Volunteering

Emergency Response Team Member

Use your professional and leadership skills to help bring care and comfort to those affected by disaster.

Do you enjoy:

Working in a fast-paced, ever-changing and challenging environment?
Being part of an energetic and diverse team of highly-skilled individuals?
Using your professional skills to assist vulnerable members of our community?

BECOME AN EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM MEMBER



	Providing care & comfort to those affected by disaster..

Being an Emergency Response volunteer makes you a member of an exceptional Disaster Management team that helps families reunite and recover from disaster. Our volunteers are ready when the time comes. They are highly skilled and well trained. Many come to us with specific skills in leadership, human resources, social work and logistics. Others bring a variety of experience from their professional lives. All offer their compassion and a sincere commitment to help.

Duties:

Employ your critical thinking and leadership skills to manage an effective disaster response
Provide comfort and services to individuals and families affected by disaster
Strategize and create disaster preparedness plans and activities at the regional level
Commit to being an on-call (pager) disaster response volunteer periodically and consistently throughout the year
Work in collaboration with partner agencies and other community based groups
Participate in the evaluation and improvement of service delivery

Qualifications:

at least 18 years old
proven leadership and professional skills
able keep your cool in high-pressure situations
creative and innovative problem solving skills
long-term vision and ability to strategize
excellent communicationskills
able and willing to think outside the box
you thrive in a challenging team environment
flexible and adaptable in evolving response environments
ability to empathise with people affected by disaster
successful completion of volunteer career path training specifically designed for individual volunteers
you do not discriminate as to nationality, race, religious beliefs, class or political opinions
criminal record check

Required commitment:



	Responding to disasters or emergencies in your community.

Volunteers are requested to complete all training modulesindividually designed for their volunteer career path training needs. They must have the ability t respond within a 12 hour delay following the impact of a disaster; respond for a period of up to 2 weeks; have flexibility to travel to a disaster site (generally within the region/province but with the possibility ofCanada andUS wide) and; be on-call from time to time.

Training:

We expect that volunteers will bring with them prior expertise and knowledge. As such, each individual’s training needs will be assessed and, based on the national training program, an individually designed volunteer career training path will be developed with each volunteer. Training will includea basic online training module and options to select further courses from more advanced modules.

Benefits:

Disaster Management volunteers will gain experience in high-pressure situations and will have the opportunity to gain skills and knowledge in a very specialized field. The crisis management skills and networking contacts you make while volunteering will provide you with a creative and professional edge in your regular working life. You will have an opportunity to flex your management, organizational planning and visioning skills while making a tangible difference in the lives of others.

TO VOLUNTEER: Contact the Canadian Red Cross, BC/Yukon Disaster Management program by e-mail at bcyukon.dmvolunteer@redcross.ca.