Regional Lead EVC for

Cal EMAs Southern Region

Volunteer Los Angeles, a nonprot volunteer
center serving the Los Angeles area, has been
designated as the Regional Lead in the Southern
Region. Volunteer LA has been engaged in the
spontaneous volunteer management area for
over a decade and has developed a high degree
of capacity to activate and operate an EVC.
As the Southern Regional Lead, Volunteer LA
will:
Identify agencies and organizations that will
take on responsibility for EVC operations in
their community.
Provide guidance to identied agencies and
organizations to build capacity to locally
manage spontaneous volunteers in disaster.
Connect identied agencies and organizations
through a mutual assistance network so that
when one area is a!ected by disaster, assistance
can be requested and be coordinated e!ectively
from non-a!ected communities.
Southern Region
Emergency
Volunteer
Center
Network
Providing support throughout Southern
California through the e!ective
management of spontaneous volunteers
following a disaster.
This project is supported with funds provided by
the U.S. Department of Homeland Security -
Grant # 2010 -0085, Cal EMA ID 000-92297.
Cal EMAs Southern Region
* Los Angeles County * Orange County
* San Bernardino County * San Diego County
* Imperial County * Riverside County
* San Luis Obispo County * Ventura County
* Santa Barbara County * Mono County
* Inyo County
A Regional Approach:
The Regional Lead EVC
CaliforniaVolunteers is taking a regional
approach to this project by identifying a primary
agency in each of Cal EMAs three regions to lead
the e!ort in each respective region. These
agencies, known as Regional Leads, were
selected based on their spontaneous volunteer
management experience and current level of EVC
operations capacity.
CaliforniaVolunteers
Regional Lead EVC Project
Given the importance of e!ective spontaneous
volunteer management, CaliforniaVolunteers
- the state agency leading service and
volunteerism e!orts in California - and Cal
Emergency Management Agency, have
initiated a project focused on building the
capacity of communities throughout California
to establish an EVC and be able to manage
spontaneous volunteers e!ectively.
Goals of the Regional EVC Project
The goals of the Regional EVC project are to
ensure that communities in California:
Develop local capacity to manage spontaneous
volunteers following a disaster.
Are connected to a mutual assistance network
in the event that local capacity is overwhelmed.
Have strong communication between state and
local emergency management o"cials and EVCs
to ensure coordination of post-disaster e!orts.
For More Information About
The Southern Region EVC Network...
If you are a representative of a Southern Region
Operational Area, or if your represent a
community-based organization or faith-based
organization in a Southern Region County, and
would like to learn more about this project and
how your agency/organization can be involved,
please contact:
Gilbert Gonzales
Volunteer Los Angeles
GGonzales@VolunteerLosAngeles.org
323-450-5086
Value To First Responders and Emergency
Response O!cials by giving them a place to
refer spontaneous volunteers, helping to prevent
spontaneous volunteers from self-deploying and
helping to avoid PR issues related to poor
spontaneous volunteer management.
Value To Volunteers And The General Public
by intaking and referring those who want to help
in an organized manner, addressing their need
to feel connected to the communitys recovery
and reinforcing the message that the recovery is
moving forward and the community is resilient.
Why Is An EVC Important?
Spontaneous volunteers can be a valuable
resource in a time of need: manpower, a pool of
skills and experience, and a symbol of
community resiliency.
But if this resource is not managed well these
benets may go unrealized - spontaneous
volunteers will not have an organized way to
connect to areas of need in the community.
Spontaneous volunteers may also present
additional challenges for rst responders. For
instance, volunteers may go to the scene of the
emergency, blocking transportation routes,
distracting rst responders, and potentially
putting themselves in danger.
Value To The Recovery And Rebuilding E"ort
by directing volunteers to address community
needs in an e"cient manner and maximizing the
impact of volunteer resources by matching
volunteer skill-sets and experience to specic
needs in the community.
What Is The Value Of An
EVC In My Community?
Having an identied EVC in your community
means that there is clarity about which agency
will be responsible for taking the lead on
managing spontaneous volunteers following a
disaster, as well as undertaking e!orts prior to
disaster to plan for and build capacity to ll this
role e!ectively.
An e!ective EVC in your community means that
the valuable benets of spontaneous volunteers
can be realized, providing support and
inspiration to post-disaster response and
recovery e!orts.
It also means that the potential issues related to
unmanaged spontaneous volunteers can be
minimized or avoided entirely.
Who Can Serve as an EVC?
An EVC can take di!erent forms, depending
on the community. It can be managed
directly by the local government agency
responsible for emergency management.
Unfortunately, often times the local
emergency management agency does not
have the capacity to adequately prepare for
the inevitability of spontaneous volunteers.
An EVC can also be managed by a local non-
governmental agency that is willing to take
on this responsibility and coordinate closely
with local emergency management. A variety
of nonprot organizations can play this role
including volunteer centers, United Ways, and
211, as well as faith-based organizations
and congregations.
However, not all communities have an
identied EVC.
An Emergency Volunteer Center (EVC) supports
local emergency response e!orts through the
e!ective management of spontaneous
volunteers following a disaster.
An EVC is designed to register those who want to
volunteer to help their community recover, and
then match them with specic and appropriate
disaster-related community needs. These needs
are communicated to the EVC through local
government or directly from community and
faith-based organizations in need of support.
If electricity and internet connections are not
interrupted, an online approach - a Virtual EVC
- can be employed to intake and refer
spontaneous volunteers. Otherwise, a Walk-In
EVC can be set-up. In either case, the
community will be notied of how to access the
EVC through government statements, press
conferences and the media.
What Is An Emergency Volunteer Center?