As our nation learned during Hurricane Katrina, a large-scale disaster can rapidly overwhelm the capacity of local response organizations. The silver lining is the volunteers, citizens—hundreds, possibly even thousands of them, depending on the scale of the disaster. These caring individuals can be deployed to help with disaster response and recovery and could have a major impact on how quickly and effectively the community recovers.

 

Many of these volunteers are not associated with any organized volunteer group. They just want to help. Many of them have needed skills, training or experience. So, where do they go? Who do they contact? How can they be dispatched to where they are needed?

 

An Emergency Volunteer Center (EVC) provides a place where volunteers—individuals and groups--can be effectively deployed and efficiently processed. The EVC registers the volunteers and takes requests for volunteers. Volunteers are matched to these requests and referred to where they are needed.

 

In the event of a local disaster many volunteers will be needed for tasks from directing traffic and filling sandbags to post-disaster clean-up and re-building. Spontaneous Volunteers are even utilized to help out at the Emergency Volunteer Center!

 

Another component of the Sacramento Region Emergency Volunteer Center is the Disaster Information and Referral component. Designated by the national Public Utilities Commission, InfoLine Sacramento (211) is a single telephone point of access to existing community health and social services and is traditionally involved in all phases of disaster response and recovery to provide up-to-date information to the public on disaster-related resources.  In the event of a disaster or emergency, InfoLine Sacramento will operate within the Emergency Volunteer Center and may serve as the county’s central point of contact for the general public for information regarding disaster resources as well as to process inquiries from spontaneous volunteers and disaster volunteer needs.