Volunteer Reception Center Training Scheduled for November 13th

Wood, Adams counties (WFHR, WIRI)

The United Way of South Wood & Adams Counties Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) is holding a disaster volunteer training and informational meeting on Thursday, November 13th from 5-7pm. This meeting will be held at the McMillan Memorial Library in Wisconsin Rapids and is open to anyone interested.

The United Way of South Wood & Adams Counties Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) helps organize volunteers in disaster situations. The VRC provides a system to safely and efficiently turn a crowd of spontaneous volunteers into a screened and organized workforce assigned to specific jobs. Thanks to volunteers who participate in twice-annual training exercises, there is a team prepared to operate the VRC in the event of a disaster – but more help is needed!

Community members are encouraged to attend an upcoming training and informational session this Thursday. A brief training exercise & discussion will be provided by United Way of South Wood & Adams Counties in collaboration with Wood County Emergency Management. Only volunteers who attend training can be activated to the VRC in a disaster – those attending for the first time will have the opportunity to join the VRC team.

Civic Media’s Melissa Kaye spoke with Ben Eberlein from the United Way:
“This training session is open to the public for anyone interested in helping if we ever have a community wide disaster necessitating large numbers of mobilized volunteers. This will prepare a team to set up a volunteer reception center so that spontaneous volunteers wishing to help have a central location to sign up, be background checked, receive some basic training and be assigned specific roles”. This will help get the right volunteers in the right places according to their skills and abilities.
“Currently our local United Way has about 30 volunteers who regularly attend training”. Volunteers must attend at least one training per year to be eligible to participate.

Questions? Contact Community Engagement Director Ben Eberlein at 715-421-0390 or by email.
You can help by engaging with us, uniting to create a thriving community. To learn more please visit www.uwswac.org.