Disaster Volunteers

Volunteer work can make a difference to those harmed by natural, technological, and human-induced disasters if it is done well. Disaster Volunteers provides readers with information on why people volunteer, the benefits gained by volunteers and recipients, and how to leverage such good will. Learning from a variety of past disasters, readers will gain realistic insights into the challenges of disaster contexts. Equipped with evidence-based best practices, Dr. Phillips organizes and illustrates necessary steps to recruit, train, manage, reward, and retain volunteers throughout the life cycle of disasters. This important resource walks both organizations and individuals through the entire process of volunteer engagement from recruiting and training to managing as well as rewarding and retaining volunteers and provides an engaging and informative set of useful and evidence-based chapters. Disaster Volunteers fills an existing gap in books on volunteer disaster management by incorporating research, generating sound recommendations, grounding ideas in a disaster context, and offering an inviting set of examples from which readers can learn. Includes sample materials for use by emergency managers, emergency managers, civic and faith-based organizations Provides case studies offering first-hand experiences that help bring the content to life Includes stepwise advice to recruit, train, and retain a diverse set of disaster volunteers

While history has identified a need for improved coordination during emergencies, it has also demonstrated that community volunteers positively impact their neighborhoods during times of crisis. Laying out the rationale and process by which emergency managers, community leaders, and non-governmental aid organizations can effectively collaborate and integrate citizen response, Spontaneous Community Volunteers in Disasters explains how to engage, train, and utilize spontaneous unaffiliated community volunteers (SUCV). The book prepares leaders to integrate local volunteers into any scale emergency response. Protocols and flexible management solutions are outlined to ensure safe and effective planning and execution. Work templates provided can be modified to suit the needs of any community. This accessible manual provides the tools to: Assess your agency’s role, tasks, and challenges to meet community needs in a disaster Build a plan for managing SUCVs by developing internal and external protocols Develop effective spot screening and selection methods Engage community members in information-sharing and outreach campaigns Consider policies and procedures that create relevant roles for volunteers and community groups to build a resilient team for disaster recovery Provide National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliant answers to address common barriers to using SUCVs Combining field experience and psychosocial research, the book makes a strong case as to why community involvement in disaster response will have a positive impact on a community’s resilient recovery. Praise for Spontaneous Community Volunteers in Disasters: All emergency management coordinators can benefit from this book. —Howard Butt, New Jersey State Police, State CERT Coordinator Lisa Orloff has done an excellent job in both identifying a significant opportunity in emergency response and meticulously outlining how that opportunity can best be leveraged. —Dr. Michael Chumer, New Jersey Institute of Technology The Alliance for Nonprofit Management has nominated the book for the Terry McAdam Award. This award is bestowed upon the Committee's choice for the most inspirational and useful new book published for the nonprofit sector.

In response to the ever-present threats facing our school systems, Public School Emergency Preparedness helps schools and institutions develop a comprehensive emergency response plan. This book outlines programs and procedures that can be applied to any school system which addresses hazard mitigation and prevention, emergency preparedness and response, and recovery and restoration to an effective learning environment. It describes specific actions and assigns responsibilities and response roles to district and individual school staff emergency teams, cooperating agencies, and community response partners as described in this plan. In the event of an emergency involving response by fire and/or law enforcement, this book also outlines the district/school site personnel who should establish an Incident Command System-based response organization in accordance with procedures outlined in the National Incident Management System. In addition, the author predetermines, to the extent possible, operational procedures across any U.S. school system and cooperating governmental, private, and volunteer agencies for responding to and recovering from any and all types of natural, human, or technology-based emergencies that may occur within school system operations or outside the jurisdiction of the school system but nonetheless cause/could cause collateral impact to school system operations.

".a spiritual resource for Lutheran Disaster Response volunteers. it includes 24 devotions for you to use as you prepare to head out, as you work on site, and when you return home."--P. 7.

Emerging social media and so-called Web 2.0 technologies will continue to have a great impact on the practice and application of the emergency management function in every public safety sector. Disasters 2.0: The Application of Social Media Systems for Modern Emergency Management prepares emergency managers and first responders to successfully appl

"Human action is guided by social structure, but there are also many situations in which behavior is improvised, emergent, and outside conventional normative constraints. This book focuses on these types of occasions, which include panics, crowds, social movements, and organized behavior following disasters. Social scientists in the fields of collective behavior, social movements, and disaster research study these topics. E. L. Quarantelli, cofounder and longtime director of the Disaster Research Center (DRC), is one of those scholars; indeed, he has devoted his career to understanding them. Quarantelli's impact on the fields of disaster research and collective behavior is traced in the foreword to this volume."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan plunged the country into a state of crisis. As the nation struggled to recover from a record breaking magnitude 9 earthquake and a tsunami that was as high as thirty-eight meters in some places, news trickled out that Fukushima had experienced meltdowns in three reactors. These tragic catastrophes claimed some 20,000 lives, initially displacing some 500,000 people and overwhelming Japan's formidable disaster preparedness. This book brings together the analysis and insights of a group of distinguished experts on Japan to examine what happened, how various institutions and actors responded and what lessons can be drawn from Japan’s disaster. The contributors, many of whom experienced the disaster first hand, assess the wide-ranging repercussions of this catastrophe and how it is already reshaping Japanese culture, politics, energy policy, and urban planning.

Rev. ed. of: A legal guide to homeland security and emergency management for state and local governments. c2005.

This comprehensive resource prepares nurses, nursing students and administrators to provide care to victims of natural disasters, as well as disasters caused by biological, chemical or radiological agents. It offers vital information on disaster planning, response implementation and management of casualties, as well as post-disaster restoration, treatment of psychological effects of disasters and caring for children and vulnerable populations.

Why are women so hard hit by disasters? This international collection offers a range of answers, and moves readers beyond the stereotypes of women as hapless victims. Drawing together the voices of women survivors and responders, leading scholars in disaster studies and experienced practitioners in the field offer new directions for disaster theory and practice.

Are conflict situations such as the ethnic clashes in Yugoslavia or Rwanda, terrorist attacks and riots, the same kind of social crises as those generated by natural and technological happenings such as earthquakes and chemical explosions? In What is a Disaster?, social science disaster researchers from six different disciplines advance their views on what a disaster is. Clashes in conceptions are highlighted, through the book's unique juxtaposition of the authors separately advanced views. A reaction paper to each set of views is presented by an experienced disaster researcher; in turn, the original authors provide a response to what has been said about their views. What is a Disaster? sets out the huge conceptual differences that exist concerning what a disaster is, and presents important implications for both theory, study and practice.

This book focuses not on the usual goal of volunteer programmes - recruitment - but on an area of increasing concern to volunteer organisations: methods to retain volunteers once recruited. The book goes through all aspects of handling volunteers, from welcoming them to the team, to dealing with volunteer burnout. It analyses the reasons why volunteers choose to give up volunteering and sets out ways to prevent this happening. Relying on hundreds of programme experiences and studies from around the world, Keeping Volunteers is the first globally-based examination of effective techniques for ensuring that volunteers feel valued, recognised and connected with the organisation's mission.

Preparedness and rigorous planning on community, state, and regional levels are critical to containing the threat of pandemic illness. Steeped in research and recommendations from lessons learned, Pandemic Planning describes the processes necessary for the efficient and effective preparation, prevention, response, and recovery from a pandemic threa

Lists volunteer organizations dealing with animal rights, the arts, children, community service, disaster relief, education, the environment, health, human rights, and substance abuse