Disaster Volunteering

Our Disaster Volunteering programs build the infrastructure to efficiently place volunteers in the right place at the right time. Whether in hospitals, nonprofits or government agencies, volunteers are a solution in times of disaster.

Disaster Cadre

As part of our preparedness efforts, we are constantly recruiting members for our Disaster Cadre. Disaster Cadre members are trained to activate an Emergency Volunteer Center, manage and place spontaneous volunteers, and support Volunteer Los Angeles in providing mutual aid to other communities when necessary.

If you are interested in learning more, please contact Gilbert Gonzales at ggonzales@volunteerlosangeles.org or 323-450-5086.

When Disaster Strikes, We Look to Government, Nonprofits and Each Other For Help

The devastating nature of disasters finds us at our most compassionate and spontaneous as we look for ways to be involved in disaster response and recovery. Whether or not people have ever volunteered before, and regardless of any prior experience in emergency response and recovery, disasters bring out our shared sense of community.

Through two key programs, we partner closely with local government and nonprofits to support both health care workers as well as spontaneous, unaffiliated volunteers who want to serve in times of disaster.

Disaster Healthcare Volunteers

Through the LA County Disaster Healthcare Volunteers–LA County Surge Unit (formerly known as ESAR-VHP) Volunteer Los Angeles recruits, registers and verifies credentials of medical, health, mental health and other volunteers in advance of a large scale disaster or public health emergency.

For more information about the LA County Disaster Healthcare Volunteers program, click here.
To register as an LA County Disaster Healthcare Volunteer, click here.

Disaster Response Volunteers

In disasters, sometimes the very best of intentions can result in challenging situations. Volunteers, moved to action to support their communities, may show up on the front lines or in places where victims are being treated. When no one is expecting them, these volunteers may unwittingly be placing themselves in harm’s way or create extra work for responders focused on meeting immediate needs.

Our Emergency Volunteer Center program seeks to address this issue by managing spontaneous volunteers in LA County in a disaster. In the past few years Volunteer Los Angeles has been developing it’s capacity to register the hundreds or thousands of spontaneous volunteers who may come out in an emergency, and in some cases direct those volunteers to pressing post-disaster needs in the community.

We are partnering closely with the County of Los Angeles, the City of Los Angeles, and other local jurisdictions in this effort. We serve on the Board of the local VOAD (Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster) – the Emergency Network of Los Angeles, and work with many nonprofits that play an important role in disaster response such as American Red Cross, 211 and the LA County Food Bank.

Regional Lead Disaster Volunteer Center

Recently, Volunteer Los Angeles was chosen by CaliforniaVolunteers (the state’s office on service and volunteering) to serve as a Regional Lead Disaster Volunteer Center. Based on our demonstrated progress and experienced team, we have been tasked with providing training, technical support and mutual aid to volunteer centers in a region encompassing 11 California counties.

Our goal will be to ensure that each county and their emergency management professionals have an able partner that can take the lead in coordinating spontaneous volunteers following a disaster. We will also focus on developing a set of mutual aid agreements so that when a volunteer center in one county needs support, volunteer centers in neighboring counties will more readily be able to provide assistance.

This initiative will be ongoing through Summer, 2013.