Programs
Community Emergency Response Team (CERT)
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Program educates people about disaster preparedness for hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. Using the training learned in the classroom and during exercises, CERT members can assist others in their neighborhood or workplace following an event when professional responders are not immediately available to help. CERTT members also are encouraged to support emergency response agencies by taking a more active role in emergency preparedness projects in their community.
The Fire Corps
Fire Corps, a partnership between The National Volunteer Fire Council (NVFC), the International Association of Fire Chiefs’ Volunteer Combination Officers Section (VCOS), the International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF), and US Freedom Corps, is a locally-driven program that allows community members to offer their time and talents to their local fire departments.
The ultimate goal of Fire Corps is to support and supplement resource-constrained fire departments at all levels – volunteer, combination and career. This is accomplished through the use of civilian advocates for non-operational related activities. The program educates fire departments on how to implement a non-operational citizen advocates program, or improving programs already in existence. Fire Corps serves as a gateway to information for and about fire department programs and meets a citizen’s desire to serve, as well as a department’s need for support.
Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Program
The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is the component of the Citizen Corps that is organizing local volunteers to assist regular medical response professionals and facilities during a large-scale local emergency (e.g. influenza epidemic or hazardous materials spill). Health professionals (current, retired or otherwise-employed) and others with relevant skills are being offered the opportunity to volunteer their time and skills within a planned, organized and coordinated local MRC unit during times of emergency. MRC volunteers can also serve a vital role by assisting their communities with ongoing public health needs (e.g., immunizations, health and nutrition education, and volunteering in community health centers and local hospitals).
By design, all Medical Reserve Corps units are local. The MRC initiative is built on the concept that communities can help themselves by organizing volunteer resources from within.
Neighborhood Watch Program (NWP)
The National Sheriffs’ Association created the National Neighborhood Watch Program in 1972, with financial assistance from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, to unite law enforcement agencies, private organizations, and individual citizens in a massive effort to reduce residential crime. Since its establishment, Neighborhood Watch has developed thousands of such local residential crime prevention programs in which individual citizens work to 1) make their own homes and families less inviting targets for crime, and 2) cooperative with law enforcement through block and neighborhood groups to control crime through-out the community.
Throughout the United States, dramatic decreases in burglary and related offenses are reported by law enforcement professionals in communities with active Neighborhood Watch programs. Neighborhood Watch is now the most successful anticrime initiative in the country and the most effective and least expensive tool for restoring the safe, pleasant environment we all want for our families.
Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS)
The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) is managing and implementing the VIPS Program in partnership with and on behalf of the White House Office of the USA Freedom Corps and the U.S. Department of Justice. The program's ultimate goal is to enhance the capacity of state and local law enforcement to utilize volunteers.
Volunteer programs allow agencies and officers to focus on policing and enforcement functions by providing supplemental and/or support services. At the same time, such programs create valuable ties between law enforcement and members of the community.
