The Navy Seals of Disaster Volunteers?
Two years ago, I wrote an essay in TIME about the radical genius of creating a cabinet-level position to manage volunteers in California, America’s Disaster Laboratory. Today, we have more big news coming out of the lab.
Secretary Karen Baker, the woman who got that job on Gov. Schwarzenegger’s cabinet, is introducing the nation’s first Disaster Corps—a squad of 1,000 elite, well-trained volunteers who can can be deployed to disaster sites as soon as they are needed (without waiting for the soul-killing bureaucratic sign-offs that so often delay volunteer efforts after big calamities.)
“We needed to develop the Navy Seals of volunteers,” Baker says. OK, first of all, it takes some chutzpah to put the words “Navy Seal” and “volunteer” in the same sentence. Baker can pull it off only because she has actual power—the kind almost none of her peers across the country can claim. When I greeted her as “Secretary Baker” on the phone the other day, she laughed and said, “Call me Karen, or I’ll kill you.” But she (and by association all volunteers in the state) have experienced a surge in credibility since she got the cabinet post. “All of a sudden all phone calls are returned,” she says. “Instantly.” (Seven months after Schwarzenegger created the cabinet post, Gov. David Paterson did the same thing in New York.)
For two years, Baker has worked on creating the Disaster Corps. “We needed to up the game,” she says. Why? Because California is crowded with volunteers (one quarter of the population volunteers in some way.) But too few of them have the training, the experience, or, crucially, the trust of the authorities. “Everyone will say, ‘Yeah, we love volunteers.’ But the truth is, they don’t often use them because they don’t know what they’re getting.”
The new Disaster Corps will be made up of citizens who have received Department of Justice/FBI background checks and First Aid/CPR training, at a minimum. Many will have special skills (like language fluency or law enforcement experience) that make them particularly valuable for certain kinds of crises. They will be drawn from existing volunteer outfits like Citizen Corps, which means they will have worker’s compensation coverage already—an important pre-requisite for higher-risk disaster sites. The Corps will be supported by five local coordinators, full-time staffers in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, and San Francisco counties.
The idea is to make it easier for the people in charge to find, trust and deploy volunteer assets when they need them. As part of the project, Baker’s office is also creating a large new database that everyone can access with critical information about which volunteers (from all organizations across the state, not just Disaster Corps) are available to do what. “Often in government, they know what the problems are but not what resources are available to them privately.” And Baker has set up mutual aid agreements so that volunteers can work across different counties. Not very sexy, but very important. All of this has been done with private and federal dollars, which is a good thing given that Baker’s state has no dollars.
So why did it take two years? “That was not what I’d expected,” she admits. “But we needed to get buy-in.” Baker held over 30 meetings throughout the state to convince people at the top (fire chiefs, police chiefs, emergency managers) and people at the bottom (volunteers who were used to the status quo) that Disaster Corps would be a good idea. The Corps should be fully stood up by this fall. It will be interesting to watch what happens when disaster strikes, as it always does in California.
Craig Williams said on June 27, 2010 at 6:05 pm
“soul-killing bureaucratic sign-offs” Yes they did. They killed the program. The “1000” are a farce. There should be 10’s of thousands but the bureaucrats and lawyers fought every part of the program every step of the way. My feeling is they do not want unpaid volunteers taking away overtime from the union government workers during disasters so now we have a “Disaster Corps” that’s all show and no go. If you had served during major disasters as I have you would know how needed this program was. The unpaid hours and dollars I spent as a “volunteer” during the formation of this Corps would have been better spent on a vacation to Arizona!
Amanda said on June 27, 2010 at 6:21 pm
Craig: Thank you for the dose of skepticism. I’d be grateful if you would keep in touch with me over the next few months and share your impressions of the Disaster Corps going forward. I agree there should be tens of thousands; it will be a real shame if this turns out to be bogus.
Pattama Ulrich said on June 29, 2010 at 12:56 am
Amanda: It’s a GREAT idea to have the Disaster Corps. I’m hopeful that it will be stood up this fall. I’m not worrying about having no volunteers. I’m worrying about not giving them the right tool, not keeping them engaged, and energized. The program needs to be sustainable. Thanks for working hard on this and let me know how to assist you.
Ilan Kelman said on June 30, 2010 at 4:00 am
What about “a squad of 1,000 elite, well-trained volunteers” to go around cities and towns training how to prevent disasters? Why is the focus so much on responding when people are already dead, rather than reducing vulnerability over the long-term in order to stop people dying?
That does not preclude response. Except that we know that the best response comes from locals in the community. It is not clear that the resources required to create more external, mobile responders is a better way of spending that money than to continue supporting and expanding the Citizen Corps programs.
As for “Many will have special skills (like language fluency or law enforcement experience)”, sure those are useful. What about different forms of water safety and water rescue, which is sometimes neglected even within Citizen Corps? How much psychological first aid is included along with “First Aid/CPR training”?
Lee Foster said on June 30, 2010 at 8:19 am
“They will be drawn from existing volunteer outfits like Citizen Corps, which means they will have worker’s compensation coverage already—an important pre-requisite for higher-risk disaster sites.”
We struggle with the Workers Compensation question here in Franklin County (Columbus, OH). I read this statement as Citizen Corps volunteers already have Workers Compensation, is this a California thing, or is there a National mandate for Citizen Corps volunteers?
mary schoenfeldt said on June 30, 2010 at 2:14 pm
What a great concept… I am very involved professionally and personally as a Volunteer and as a Volunteer Program Coordinator and see so many valuable resources being told to wait while we try to figure out what we need and how to get them. This will be model to watch and to learn from.
Jack Holmstedt said on July 08, 2010 at 11:24 pm
So, the federal government created citizen corps so every state can train and equip volunteers. We have CERT programs all over the country, we have over 800 MRC units all over the country. Why exactly do you need another disaster volunteer program? A well run CERT or MRC program has trained, background checked volunteers ready to go. You have a state coordinator for CERT and MRC and probably a DMAT team as well. Why not, in this era of no more money, use the programs you have to their full potential instead of making yet another special program.
Linda Botts said on July 09, 2010 at 1:32 pm
I would have to agree with Mr. Holmstedt. Instead of pulling the best volunteers out of other programs, like Citizen Corps, to serve in an “elite” unit, why not invest that money and time to better train and equip the existing units, who are already known and who already know the local needs and response systems? More programs isn’t the answer; sustainability through investment at the local level is.
Linda Ariail said on July 13, 2010 at 6:33 pm
I agree with Jack and Linda. I am in an MRC unit and have spent countless hours taking training courses and attending exercises.But MRC in my state is not recognized for it’s abilities and is struggling for money to keep it afloat. We don’t nee more teams; we need to utilize what is already in place.
Todd De Voe said on July 25, 2010 at 4:37 pm
This idea came from the Orange County CERT Mutual Aid Program (CMAP) that was activated during the Fire Storm of 07 and 08. The Governor sent out members of his team to interview the program managers. Brenda Emerick of Costa Mesa Fire, Mitchel Rivard of Anaheim Fire myself from Seal Beach PD. This program will work given time. It has been very successful in Orange County CA…
Jack Holmstedt said on August 07, 2010 at 5:27 pm
CERT, MRC, ARC, Salvation Army, COAD/VOAD/ DMAT, DMORT, NDMS. How many more disaster response teams do we need now that we all are trying to get grant money from the same shrinking pool? The systems are in place, we need to use the systems we have to their full capacity. Here in Wisconsin, thousands have been trained in CERT. There is not one organized team. Lets get serious about using the resources we have before we start thinking of funding something new.
Fisherman said on September 03, 2010 at 9:04 am
It’s a GREAT idea to have the Disaster Corps. I’m hopeful that it will be stood up
Ruby said on September 15, 2010 at 8:35 am
It’s great to have such team of volunteers but we should focus more on disaster prevention than on disaster recovery!
irenew said on October 18, 2011 at 10:19 am
However, a tension can arise between volunteering and the state-provided services, so most countries develop policies and enact legislation to clarify the roles and relationships among stakeholders and identify and allocate the necessary legal, social, administrative, and financial support. Thanks.
ZQuiet said on October 31, 2011 at 11:38 pm
The physical and mental demands placed on the candidate significantly increase as he is exposed to weeks of training in basic underwater demolition, physical conditioning, combat diving, parachute jump school and land warfare. Advanced training is also available and encouraged. Thanks a lot.
Regards,
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