Since taking her first CPR course as a teenager, Candice has felt a connection to this life-saving skill. In recent years, that feeling has deepened as she has lost several family members where CPR possibly could have saved their lives.
Instead of wondering “What if,” Candice – an AHA certified CPR instructor – has chosen to raise awareness about CPR. In 2020 she started her own company, Courage to Save CPR Training, to teach individuals, families, organizations, and businesses life-saving skills, such as CPR/AED and First Aid. She now travels across Louisiana teaching CPR to daycare staff, high school students, Girl Scout troops, high school coaches, and more. Her 20+ years of teaching in public, charter, and private school sectors make her a phenomenal instructor.
Despite training so many others, she felt driven to do more and wanted to make a difference in the public policy realm. Candice joined You’re the Cure in the summer of 2023 when the Association announced its new Nation of Lifesavers movement, aimed at turning bystanders into lifesavers through CPR and AED awareness and education.
In August, she worked with American Heart Association staff to contact her Members of Congress in support of the federal Access to AEDs Act while they were home for August Recess. This legislation would create a grant program for K-12 schools to provide CPR and AED training; purchase AEDs; and create cardiac emergency response plans that establish specific steps to reduce death from cardiac arrest in school settings.
After learning the American Heart Association was prioritizing CPR policies in Louisiana, Candice joined our Louisiana Advocacy Committee to share her professional expertise and passion. In this role, she provides strategic input into our state and local policy efforts around CPR and lends her voice in support of our policy efforts.
Leveraging her years in the classroom and as a certified CPR instructor, Candice is urging Louisiana lawmakers to allocate funds to teach CPR in schools. In 2013, the American Heart Association, alongside You’re the Cure advocates, successfully advocated for “The Burke Cobb Act” (Act 517 of 2014) requiring all Louisiana public high school students to receive CPR training prior to graduation. Unfortunately, schools in rural and underfunded districts often cannot afford to buy enough CPR training kits for students. As such, we are asking the legislature to fund the Burke Cobb Act and help support schools as they implement this lifesaving training.
Candice also will be asking Louisiana lawmakers to require coaches to be trained in CPR and AED usage. Last legislative session, we successfully advocated for schools to have a cardiac emergency response plan, a written document that establishes specific steps to reduce death from cardiac arrest in school settings, and to have AEDs in schools and at athletic events. Building upon this, we will advocate as part of the Smart Heart Sports Coalition in asking the legislature to require coaches at public and private schools for grades 9 - 12 to obtain and maintain training for CPR, AED use, and First Aid.
Through her personal and professional endeavors, Candice is dedicated to saving lives. And there is an urgent need for her work. Seven in 10 people in American say they feel powerless to act in the fact of a cardiac emergency. As a result, less than half of all people who need this lifesaving skill receive CPR from bystanders before professional help arrives. More than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the United States each year and more than 90% will not survive.
You can join Candice and become part of the Nation of Lifesavers; simply text LIFESAVERS to 46839.
Please visit Candice's website for more information: https://couragetosavecpr.com/.
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