What is Citizen Corps?
Citizen Corps offers volunteer opportunities to support local fire, law enforcement, emergency medical services, community public health efforts, and to contribute to the four stages of emergency management: preparedness, prevention, response, and recovery. With the added support of citizen volunteers, emergency service providers have more time to fulfill their highly skilled responsibilities to make our communities safer, stronger and better prepared.
The Texas Association of Regional Councils, a public entity, administers the Citizen Corps programs in Texas through councils of governments (COGs).
Another Successful Texas Unites Conference
The 2011 Texas Unites Conference, a joint conference between the Texas Citizen Corps and the Texas Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster resulted in one of the largest annual professional, volunteer and emergency management training summits in Texas. Close to 300 people were in attendance. Participants from over 8 states took part in the three day conference held June 20-22, 2011 at the Omni Downtown Austin Hotel.
Keynote speakers included Director Steve McCraw, Texas Department of Public Safety, Chief Nim Kidd, Texas Department of Emergency Management, and Administrator Tony Russell, FEMA Region 6. Participants were also treated to a special session sponsored by the Texas School Safety Center and presented by motivational speaker Scott Huse. Pre-Conference trainings and workshops covered topics such as: Emergency Management, Volunteer Management, Public Health, Disaster Recovery Process, Volunteer Liability, Terrorism, Disaster Exercises, Grant Management, and Functional Needs Support.
For more information on the conference, download the conference program book.
Conference Presentations and Pictures coming soon!
ATTENDEES: Please take a few moments to provide us Post-Conference feedback.
First Annual Jack Colley Award Recipient
Brenda Gormley, CERT Coordinator for Denton County, was awarded the first annual Jack Colley Award for Volunteerism last week in Austin. The prestigious Jack Colley Award honors an outstanding volunteer who exhibits leadership, dedication, self-sacrifice and service to the State of Texas in the field of emergency management, attributes personified by the late Chief Jack Colley.
This state-wide recognition is the highest honor bestowed upon a volunteer by the state's Citizen Corps Program. The award was presented by the Director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, Steve McCraw, and Texas Association of Regional Councils Executive Director, Penny Redington, at the annual Texas Unites Citizen Corps/VOAD Conference on June 22.
Community Preparedness Webinar Series
The Community Preparedness Webinar Series provides up-to-date information on community preparedness topics and resources available to citizens, community organizations, and Citizen Corps Councils. A webinar is a web-based informational or training seminar (a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar) that is transmitted over the internet. These webinars will feature new community preparedness topics several times each month and are free to the public. Each webinar will accommodate the first 500 visitors that enter the website at the time of the webinar. In addition to airing live, each webinar will be recorded and viewable after it completes at your convenience.
For information on upcoming webinars, or to view archived Community Preparedness Webcasts and Webinars, click here. |
