The Arkansas Department of Emergency Management (ADEM) celebrates National Volunteer Week by honoring the hundreds of Citizen Corps volunteers around the state of Arkansas. ADEM thanks all volunteers for their dedication, hard work and sacrifice as they help communities around the state in times of need.
The Citizen Corps Program (CCP) has trained and equipped over a thousand volunteers to respond to a variety of incidents through its five programs: Community Emergency Response Teams (CERT), Medical Reserve Corps, Neighborhood Watch, Volunteers in Police Service and Fire Corps.
“The mission of Citizen Corps is to harness the power of every individual through education, training and volunteer service to make communities safer, stronger and better prepared to respond to the threats of terrorism, crime, public health issues and disasters of all kinds,” said Chad Stover, Chair of the Arkansas Citizen Corps Council.
Through CERT, one of the CCP’s primary programs, volunteers are trained to respond to natural disasters in their community. Arkansas currently has 11 registered CERT teams throughout the state, and ADEM coordinates the activities of the 20 registered Citizen Corps Councils.
In additional to registered teams, many local community groups participate in CERT training in order to be better prepared to volunteer in disasters. Local volunteer involvement helps communities respond to events in those first critical hours. Volunteers are trained to respond to natural disasters and basic first aid. They also assist law enforcement and fire departments with critical support.
“The volunteers we have in Arkansas are among the best in the nation. In 2010, we were a national finalist in the Department of Homeland Security’s CCP awards for outstanding state program. We simply couldn’t do it without our local councils, teams and volunteers doing an incredible job,” said David Maxwell, ADEM Director.
For more information about CCP and volunteer registration, visit the Citizen Corps Program section of the ADEM website (www.adem.arkansas.gov). Additional information can be found on Facebook: www.facebook.com/ArkansasCCP and Twitter: www.twitter.com/ArkansasCCP.
