Emergency Preparedness
Citizen Volunteer Projects
Franklin County CERT at March 2005 functional exercise.
Project Overview
Franklin County Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) are volunteer programs of the federal initiative Citizen Corps. Both CERT and MRC aim to provide support for public health and safety system needs during critical incidents and to assist with non-emergency projects that help improve the health and safety of the community. Franklin County has both an active CERT and MRC. Community volunteers with a varied menu of general and specialized skills make up the Franklin County CERT. Franklin County residents with experience and expertise in health care and related professions with specialized clinical skills make up the Franklin County MRC.
Current Activities
In 2008 Citizens Emergency Response Team (CERT) and Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) volunteers provided over 1,000 volunteer hours for public health events and emergencies, including:
- Drills for Vermont Yankee (MEMA) and Franklin Medical Center.
- Franklin County Fair information booth and parade
- Greenfield Triathlon, Deerfield CROP Walk and the Franklin County Jailbird race.
- Emergency Dispensing Site planning meeting and drills in the towns of Deerfield, Conway, Sunderland and Montague
- The ice storm of December 2008: MRC and CERT provided more than 250 volunteer hours of shelter operations and emergency communications in the towns of Heath, Warwick, Shelburne, Conway and Gardner.
Future Plans
The volunteers who are a part of the Franklin County CERT and MRC offer a tremendous asset to the communities in our region. The groups are organized in a team structure to work within the Incident Command System (ICS), and single or multiple volunteers can be called up for service for large and small community health initiatives, community events and preparedness exercises organized and led by local officials. A new focus of the CERT and MRC is the provision of trainings on “Flu Care at Home” in anticipation of a future pandemic. Integration of CERT and MRC teams’ volunteers into local response exercises and non-emergency activities will continue in the coming year.
For the past two years, the FRCOG has served as fiduciary for state funds to support all of the Western Mass MRC Units. These funds pay for a county coordinator, regional coordination and purchases, and the maintenance of the www.wmmrc.org website.
Links
Learn more at the MRC website.
This page was last updated on 03/11/2009 .