When an emergency happens, people want to help.
We see it every time. Flooding, fire, wild weather, earthquakes. People start checking on neighbours, offering vehicles, food, spare rooms, muscle, local knowledge, whatever they have.
That instinct is a wonderful thing!
It can also become a bit of a nightmare if nobody knows who's available, what they can do, where they should go, or who is actually coordinating the response.
Which is why the best time to think about emergency volunteering is not when the rain is horizontal and half the region is refreshing Facebook for updates. It's NOW!
At Volunteer Marlborough, we maintain a database of people who are willing to help when our region needs extra support. We have an agreement with Marlborough Emergency Management that allows trained, pre-registered, and vetted volunteers to be activated when needed.
That doesn't mean we're building a secret army of first responders. (Wouldn't that be cool, though?!)
We are not recruiting people to charge into dangerous areas, join rescue teams, or suddenly find themselves sitting in the Emergency Coordination Centre wondering what on earth just happened.
Most emergency volunteering is much less dramatic than that. It's also just as important.
Depending on the situation, volunteers might be needed for welfare support, logistics, community coordination, information gathering, data entry, animal care, administration, supplies, or any number of practical jobs that help keep things moving.
Often, the useful skills are the very ordinary ones people already have.
Someone who can stay calm on the phone, Someone who is good with spreadsheets (not me!). Someone who knows their local community. Someone who can organise a room without losing track of who is doing what. Someone with experience in transport, communications, admin, customer service, or simply dealing with people when things are stressful.
None of that sounds particularly heroic but, in an emergency, it can be gold.
The big advantage of having people registered before an emergency is simple: we don't have to start from scratch.
Imagine dozens of well-meaning people turning up and saying, "I'm here to help."
Lovely.
Now imagine trying to work out, on the fly, who they are, what they can safely do, whether they have the right skills, where they're actually needed, who's supervising them, and whether someone has already sent three other people to do the same job.
That's the bit people don't always see.
Good intentions help. Coordination helps more.
Pre-registering means we already know some basic information about you. We know the skills and experience you bring. You have some idea of how emergency volunteering works. If you are contacted, it's because there's a reason for it. It also means you're less likely to accidentally become another problem for the people already managing the emergency.
That sounds harsh, but spontaneous help can create extra traffic, put people into unsafe areas, duplicate work, or give response teams another group of people to manage. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do is stay home until you're asked.
That can be surprisingly hard when you're someone who likes to help. We get that.
The good news is that joining the emergency volunteer database doesn't mean taking on a massive training programme, or signing yourself up for every emergency for the rest of time.
There's free basic training so you understand the role volunteers can play and what to expect if you're ever activated.
There's also optional training opportunities for people who want to go a bit further, including CIMS, the Coordinated Incident Management System used in New Zealand emergency responses, and Needs Assessment training.
Some people will do the basics and be perfectly happy with that. Others may discover they really enjoy the emergency-management side of things and want to build more knowledge over time. Both are useful.
You also don't have to commit to being part of an Emergency Coordination Centre or specialist response team. Those roles require more training and ongoing involvement, and you would opt into that separately if it interested you.
For most people, the commitment is much simpler. Be known. Be prepared. Be available if the right need comes up. And, if the call does come, you're still allowed to say no.
You might be away. You might be caring for family. Your own home might be affected. Work might have gone sideways. You might simply not be in a position to help that day. That's totally fine.
Emergency volunteering is not about proving how committed you are by saying yes at all costs. Looking after yourself and your household comes first. If you're available, you'll be told what's needed and where you fit. That's a much better starting point than turning up somewhere with a pair of work gloves and a vague sense of purpose.
We often talk about community resilience after something has gone wrong.
How quickly did we recover? Did people get the help they needed? Did organisations know what to do?
But a lot of resilience is built long before that.
It's built when neighbours know each other. When community organisations already have relationships. When households have plans. When agencies know how they'll work together. And when there's a group of ordinary people across Marlborough who have already said, "Call me. If I'm able to help when the time comes, I will."
We genuinely hope most people on the emergency volunteer database are never needed. That would be an excellent result.
But emergencies DO happen. And when they do, it's far easier to mobilise a community that has already done some of the thinking beforehand.
So. If you're 18 or over, live in Marlborough, and would be willing to lend your skills and time when the community genuinely needs them, we would love to have you on the list.
You don't need to be a first responder. You don't need specialist qualifications. You just need to be willing to prepare before the emergency, rather than trying to work it all out during one.
Interested in joining the Marlborough Emergency Volunteer Database? CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
If you'd like to know more about the training available or what emergency volunteers may be asked to do, get in touch!