Disaster Volunteers


Book Description

Volunteer work can make a difference to those harmed by natural, technological, and human-induced disasters if it is done well. Disaster Volunteers provides readers with information on why people volunteer, the benefits gained by volunteers and recipients, and how to leverage such good will. Learning from a variety of past disasters, readers will gain realistic insights into the challenges of disaster contexts. Equipped with evidence-based best practices, Dr. Phillips organizes and illustrates necessary steps to recruit, train, manage, reward, and retain volunteers throughout the life cycle of disasters. This important resource walks both organizations and individuals through the entire process of volunteer engagement from recruiting and training to managing as well as rewarding and retaining volunteers and provides an engaging and informative set of useful and evidence-based chapters. Disaster Volunteers fills an existing gap in books on volunteer disaster management by incorporating research, generating sound recommendations, grounding ideas in a disaster context, and offering an inviting set of examples from which readers can learn.




Managing Spontaneous Community Volunteers in Disasters


Book Description

While history has identified a need for improved coordination during emergencies, it has also demonstrated that community volunteers positively impact their neighborhoods during times of crisis. Laying out the rationale and process by which emergency managers, community leaders, and non-governmental aid organizations can effectively collaborate and integrate citizen response, Spontaneous Community Volunteers in Disasters explains how to engage, train, and utilize spontaneous unaffiliated community volunteers (SUCV). The book prepares leaders to integrate local volunteers into any scale emergency response. Protocols and flexible management solutions are outlined to ensure safe and effective planning and execution. Work templates provided can be modified to suit the needs of any community. This accessible manual provides the tools to: Assess your agency’s role, tasks, and challenges to meet community needs in a disaster Build a plan for managing SUCVs by developing internal and external protocols Develop effective spot screening and selection methods Engage community members in information-sharing and outreach campaigns Consider policies and procedures that create relevant roles for volunteers and community groups to build a resilient team for disaster recovery Provide National Incident Management System (NIMS) compliant answers to address common barriers to using SUCVs Combining field experience and psychosocial research, the book makes a strong case as to why community involvement in disaster response will have a positive impact on a community’s resilient recovery. Praise for Spontaneous Community Volunteers in Disasters: All emergency management coordinators can benefit from this book. —Howard Butt, New Jersey State Police, State CERT Coordinator Lisa Orloff has done an excellent job in both identifying a significant opportunity in emergency response and meticulously outlining how that opportunity can best be leveraged. —Dr. Michael Chumer, New Jersey Institute of Technology The Alliance for Nonprofit Management has nominated the book for the Terry McAdam Award. This award is bestowed upon the Committee's choice for the most inspirational and useful new book published for the nonprofit sector.




The Fukushima and Tohoku Disaster


Book Description

The Fukushima and Tohoku Disaster: A Review of the Five-Year Reconstruction Efforts covers the outcome of the response, five years later, to the disasters associated with the Great East Japan earthquake on March 11, 2011. The 3.11 disaster, as it is referred to in Japan, was a complex accident, the likes of which humans had never faced before. This book evaluates the actions taken during and after the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident, for which the Japanese government and people were not prepared. The book also provides recommendations for preparing and responding to disasters for those working and living in disaster-prone areas, making it a vital resource for disaster managers and government agencies. - Includes guidelines for governments, communities and businesses in areas where similar complex disasters are likely to occur - Provides information, propositions, suggestions and advice from the people that were involved in making suggestions to the Japanese government - Features case studies (both pre- and post-disaster) of three simultaneous disasters: the Great East Japan earthquake, the resulting tsunami, and the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant disaster




Emergency Incident Management Systems


Book Description

The second edition was to be written in order to keep both reader and student current in incident management. This was grounded in the fact that incident management systems are continually developing. These updates are needed to ensure the most recent and relevant information is provided to the reader. While the overall theme of the book will remain the same of the first edition, research and research-based case studies will be used to support the need for utilizing emergency incident management systems. Contemporary research in the use (and non-use) of an incident management system provides clear and convincing evidence of successes and failures in managing emergencies. This research provides areas where first responders have misunderstood the scope and use of an emergency incident management system and what the outcomes were. Contemporary and historical (research-based) case studies in the United States and around the globe have shown the consequences of not using emergency incident management systems, including some that led to increased suffering and death rates. Research-based case studies from major incidents will be used to show the detrimental effects of not using or misunderstanding these principles. One of the more interesting chapters in the new edition is what incident management is used around the world.




Help and Hope


Book Description

Are you and your congregation ready to serve your neighbors when disaster strikes? Storms, earthquakes, violence—it seems each week brings catastrophe to a different community. When that catastrophe arrives, people of faith can make a big difference, just as they did in Joplin, Newtown, Haiti, and countless other scenes of suffering. Help and Hope shares their stories to show why disaster preparedness is a sacred calling and gives you the tools to be healers, places of refuge, enablers of communication—whatever is needed after disaster hits your town.




The New Internationalists


Book Description

An account of the mobilization of thousands of volunteers who rescued, supported, and welcomed refugees during the recent European refugee crisis. In The New Internationalists, Sue Clayton tells the story of the largest civic mobilization since the Second World War, when volunteers—many young and untrained—took on unimaginable responsibilities and saved thousands of lives. During the European refugee crisis of 2015–2020, they witnessed first hand the catastrophic failure of established NGOs, and the indifference—and frequently, the open hostility—of the EU and national governments. Many faced state hostility themselves. Their accounts show how activist volunteers have shaped today's European humanitarian agenda, and provide a powerful critique of failures of current policy. With The New Internationalists, Clayton offers a contemporary history and critical contextualization of this powerful new force. Mapping key flashpoint locations and curating unique first hand testimonies, she explores how during the crisis, when almost two million people reached Europe by deadly sea-crossings, more than 100,000 citizens came together in new grassroots social formations to rescue, support, and welcome them. She provides a unique and multifaceted account, based on evidence and testimonies, and situates it within current debates on humanitarianism and contemporary social and solidarity movements.




Disaster Medicine


Book Description

"This new volume includes Individual Concepts and Events sections that provide information on the general approach to disaster medicine and practical information on specific disasters. You'll also find an exhaustive list of chapters on the conceivable chemical and biologic weapons known today, as well as strategies for the management of future events, or possible scenarios, for which there is no precedent."--BOOK JACKET.




Blood, Sweat and Tears


Book Description

"Blood, Sweat and Tears: An Oral History of the American Red Cross, is the story of the modern-day Red Cross told through the voices of twenty-nine current and former Red Cross paid and volunteer staff from all parts of the country. The stories range from that of a World War II veteran who credits the Red Cross packages with keeping him alive when he was a POW in Germany to Americans who became heroes simply because they signed up for a Red Cross course and were later able to save a life, to volunteers who spent an intense year in Vietnam cheering up soldiers. We hear from the staffer who pulled people from an automobile before the medics arrive; the mom who saved a neighbor's child when he was drowning; the nurse who took off from her job to go half-way around the world to distribute food and supplies to victims of the tsunami that struck the day after Christmas 2004."--BOOK JACKET.




Community-Based Psychological First Aid


Book Description

Community-Based Psychological First Aid: A Practical Guide to Helping Individuals and Communities during Difficult Times presents a practical method for helping those in need in difficult times. No advanced training in psychology is needed to use it. Injuries from disasters, terrorist events, and civil unrest are not just physical. These events also cause psychological trauma that can do lasting damage. Psychological First Aid (PFA) draws on human resilience and aims to reduce stress systems and help those affected recover. It is not professional psychotherapy, and those providing this kind of aid do not need a degree to help. Gerard Jacobs has developed this community-based method of delivering PFA over 20 years and has taught it in over 30 countries. Along with the easy-to-follow method, Jacobs includes examples of how this works in action in different situations, and presents scenarios to practice. Unique in its approach of community engagement to train community members to help each other, this guide is an excellent resource for local emergency managers to engage in whole community emergency management. - Presents a proven method for helping to alleviate the mental health effects of disasters, terrorist attacks, civil unrest, and other community stressors - Offers a community-based model developed and taught by an international expert for over 20 years, requiring no advanced training or education in psychology to use - Provides techniques that are adaptable to individual communities or cultures - Outlines practices for self-care while helping others to prevent burnout - Includes case studies, scenarios, and key terms to help facilitate community training