Following the 9/11 terrorism attacks in New York, approximately 60,000 people converged on Ground Zero hoping to help at the World Trade Center. Lessons learned from this event and other disasters have taught us that it is so much easier to prepare for what have come to be called “spontaneous unaffiliated volunteers”in advancethan to develop an ad hoc system to channel this wealth of human resources during a disaster.

As volunteer managers, our best strategy is to prepare a disaster volunteer management plan well before a disaster strikes.  Planning ahead not only makes it easier to respond at the time of a disaster (should you ever have to!), it is also an effective strategy for minimizing risks for both volunteers and your organization. 

Once you have developed a plan, it is important to train people in your organization on how to implement it and conduct exercises for practicing and testing it. This module will provide you with tips and tools to train your staff on effectively engaging volunteers during and after a major disaster.

Other e-Volunteerism Articles

This article was published in e-Volunteerism: The Electronic Journal of the Volunteer Community. Subscribe now to access all the articles.

Concerned about whether you can view an electronic book? Viewing the terms of agreement below is a good test to see if you can easily view electronic books. If you can successfully click on the link and open the table of contents, you should have no problem viewing the book. Terms If you have problems, you probably need to install or upgrade Acrobat Reader. Click on the graphic below to download the latest version from the Adobe website. It is an easy download. They also have a support area if you continue to have problems with viewing.