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Responses to:
Helper Triage: Volunteer Management in Emergencies

Posted on 20 December 2007 by H. Roberts, PLNJ Inc., Pres., Keyport, NJ USA
What is the protocol for insuring volunteers during disaster relief? Do agencies coordinating relief efforts worry about the cost of liability, do the take out insurance on every volunteer? Does the cost of insurance prohibit recruitment? Do the undefined paramaters of unauthorized volunteers play a role in the decision not to recruit? Do potential legal issues cause hesitation? If so, I can understand the challenges from a liability perspective.

Posted on 4 December 2007 by Merrilee White, Volunteer Florida, the Governor's Commission on Volunteerism & Community Service, Emergency Management Consultant, Tallahassee, FL USA
I agree that volunteers might have provided many kinds of assistance to the oil cleanup effort. However, I think we should give California credit where it is most definitely due. I’m not familiar with their current activities, but it was Bay Area volunteer centers that helped pioneer the Volunteer Reception Center concept for managing unaffiliated volunteers 10 years ago! Recently, California volunteer centers accepted responsibility for managing the hundreds of spontaneous volunteers who served in fire-scorched counties during the wildfires. Ohio emergency managers and volunteer managers recently utilized thousands of unaffiliated volunteers to protect homes from major flooding. In February, unaffiliated volunteers, triaged by a county-sanctioned Volunteer Reception Center and housed in a FEMA-supported base camp dramatically shortened the cleanup from Florida’s Groundhog Day Tornado.

Many emergency managers across the nation recognize the importance of unaffiliated volunteer engagement in disaster response and recovery. We still have a long way to go. Certainly, hazardous material incidents present different risks to professional and volunteer responders than do other kinds of events. There is a mystique to “hazmat” incidents that has allowed this area to remain out of synch with other emergency management disciplines regarding the use of spontaneous volunteers. The good news is that printed materials, training and mentoring are available from many sources on the safe and effective use of unaffiliated volunteers.

Best of all, there are many nationally recognized emergency management professionals who advocate for strong statewide disaster volunteer management programs, and who support or endorse training for Volunteer Centers, Hands On Network affiliates, State Service Commissions, Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), AmeriCorps programs, and state associations of volunteer managers on the “art and science” of spontaneous volunteer management.

Great things are happening on the national front:

• The National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) Volunteer Management Committee produced a resource called Managing Spontaneous Volunteers in Times of Disaster.
• The National Response Framework provides guidance on the Federal role in supporting State governments in the management of masses of unaffiliated volunteers… (http://www.fema.gov/pdf/emergency/nrf/nrf-support-vol.pdf)
• The DHS Target Capabilities List provides measurable objectives for disaster volunteer management planners at all levels. (DHS, September 2007)

Yes, we have a long way to go; but major strides are made as volunteer managers and emergency managers strengthen the ties that bind and experience first-hand the energy and skills that spontaneous, unaffiliated disaster volunteers bring to disaster response and recovery.

Posted on 3 December 2007 by Judy Chetwin, NPS, Regional Volunteer Manager, Denver Colorado
As a representative of one of the federal agencies involved (but not located in SF) I hope we will do better in the future and set up emergency planning options for the "next" incident.

For me as a volunteer manager, volunteer safety is absolutely the number one concern. My agency has not always done a good job with this and the result has been volunteer injuries. This is simply not acceptable. So when caustic chemicals were spilled in the Bay, I can understand the very real concern expressed for volunteer and visitor safety in regards to their generous offers to help. We were bound by EPA and other regulation in not allowing access to the beach areas to help with clean up and animal rescue without proper training and personal protective equipment for all involved. Should we have had an emergency plan? Sure. Should we have contacted the media and other support agencies to get the word out on what was needed and provide the options for that training?. Yes again. Many were trained and assisted in clean up and animal rescue.

I certainly agree that it should have been planned for and possibly been marketed better. But please do not get angry over our need and responsibility to protect the American public in this situation.

Posted on 3 December 2007 by Jackie Norris , Metro Volunteers, Denver, CO USA
As a former American Red Cross employee who now runs a volunteer center, I absolutely agree with everything in your hot topic this month.

However, you - and others - may want to know that Volunteer Centers and Hands On Affiliates have already made well-organized plans in many locations across the country to be prepared for an outpouring of spontaneous volunteers in the event of many different types of disasters.

Our challenge is often in getting public emergency management offices to acknowledge that we have this expertise and can be very useful to them in times of crisis. The Volunteer Centers of Florida have developed the Volunteer Reception Center model, which is the triage system you describe.

Here in Colorado we're fortunate to be part of our state office of Emergency Management's plan, in writing. Advocating for this official recognition is something every state should consider.

There is also a great new technology tool: www.HelpinDisaster.org, created as a part of the 1-800-volunteer.org system, which can pre-register volunteers and their skills before a disaster happens, and then be available as a registry of skills and availability in time of disaster.

There is a lot going on in this field - we just need to get the word out!

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