealing and preventing these types of events and planning for them," Houston County EMA Director Chris Stoner said.
Stoner invites teachers, business owners, and church members to the classes.
"These are outstanding programs that we are bringing to the community and we want everybody to take full advantage of that, even if you can't make it and you know somebody else who is able to get with them and let them teach you some of the information that they learned in the program and share it. Anything we can do to try and make Central Georgia better is what our goal is," Stoner said.
"Hopefully, a lot of businesses and other churches will show up. We are kind of all in this together. We want everywhere we go to be a safe place. We want everywhere to go to be a fun place. The better prepared we are behind the scenes, I think the more we will be able to take care of everybody and be on the same page," Andrews said.
Even if you don't attend Southside Baptist Church, they still welcome you because it's open to all churches.
They'll be hosting both free courses at Southside Baptist Church in Warner Robins on Saturday, November 19.
The first course is called "Praise & Preparedness," and it starts at 9 a.m. The second course is called "Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events," and it starts at 1 p.m.
Each course is about an hour and half long.