Through Disaster Preparation and Trauma Mitigation (DPTM), World Cares Center equips communities and emergency managers with the knowledge and resources needed for a safe, effective and integrated disaster response. When a disaster strikes, enormous resources freely offered from people, businesses and organizations descend on managers trying to coordinate official emergency response. Emergency managers find themselves dealing with these resources as the “disaster within the disaster” rather than the “force multipliers” they can be in relief efforts with proper training and coordination.
WCC’s DPTM Program works to bridge the service and training gap between Spontaneous Unaffiliated Community Volunteers (SUCVs) and official disaster managers. Opting not to affiliate with an official response agency, SUCVs lack access to information and services regarding emotional, social and physical preparedness and recovery. This directly contributes to their underutilization and mismanagement during an initial disaster response. In order to increase the efficiency of this vital community resource WCC created two unique training series for both SUCVs and the emergency managers who may lead them, Disaster Volunteering and Leading and Managing Disaster Volunteers.
The Disaster Volunteering training series empowers individuals to collaborate effectively with official emergency responders during times of disaster. This three-module curriculum teaches effective communication skills as well as resilience-building and self care techniques for first-time disaster volunteers. The series also introduces participants to such concepts as the life cycle of a disaster, the all-hazards approach to disaster management, and various organizational response systems, including Community Emergency Response Teams, the National Response Plan, the Incident Command System and the structure of federal, state and local emergency management agencies. Through this training, participants obtain the skills and knowledge needed to become “powerful volunteers” and to promote powerful volunteering within their communities.
The Leading and Managing Disaster Volunteers training series teaches emergency manager and leaders within relief agencies skills to effectively utilize community volunteers who spontaneously respond during a disaster. The three-module curriculum presents volunteer managers with three essential emergency preparedness models—spontaneous volunteer management, volunteer reception centers and organizational continuity planning—in order to enhance their current disaster response initiatives.
WCC provides training to governmental organizations, including several municipalities in Long Island, New York; U.S. Military officials; CERT and OEM; International Association of Emergency Managers and private nonprofits such as YMCA of Baton Rouge; American Red Cross; New York Salvation Army; Lions Club International; Points of Light Foundation; Boy Scouts of America and the Northeast Crisis Response Coalition. WCC also trains student volunteers from Columbia University, Fordham University, New York University and Metropolitan College.
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Leading and |
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Disaster Volunteering for Communities |
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Leading and Managing Disaster Volunteers I An exploratory workshop that allows Emergency, volunteer, and risk managers to gain an understanding of best practices and barriers in managing SUCVs. Through this session managers will assess their surge capacity need for SUCV’s and their ability to maximize the use of those volunteers in a disaster situation. |
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Disaster Volunteering I Enables emergency, volunteer, and risk managers to prepare and organize their pool of spontaneous volunteers. emergency, volunteer, and risk managers and SUCV’s will share a common understanding of the realities of disaster volunteering and the roles SUCV’s fill in relief efforts. |
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Leading and Managing Disaster Volunteers II Emergency, volunteer, and risk managers will be introduced to a variety of tools to utilize SUCV’s in their current disaster response plans, based on each agency’s specific needs revealed in LM I. These tools include Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) and Community Resiliency Center (CRC) models, SUCV management and operations continuity planning. |
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Disaster Volunteering II Builds on the knowledge presented in DV I and will introduce new concepts and information to help participants communicate to their volunteers the expectations placed on them in a variety of emergency and disaster situations. These concepts include the lifecycle of a disaster and the all-hazards approach to disaster management. Participants will learn how to disseminate information regarding Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), the National Response Plan, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and other disaster response agencies. |
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Leading and Managing Disaster Volunteers III Guides participants in creating a model to transform a VRC into a CRC as the community is moving from a state of disaster response to one of recovery. Participants will gain an understanding of the power of community partnerships in promoting prevention, protection, response and recovery. |
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Disaster Volunteering III (DV III) Trains Emergency, volunteer, and risk managers to communicate the lessons learned in DV I and II to their regions in order to enable their constituencies to develop and maintain Community Resource Inventories. Emergency, volunteer, and risk managers will also learn how to systematize the process of transferring Community Resource Inventories from community leaders to Emergency, volunteer, and risk managers in a disaster. |
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Disaster Volunteering Train the Trainer for emergency, volunteer and risk managers |
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