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Developing: Core Competencies

With the National Association of City and County Health Officials (NACCHO), the MRC has identified eight basic core competencies for all MRC volunteers:

1. Describe the procedure and steps necessary for the MRC member to protect health, safety, and overall well-being of themselves, their families, the team, and the community.
    
2. Document that the MRC member has an existing personal and family preparedness plan.
    
3. Describe the chain of command (e.g., Emergency Management Systems [EMS], Incident Command Systems (ICS), NIMS), MRC integration, and its application to a given incident.
    
4. Describe the local MRC unit’s role in public health and/or emergency response and its application to a given incident.
    
5. Describe the MRC member’s communication role(s) and processes with response partners, media, general public, and others.
    
6. Describe the impact of an event on the mental health of the MRC member, responders, and others.
    
7. Demonstrate the MRC member’s ability to follow procedures for assignment, activation, reporting, and deactivation.
    
8. Identify limits to skills, knowledge, and abilities as they pertain to MRC role(s).

See the MRC Core Competency Fact Sheet (PDF [63.2 KB]) for more information.

Besides receiving an orientation, support/administrative volunteers will need guidance on how to perform their particular functions; this may vary depending on the needs of particular communities. They may need to participate in practice exercises if their duties interface with those of the front-line/direct-service volunteers. Overall, the training load for support/administrative volunteers will be lighter.

Conversely, the training requirements for front-line/direct-service volunteers may be extensive and specialized. Consider that because these are volunteers—many of whom have other jobs or responsibilities—training must not become a burden. Training must be efficiently tailored to your community’s needs.

The specifics of curriculum design for your MRC volunteers will depend largely on which local needs they intend to supplement. For example, to work in a local hospital-based trauma unit, volunteers may need to be trained to meet that particular hospital’s standards. As a rule, training requirements and qualifications will be determined by your response partners. You will first need to conduct a full audit of local needs, which should include an inventory of your partner’s training requirements and training resources. Using existing training resources greatly reduces costs and will allow you to direct available funds to training resources that are not free or at low cost.

Another way to leverage your limited resources and contribute to volunteer retention is to have the more experienced, committed volunteers train the incoming volunteers.

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Last Updated on 8/21/2006