County or Tribal Emergency Management Agency
Spontaneous Volunteer Management Annex
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RecordofChange
Date / Descriptionof Change / InitialsRecordofDistribution
Uponapprovalof thisplan, thePublicHealthEmergencyPreparedness Sectionwillmakeanelectroniccopy available.Toprovidecommentsandsuggestions forfuture revisions, email r call406-000-0000.
Date / ReceivingPartnerAgency/OrganizationTableof Contents
Record of Change 2
Record of Distribution 3
SectionI:Purpose,Scope,Situation, andAssumptions 5
SectionII: Conceptof Operations 7
SectionIII: Roles Responsibilities 8
SectionIV: Maintenance 8
TheCounty or Tribal Emergency Management schedules aregularreviewof allemergency operations plans, supportingannexes,standardoperatingprocedures, andother guidancedocuments used torespondtoemergencies.
Thefollowingindividualsassistedinthereviewofthisdocument:
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County Commissioner(s)
______
County or Tribal Sheriff
______
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County or Tribal Emergency Manager
______
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ContributiveReviewers
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Mass Care & Emergency Assistance
______, MassCare Coordinator
______, Public InformationOfficer
______, Volunteer Agency Liaison
______, Spontaneous Volunteer Coordinator
______, Donations Management
______, Bulk Distribution Coordinator
______, Feeding Operations Coordinator
______, Shelter Representative
______, First Aid Coordinator
______, Hospital Reunification
______, Family Reunification
______, Access & Functional Needs
______, Pet Services
______, Welfare Information Officer
______,
Voluntary Organizations ActiveinDisasters
______, VOAD Chairperson
______, United Way
______, RSVP
______, American Red Cross DAT Lead
______, Salvation Army Representative
______, Team Rubicon
______, Montana Food Bank
______,
______,
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SectionI: Purpose, Scope,Situation, andAssumptions
Purpose
Agencyis the primary coordinating organization for Spontaneous Volunteer Management in County/Tribe. This responsibility is assigned to AgencybytheCounty/Tribe Emergency Operations Plan (EOP), maintained byCounty/Tribe Emergency Management(DES).This annex supports theEmergency Assistance activities which are subordinate to Emergency Support Function (ESF) #6:Mass Care, Emergency Assistance, Housing, and Human Services under Volunteer and Donations Coordination.
Spontaneous volunteers often emerge early in a disaster event to provide immediate volunteer support to disaster response and recovery. These volunteers may come from within or outside the community. These volunteers come with a variety of skills and intentions. A majority of spontaneous volunteers are timely, flexible, and motivated; however, liability, training, background, and management are areas of concern. A well-trained volunteer management staff and pre-event planning is needed to ensure spontaneous volunteers are deployed and tracked effectively.
Scope
This annexprovidesguidancefor thecoordination ofsupportto thelocal response and recovery activities thatrequires volunteer supportservices. Agency’sspontaneous volunteer management coordination activity include receiving and disseminating volunteering information, (virtual) Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) operations, and provides support across, but not limited to, the scope of emergency assistance(see: Situation).This annex incorporates the all-hazards and whole community approaches to emergency response management.
Situation
Spontaneous volunteers have proven to be a cost-effective resource during response and short-term recovery operations. In recent disasters, documented hours served by spontaneous volunteers provided communities’ entire local share of disaster costs (local match). They offer a wide range of expertise and experience, as they come from different walks of life, different cultures, and different places. They provide resources that might otherwise be unavailable during a disasterincluding: foreign-language speakers, heavy equipment operators, radio operators, etc. Hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of volunteers may show up to help. Harvesting their passion and skills will build the community’s capacity to respond.
Along with the many benefits of involving spontaneous volunteers, there are also some challenges. Some kinds of volunteer work require training or special licenses or certification. Agencies receiving volunteers should identify appropriate roles for volunteers in advance and determine how they will be supervised. Volunteers referred to work with vulnerable populations (children, elderly, or people with disabilities) will need background checks. Agencies receiving spontaneous volunteers must be prepared to conduct the appropriate screening. Volunteer safety, transportation of volunteers into secured areas, and VRC logistics all require planning and coordination among governmental and non-governmental organizations. Uncoordinated volunteerscan hinder the relief work by entering the impacted area without the resources they need to sustain themselves. Relief supplies intended for survivors are then needed for volunteers, as well. Failure to use spontaneous volunteers could bring negative publicity to local government.
Successfully utilizing spontaneous volunteers requires planning by the agencies that will receive them and by the community as a whole.When volunteers are well managed, survivors benefit from their efforts, agencies get the help they need to provide services, and communities recover more quickly.Well-managed volunteer efforts also allow first responders to focus on tasks that need their attention. Communities and Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (VOADs) can also effectively engage citizens as volunteers in future efforts, or recruit them to join their VOAD member organizations.
While it is impossible to entirely prevent legal action against the jurisdiction or the agency operating the VRC, proper management practices will minimize legal problems related to safety, risk, and liability that might arise when dealing with spontaneous volunteers during a disaster. Therefore, it critical to take steps to promote volunteer safety and minimize risks:
- Education on State laws that affect utilization of spontaneous volunteers (e.g., Good Samaritan Laws provide limited immunity to spontaneous volunteers)
- Encourage agencies and organizations receiving spontaneous volunteers to clarify their liability insurance protection limits
- Identify procedures to screen and register all spontaneous volunteers
- Provide orientation/training to all volunteers. Ensure that volunteers acknowledge the safety training they received by signing an attendance record
- Follow legislation that mandates the training and certification that volunteers need to perform a certain task (like heavy equipment handling, CPR, etc.)
- Provide clearly defined job descriptions and standard operating procedures (SOPs). The job descriptions should clearly state the limits of their authority (i.e., what they can do and what they cannot do without specific authorization)
- Ensure that documentation of hours worked and of the specific types of work done by volunteers is maintained. These data can be used by county/State officials for their match to receive Federal funds from FEMA if properly documented and appropriate data are used.
Scope of Emergency Assistance: Emergency assistance consists of the operations needed to effectively and efficiently conduct these and other operations as needed. Volunteers may also assist in these and other operations:
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ESF #1: Transportation
•Evacuation
ESF #3: Public Works and Engineering
•Sandbagging
- Ditch line digging
•Debris removal
ESF #5: Emergency Management
•Volunteer Staffing
ESF #6a: Mass Care
•Disaster sheltering
•Feeding operations
•Reunification
•Bulk distribution of emergency relief items
- Daycare
- Pet sheltering
ESF #6b: Emergency Assistance
- Evacuation support
- Tracking of evacuees
- Family reunifications
- Support toaccess and functional needs populations
- Emergency services for pets and service animals
- Support to medical and nonconventional shelters
- In-kind and financial donations management
- Voluntary organizations coordination
- Spontaneous volunteer management
ESF #6c: Housing
- Repair
- Muck-out
ESF #9: Urban Search and Rescue
•Non-technical/surface searching
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Assumptions
- Spontaneous volunteers are needed for response and recovery operations in significant events
- Spontaneous volunteers will self-deploy
- Spontaneous volunteers will come predominantly from outside the affected community
- Spontaneous volunteers will have a broad range of skills and knowledge not available to emergency response personnel
- Spontaneous volunteers will not understand the incident command system
- Spontaneous volunteers will act independently of operations unless effectively received and managed
- Spontaneous volunteers will expect sheltering / housing and basic living supplies to be provided by emergency management
- Many spontaneous volunteers will be uninsured
- Some spontaneous volunteers will lend personal (heavy) equipment and expect emergency management to compensate or reimburse for damages, even when lending to other spontaneous volunteers, neighbors, family, or friends without emergency management involvement
SectionII:Conceptof Operations
County/Tribe authoritiesretain responsibilityfor all responseandrecoveryoperations, including spontaneous volunteer management activities.
Implementation
Theimplementationof this annexand its components isconditional on a request from the County/Tribe emergency managementto conduct spontaneous volunteer management activities. Spontaneous volunteers may self-deploy and begin arriving within hours after an event, which can be mitigated with effective messaging. Emergency management will identify the need to manage spontaneous volunteers. Then emergency management will request the Spontaneous Volunteer Coordinator (SVC)/agency implementation of spontaneous volunteer management preemptively. Thefollowingcircumstances couldresult in activationof spontaneous volunteer management:
- Pre-impact flood mitigation
- Post-Impact disaster which affects the general population, significant residential and commercial infrastructure, or public infrastructure
- Crisis event which draws in spontaneous volunteers
Operational Functions
Pre-Event Messaging and Education
Emergency management, the Public Information Officer(PIO), and SVC/Agency will work together to develop standard messages to use before, during, and after a disaster: pre-scripted press releases or templates; talking points for government officials to use with the media; and a social media strategy. They will develop media outreach strategy to reach a diverse population for whom culture, language, and/or disability may be a barrier to getting the information. Message templates will be stored in the County/Tribe volunteer manual.
Event Messaging
TheCounty/Tribe volunteer manual will provide the template messages developed by Emergency management, the Public Information Officer(PIO), and SVC/Agencytobe use in a disaster. These messages can be used by emergency management in low impact events, or may be tasked to the SVC/agency in high impact events.
Virtual Volunteer Reception Center
In low impact events where identification, screening, training, tracking and managing of volunteers is a low priority, a virtual VRC will be established.
Virtual VRC website:
Virtual VRC hotline: 406-765-4321
Volunteer Reception Center
In high impact events where identification, screening, training, tracking and managing of volunteers becomes a high priority, a physical VRC will be established.The VRC will operate under the SOPs outlined in the volunteer manual.
Potential locations for the VRC include:
Primary:County/Tribe Library
Alternate:High School Library
Situational Awareness / Common Operating Picture
For each operational period the SVC/Agency will provide a situational report (SITREP) to emergency management which will be incorporated into the Commanders Update Brief (CUB). The SVC/Agency may need to be present at the CUB the presentation. If not, the emergency manager will brief for the SVC/Agency.
At the end of each CUB, the incident commander will issue guidance and provide the common operating picture. If the SVC/Agencyis not present, the emergency manager will inform the SVC/Agency. The SVC/Agencywill ensure that the volunteer management staff is briefed on the common operating picture.
SectionIII:RolesResponsibilities
Each agencyisresponsiblefordevelopingtheir ownoperating proceduresandwill not bedirectedby DPHHS.Agencycapabilitiesareaffectedbyavailable resourcesandsize andscopeoftheincident.
Organization / Roles & ResponsibilitiesEmergency Management /
- Pre-disaster volunteering activities messaging and education
- Ensure Spontaneous Volunteer Coordinator and/or VRC staff is trained and equipped
- Ensures management of spontaneous volunteers is implemented when needed
- Receiving requests for volunteers from local and tribal government, and voluntary organizations, other response partners
- Forwarding volunteer requests to spontaneous volunteer manager or VRC
Spontaneous Volunteer Coordinator
/ Agency /
- Pre-disaster volunteering activities messaging and education
- Provides spontaneous volunteer messaging in an event
- Operationalizes volunteer reception activities as needed in an event
- Match resource requests to volunteers (via the VRC)
- Documents volunteer actives (via the VRC)
- Volunteer referrals
- Type of work
- Number of hours
- Gives orientation and safety brief to each volunteer, (via the VRC)
- Provides general just-in-time-training (via the VRC)
- Conducts identification of volunteer, background checks as needed, verifies volunteer’s credential, and issues badging (via the VRC)
Public Information Officer /
- Advises in developing a messaging strategy
- Develops and edits drafts
- Ensure all messages are consistent and accurate
- Publish messages
Partner Agency /
- Tasks as agreed to
Partner Agency /
- Tasks as agreed to
Partner Agency /
- Tasks as agreed to
SectionIV:Maintenance
This annexmustbereviewed annuallytoremainaccurateandcurrent. TheSVC/agency willperform thisreviewtodeterminewhethertheresponsecapabilitiesare sufficientandif itmeets all essential factors identifiedin applicable County/Tribe, StateandFederal guidelines.A preparednessplanningreviewgroupcouldbeconvened byemergency managementtoconductthisreview. Areviewcycleis establishedtoupdateandreviewinternal directives andexternalrulesandregulations for informationthat mayimpactthisannexandthe County/Tribe EOP.
Thereviewwill:
Evaluaterelevantprocedures,equipment,systems, andtraining
Verifyorvalidaterolesandresponsibilities
Ensurecompatibilityandcoordinationwith relatedemergencypreparednessdocuments
Minorcorrections,edits,updates,or adjustmentsinthis document donotneedvettingbyareviewgroup. Changesaretracked inaversioning methodorin the RecordofChangelog.
Exercises
This annexor anyof itscomponentscouldbeexercised separatelyor inconjunctionwithotherexercises. Exerciseswillbeused undersimulated, butrealistic, conditionstovalidatepoliciesandproceduresfor respondingtospecificemergencysituationsandtoidentifydeficiencies thatneedtobecorrected.Personnel participatingin theseexercisesshouldbethosewhowill makepolicydecisionsorperform the operational proceduresduringan actual event (i.e.criticalpersonnel).
Appendix 1: Task Structure
Appendix 2: Example Operational Structure
Appendix 1: Task Structure
Appendix 2: Example Operational Structure
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