When disaster strikes, volunteers are needed. Volunteer Maine partners with Maine Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD), and the federal AmeriCorps Disaster Services Unit to connect emergency response and management organizations with qualified volunteers.
Maine Ready
The Commission and Maine Emergency Management Agency collaborate on MaineReady.org, an online tool that provides state, county, and other emergency response and management organizations a virtual way to coordinate offers of help with on-the-ground needs for assistance. It will be used, to the extent practical, during emergencies and disasters in place of physical volunteer and donation centers.
Prior to any event, public and nonprofit organizations that have a designated role at the local, county, or state level are asked to establish their account and stage the needs that are essential in any response. Information on how to do this can be obtained from your usual state partner.
Members of the public with skills or interests that are likely to be needed during a response may establish a profile on the site during "blue skies." This makes you visible to the responding organizations who may reach out to you with offers of training, exercise participation, or other volunteer opportunities.
Donations management
Since 2008, the Commission has been co-chair of the Donations Coordination Team (DCT) with the MEMA. The goal of the DCT is to coordinate resources of volunteers and donations on a statewide level to improve disaster preparedness, mitigation, and recovery.
In 2010, with the help of the Maine AmeriCorps Alumni, Volunteer Maine established Maine’s first deployable Volunteer Reception Center.
AmeriCorps NCCC
AmeriCorps NCCC is a nationally deployable resource available to the federal AmeriCorps Disaster Services Unit (DSU) which has a role in both the National Response Framework and National Disaster Recovery Framework. NCCC teams often serve with local, state, tribal, and federal partners. Teams have responded to hurricanes, western wildfires, flooding, oil spills, tornadoes, and winter ice storms.