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Published: January 31 2014

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – For the second year, the American Heart Association and Cities of Service, a bi-partisan coalition of more than 180 mayors committed to using citizen service to address pressing local needs, have selected five cities across the country to receive CPR Anytime Kits (or Hands-Only™ CPR training kits). Each city will receive 500 kits to help turn more of their residents into lifesavers. Last year's grant recipients trained nearly 17,000 people with the kits they received, equipping thousands of community members to act as first responders in cardiac arrest emergencies.

This year's training kit grant winners include: Duluth, Minn., Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., Phoenix, Ariz., Richmond, Va., and Rock Hill, S.C. The grants will support the implementation of the Cities of Service Volunteer CPR Blueprint, a high-impact service strategy in which the mayor's office partners with local medical professionals and emergency responders to train volunteers to use the lifesaving Hands-Only CPR technique. The Blueprint calls for the volunteers, who are trained by professionals, to teach CPR to at least five other residents, vastly improving a community's ability to respond to sudden cardiac emergencies.

The goal of the City of Fort Lauderdale's Volunteer CPR initiative is to train 3,000 city residents in the first year. The city's partners include the Office of Emergency Management, the Neighbor Support Office, social services, civic associations, and local educational institutions. The initiative will target high school and college students, active community leaders, and boomer volunteers to train friends, neighbors, co-workers, church members, fellow students, family, and loved ones with these lifesaving, Hands-Only CPR skills. The Volunteer CPR Blueprint is one of 11 customizable Blueprints from Cities of Service. These Blueprints are a set of step-by-step, how-to guides for cities and mayors to leverage volunteer service to move the needle against pressing local challenges.

Nearly 400,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur annually in the United States, and 89 percent of victims die because they don't receive immediate CPR from someone on the scene. Hands-Only CPR is a quick, easy way to save more lives. If you see a teen or adult suddenly collapse, (1) Call 9-1-1; and (2) Push hard and fast in the center of the chest. Doing these compressions at the proper beat can more than double a person's chances of survival; coincidentally, the proper beat matches the classic Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive."

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About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – America's No. 1 and No. 4 killers. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies, and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation's oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country.

About Cities of Service
Founded in September 2009 by former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and 16 other mayors from across the nation, Cities of Service is a bipartisan coalition of mayors committed to addressing critical city needs through impact volunteering. American cities face serious challenges and many mayors want to take advantage of every resource available to them – including the time and energy of public-spirited residents – to address those challenges. But in cities across America today, citizen service is often an underutilized or inefficiently utilized strategy by municipal governments. By leveraging citizen service strategies, Cities of Service helps mayors address local needs and make government more effective. To learn more, visit citiesofservice.org.