08-09-2023 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ramsey County │ Annex A: Volunteer and Donations Management 3 1.3.3 USE OF VOLUNTEERS • Ramsey County and its municipalities will plan to support community volunteer needs using local resources for a minimum of 72 hours. • Volunteer deployment will be based on the size and type of disaster or planned event as well as the skills needed by local officials to mount an effective response and recovery effort. During any disaster or planned event, it may be that not all volunteers or any volunteers (affiliated or unaffiliated) will need to be deployed. • Ramsey County and its municipalities or their designees reserve the right to screen volunteers and may decline their use if they are unable to meet the skill and safety requirements, or if positions are unavailable. Screening may include the use of background checks as volunteers often work with vulnerable populations and public resources. • Volunteer Reception Centers will be organized and managed based on the needs of the incident. • While Ramsey County and its municipalities hold responsibility for disaster volunteer management, this responsibility may be designated to a CBO that is more familiar with and has more resources to support volunteer management operations. • On-scene management and “Just in Time” (JIT) training, orientation, and support resources may be required to properly coordinate volunteer efforts. 1.3.4 AFFILIATED VOLUNTEERS • Affiliated volunteers will only be deployed by their organizations at the request of incident command, the Ramsey County Emergency Operations Center (RCEOC), and/or municipal EOCs and will follow established Incident Command System (ICS) protocols. • Affiliated volunteer service organizations can support efforts to recruit, mobilize, train, and deploy unaffiliated volunteers in coordination with state and local government. 1.3.5 UNAFFILIATED VOLUNTEERS • Ideally, all volunteers should be affiliated with an established organization and trained for specific disaster response activities. However, the spontaneous nature of individual volunteering is inevitable; therefore, unaffiliated volunteers must be anticipated, planned for, and managed. • Ramsey County and its municipalities are ultimately responsible for interviewing, screening, registering, training, and referring any unaffiliated volunteers that it uses in disaster or planned event operations. This is for the protection of both the volunteer and the jurisdiction. This responsibility can be delegated to others through a written delegation of authority. • Unaffiliated volunteers may be unprepared for or unaware of the conditions they will work in or have unreasonable expectations of the services and resources that they will be provided by the response system during their service. 1.3.6 UNSOLICITED DONATIONS • Donations management must be flexible; there is no single approach to donations management, and it can vary considerably from one incident to the next.