
	Search:

MRC Leads to Major Homeland Security Grant for AHEC

October 18, 2004

Susan Stewart, Western Maryland Area Health Education Center (WMAHEC) Associate Director, and Martha Bird-Middleton, Allegany County MRC Coordinator

Pictured: Susan Stewart, Western Maryland Area Health Education Center (WMAHEC) Associate Director, and Martha Bird-Middleton, Allegany County MRC Coordinator.

Earlier this year, Commander Robert J. Tosatto, Director of the MRC, Office of the Surgeon General, sent an e-mail notification of a relevant Request for Proposal to MRC units across the United States. In response, Allegany County MRC Coordinator Martha Bird-Middleton and Western Maryland Area Health Education Center (WMAHEC) Associate Director Susan Stewart led the way for their agency to apply for a Corporation for National and Community Service Special Volunteer Program grant to strengthen regional volunteer response to Homeland Security needs in public health, public safety, emergency response, and disaster preparedness.

This fall, WMAHEC received a 3-year grant of more than $1 million for its program as one of 29 agencies nationwide awarded this grant. WMAHEC’s program, Project Aware, emphasizes increasing the volunteer numbers in the predominantly rural and Appalachian area of Western Maryland and parts of nearby West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, which encompasses 18 counties known as the Upper Potomac or Cumberland Valley region. Project Aware will encourage and equip people age 55 and older, from all walks of life, to perform meaningful and constructive volunteer service to minimize damage from Homeland Security threats and aid in the recovery from any such attack. Volunteers will be called out to participate in a variety of training scenarios that will provide multiple opportunities to engage in duties. Project Aware volunteers will assume new duties that help to strengthen their own homeland security response skills and knowledge.

Project Aware is composed of a broad and growing network of regional partnerships selected because of Homeland Security needs in public health, public safety, emergency response, and disaster preparedness. Initial partners with lead agency, WMAHEC, include local Citizen Corps Councils, local health departments, area hospitals, local emergency planning committees, MRC units, volunteer centers, sheriff’s departments, and a parish nurse program.

WMAHEC is especially pleased that the majority of the funds for this project will be distributed throughout the target region to partner organizations. Communities that need Homeland Security volunteer infrastructure development and the volunteers who serve their communities will benefit from this project.

To learn more details about Project Aware, contact Martha Bird-Middleton, WMAHEC Project Aware Director, at 301-777-9150, ext. 111 or by e-mail at mbird@allconet.org.

Last Updated on 12/31/2007