The Emergency Volunteer Center
The Volunteer Center manages an Emergency Volunteer Center (EVC) that is activated by Johnson County Emergency Management or a local government during times of disaster and recovery. The purpose of the EVC is to coordinate community needs with concerned people who come forward to help out after an emergency or disaster (i.e. to sand bag, muck out, clean up, etc).
How it Works
Community members, nonprofit agencies, governments, and businesses will contact the EVC to request volunteer help. The EVC will register, screen and match community volunteers with those volunteer needs and conduct safety briefings.
The EVC could be activated for disasters including floods, tornadoes, ice storms, or biohazards. Depending on the type of disaster, the Emergency Volunteer Center could open as a
** Call Center
** Mobilized Center, where community volunteers physically go to a designated EVC location to complete the registration process and receive a safety briefing before reporting to the location where they were matched to volunteer.
To effectively respond to a disaster, an organized system for coordinating community volunteers is crucial. The EVC gets volunteer resources to the right place at the right time. It also provides for improved safety and a better system for tracking volunteer hours, which may be useful to a city or county when applying for FEMA reimbursements for the work that was done by volunteers.
Get Involved!
Help us run the EVC
The EVC wants your help! We train volunteers to staff and run the EVC (registering and screening volunteers, matching volunteers with community needs, conducting safety briefings, etc). We ask for a commitment of one year after training, with the possibility of extending for an additional year. The training is 3 hours long and includes a simulation. Trained EVC volunteer staff would be notified when the EVC is activated and then sign up for times they can volunteer at the EVC. You can also register below as a disaster volunteer!
NEXT TRAINING: Friday, Oct. 8 or Saturday, Oct. 9 from 9am-noon. You only need to attend one session. Location will be shared upon registering. Contact us at vols@unitedwayjc.org or 319-337-VOLS (8657) to get signed up!
Register as a disaster volunteer
Complete a 5-10 minute registration process to let us know you are willing to help in the event of an emergency or disaster. When registering, in the Preferences section, please select YES for "would you consider volunteering in the event of an emergency or disaster?". Please also select YES to the second question ("want to receive...news by email?"). This will enable us to contact you about diaster-related volunteer opportunities in a prompt and efficient way. Register here!
History
The Emergency Volunteer Center first opened at the United Way of Johnson County during the devastating floods of 2008. The United Way set up a call center in their offices in Coralville and processed over 1,229 volunteers, completed 314 needs from residents, and helped 162 homes recover from the floods. The EVC also coordinated 117 groups of volunteers from outside of Iowa and 53 groups from Iowa to come and volunteer. The initial effort was very organic but succeeded in its purpose of coordinating spontaneous community volunteers.
With a grant from Emergency Management of Johnson County, there is now a prepared Emergency Volunteer Center ready to activate at any time. The United Way has support of Emergency Management and the Emergency Volunteer Center is written into the Multi-Hazard Disaster Plan in Johnson County.
Please contact the Volunteer Center of Johnson County at 319-337-8657 or e-mail us with any questions!
