Guidance for Managing Volunteers

The Community Preparedness and Participation capability provides that everyone in America is fully aware, trained, and practiced on how to prevent, protect/mitigate, prepare for, and respond to all threats and hazards. There is a structure and a process for ongoing collaboration between government and nongovernmental resources at all levels; volunteers and nongovernmental resources are incorporated in plans and exercises; the public is educated and trained in the four mission areas of preparedness; citizens participate in volunteer programs and provide surge capacity support; nongovernmental resources are managed effectively in disasters; and there is a process to evaluate progress. Any variances of treatments are covered within IS-244 (Developing and Managing Volunteers) and IS-288 (The Role of Voluntary Agencies in Emergency Management) which should be considered, are hereby incorporated by reference, as the basis for NIMS preparedness/ compliance programs of planning, training, equipping, exercising, evaluating, and taking action to correct and mitigate. Further, it should be noted by current NIMS definition that personnel are ‘Paid and volunteer staff’ who meet required qualification and certification standards necessary to perform assigned missions and tasks. Currently, the practice is Training recommendations are now based upon the level of an incident’s complexity (Complexity Guide found on pages 16-17 of the NIMS Training Program) that a person may become involved in, from Type 1 to Type 5.