Operating a Volunteer Reception Center

A major disaster can quickly overwhelm the capacity of local response organizations. Thankfully, volunteers do come running to help – hundreds or even thousands of them. What they do and how they are utilized has tremendous impact on how quickly and effectively the community recovers.

Often these volunteers aren't associated with any recognized disaster response agency. They just want to help. Many of them have urgently needed skills, training, or experience. So, where do they go? Who do they contact? How can they be dispatched to where the need is greatest?

A Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) provides a place where large numbers of volunteers can be efficiently processed and referred to the agencies that need their services. The VRC registers the volunteers, takes requests for volunteers, tracks the staff hours worked and expenses incurred. Additionally, the VRC provides a system of identification for volunteers and helps arrange transportation to impacted areas.

Step Up! will be the Grand Strand's Volunteer Reception Center.
If you would like to pre-register START HERE: Help In Disaster.

In Lake Charles, Louisiana, 750 people with cars helped evacuate survivors of Hurricane Katrina whose homes had been condemned. In Marks, Mississippi, volunteers staffed food and clothing banks for evacuees, distributed gift cards to local retail chains for the purchase of essentials, and raised $6,000 from local donations. In Mobile, Alabama, people from within the state as well as Missouri, Oregon, Illinois, California, South Carolina, Virginia, New Jersey, Mississippi, and Georgia worked in teams to remove debris, muck out flooded homes, tarp roofs, and distribute food, water, ice and other necessities.

All of this recovery effort would not be possible without Volunteer Centers like STEP UP! connecting volunteers who, like you, weren't satisfied with just writing a check in the aftermath of last year's devastating hurricane season. And now it's easier than ever to become one of them many volunteers to assist in disaster recovery by working through Volunteer Centers All you have to do is register at HelpInDisaster.org, the official registry for volunteers interested in volunteering during disaster recovery. By registering before disaster strikes, you will give relief organizations a distinct advantage in the race to help survivors reclaim their lives.

 Register today. And when the next disaster hits, you can give more than money and wondering how to get involved—because you'll be able to take pride in what "you" contributed to the recovery.

Contact Step Up! for more information

or pre-register today!