Sunday, July 7, 2013

A New Better Volunteer Model

 In time of disaster the volunteers will come, but as we move forward in planning it seems to me that we need to engage the none profit community. And then I saw this - SRC United Way Has New Role in Emergency Response. 
And I thought yes that is the plan.  So what are the benefits?  
  • In a disaster the government will be busy and with falling budgets may have to divert human capital to run volunteer centers
  • As a non profit, they could do volunteer management for many organizations
  • As a central point for the community move volunteer to where they are most needed
  • A central point to collect ALL volunteer hours helps the municipality meet its share of the Disaster recovery cost
  • Other non profits may be more comfortable working with other non profits
  • And finally As the United Way is community focused they make a great partner for preparedness before the disaster 
 Negatives?  I don't really see any, anytime we can involve a non governmental partner in the planning before a disaster is a plus.
 
So who is running volunteer management in your community?

Disaster Dave

2 comments:

Miss Midwesterly said...

And there's one other benefit: community members ache to provide some kind of service in the face of any disaster. Allowing them to participate via an org like United Way will provide a much-needed outlet for their energies,

@disaster_dave said...

Sorry I didn't see this sooner. Miss Midwesterly, you are so right. Not only do they want to help they NEED to help, and if we don't have a way for them to help they will find their own way- which could become a problem.
So lets plan for it