When a disaster occurs in a community volunteers come running to help. Sometimes hundreds or even thousands of them will arrive with the best intentions and with skills that are urgently needed but all too often these volunteers aren't associated with any recognized disaster response agency. Even volunteers that are linked to disaster response agency need to have a place to report in order to be assigned to an area that can use their particular skills. What volunteers do and how they are utilized has tremendous impact on how quickly and effectively a community recovers so efficient and organized deployment of all responding volunteers is crucial

Read aticle by: Kathy Lehr

Originally designed to incorporate spontaneous volunteers into the response for a natural or manmade disaster, we also process pre-registered, task-identified Ohio Citizen Corps volunteers, pre-registered professional medical volunteers who are members of the Ohio Medical Reserve Corps, and, where possible, through rigid documentation, medical professionals who are not pre-certified, residents or fellows, medical and nursing students, aids, medical or nursing assistants, respiratory, physical, and occupational therapist.

A successful response to a natural or man-made disaster requires the effort and resources from a wide variety of agencies and organizations.  A Volunteer Reception Center is one link in the chain of responses necessary for an organized disaster response. 

Volunteer Reception Centers are typically established and managed by local Clermont County organizations. You might considered volunteering the resources in your organization, business or church to create a Volunteer Reception Center?  You will not be alone in this effort. The Clermont County Citizen Corps Council along with the professional training resources from First Link and the Ohio Citizen Corps will be available to train and assist with the planning and implementation.

We need to plan ahead and establish functional VRC's in preparation for next natural disaster or man-made disaster in Clermont County.

If you're curious about the possibility of getting your organization involved, drop us a note and we can explain and discuss the possibility.  We need your help.