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Establishing: Deployment Policies and Procedures

While the MRC serves the needs of the local community, MRC volunteers may have the opportunity to serve other communities in their state or another state. If a large-scale emergency occurs in another community, you may find that your volunteers are eager to provide their services. Although this enthusiasm is a good thing, it is important to verify that deployments are appropriate to the affected area’s needs and that the volunteers can conduct their mission effectively with minimal risk.

Before considering any opportunity to deploy your volunteers outside the local area, consider the following:

Mission—Is there a specific need that MRC volunteers can meet?
Licensure—Will the volunteers’ licenses be recognized in another state?
Liability—Are the volunteers protected from liability for unintended harm?
Worker’s Compensation—What happens if a volunteer is injured during the deployment? How will he or she be compensated?
Health and Well-Being—What steps are being taken to protect the volunteers’ physical and emotional health?
Food, Lodging, Supplies, Transportation, and Security—What will be provided for the volunteers, and what will they need to provide for themselves?

Volunteer deployment is dependent on the missions required to meet the needs of the affected area. Depending on which resources are available in the affected area, there may not be many missions that require volunteer staffing. There are several existing mechanisms for out-of-state deployment of volunteers.

Some examples of these mechanisms include:

The Emergency Mutual Aid Compact (EMAC), a mutual aid agreement between states’ governors to provide resources from one state to another. Some states utilize volunteers to fulfill EMAC requests, but this is dependent on several factors. To determine whether there is a role for MRC volunteers in your state’s EMAC resources, contact your state Emergency Management Agency.
National-level partnerships between MRC and other organizations, such as the American Red Cross. When an organization requests the assistance of MRC volunteers, the Office of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps (OCVMRC) will send information via E-mail to MRC unit coordinators. Individual MRC volunteers or teams of MRC volunteers may apply for deployment.
Deployment through Federal agencies such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Similar to partnerships with organizations, when a Federal agency identifies a mission for MRC volunteers, the OCVMRC will send the appropriate information to MRC unit coordinators so that individual volunteers or teams of volunteers may apply for deployment.

Not all of these mechanisms will be available in each jurisdiction. It is important not to deploy your MRC volunteers outside of the existing mechanisms for deployment—they may discover that they do not have a role in the response or that they are unable to effectively conduct their identified mission. The MRC unit’s primary role is in your community. If there is a possibility that the volunteers will be needed in their own community, do not deploy them elsewhere.

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Last Updated on 12/12/2007