JOIN THE MAINE MEDICAL RESERVE CORPS (MRC) TODAY!

Are you a retired medical worker or someone who has time that would like to help during a disaster?

Signing up for this program does NOT commit you, it simply puts you in a database that would get you information when there is a need.  You decide if you are available or not when it happens.  See below for more information:

Looking to volunteer? Then, your invited you to join Maine Responds and the Maine Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) today!

What does Maine Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) do? – Our volunteer programs reinforce our state’s public health infrastructure and support low-stress/no-fault exercise environments that test critical response capabilities.

When MRC members are not responding to an emergency or disaster, most of the time, your focus will be on public health and emergency preparedness.

By registering with Maine Responds at maineresponds.org, you will join our listing of volunteers, which we search for any emergent volunteer workforce needs.

What are some of the key reasons to join Maine MRC?

•             Enjoy free trainings in healthcare, public health, and emergency management. Many of those provided by Ad Care Educational Institute now come with continuing education credits for various license types.

•             Meet, learn from, and collaborate with stakeholders from front-line responders to high-level administrators throughout Maine and across New England.

•             Improve your mindset. Studies have shown that volunteering can alleviate feelings of loneliness and impart a sense of purpose, value, and community to volunteers.

•             Do what you want to do. Nearly all aspects of our programs are voluntary, though to participate in some roles there may be pre-requisite trainings. Do what you know you are good at or broaden your horizons and change up your routine from the office grind by learning to drive a forklift truck, or assisting with emergency planning, or facilitating a monthly meeting. You are empowered to shape your role in our organization.

•             Give back to your community through our public service volunteer opportunities. Improve your area’s response capabilities and identify new resources that can be leveraged to reduce post-incident recovery times.

•             Improve your preparedness personally, in your family, in your neighborhood, and beyond! Life-saving skills and knowledge can save your loved ones, and the preparedness mindset can help turn tragedies into near-tragedies.

•             Enable your response when you see a major event take place on the news or elsewhere and you decide to lend a hand. By pre-registering, you can volunteer sooner via expedited credentials verification. By statute, the State of Maine provides liability coverage when you act as part of the state’s official emergency response force AND while training for such!

o             NOTE: Never self-deploy! Always await deployment instructions and do not self-dispatch to the scene of a disaster.

•             Participate in exciting exercises and drills with our many partners. Frequent multiagency practice is key to our response readiness. We regularly work with groups such as the Maine Center for Disease Control, Maine Emergency Management Agency, and county-level EMAs, National Guard, Maine State Police and local PDs, local Fire Departments, local EMS providers, various behavioral health agencies, American Red Cross, Community and Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters and the list goes on!

Our training courses are designed to support volunteers throughout deployment, should the worst strike our state and the need to call you to action arise. Breathe easy though, there is no set minimum volunteer commitment to join either Maine Responds or Medical Reserve Corps. If a true public emergency should occur, we simply contact you and ask if you can volunteer at a public shelter, supply warehouse, or in another capacity depending on circumstances. We encourage you to address any obligations – familial, professional, or otherwise – prior to volunteering, and to express interest in deployment later as able. It is always OK to say “no” to a volunteer request.

We do ask our volunteers to complete FEMA ICS trainings to fully understand their role within larger response operations. Your first training is IS-100, which can be taken on-line by going to training.fema.gov and registering for a student ID number. Once you have a student ID, you can enroll in many FEMA trainings that might interest you.  At the completion of these FREE on-line trainings, you will be provided a certificate of completion that can be submitted for verification of training AND used to bolster your professional resume.  

Register today for Maine Responds at maineresponds.org. You will be able to select your local unit in the drop-down menu under the “Organizations” section of the registration. For more information, please go to maineresponds.org