VashonBePrepared is all about volunteering!
If you are motivated to help out, congratulations. Here is a list of actions you can take. There's many opportunities to start prepare yourself, your family and business, and neighborhood - but just start with one. Consider enlisting another to work with and tackle these in any order you wish!
Action Steps
- To get started as a volunteer, please register with this web site or complete the following information and email a version to: Volunteer@VashonBePrepared.org. We'll contact you directly to explore your interests and suggest how you can get involved in helping Vashon become more resilient.
- Attend our VashonBePrepared 101 course. Its a great introduction to the risks on the island and all the partners working on community preparedness.
- Explore current volunteer openings with our various partners. We have lots of projects in need of your energy. Some are artistic and others are simple organization projects.
- Ensure your family has taken basic preparedness steps as outlined in our Are your Ready section of the website. The more self-sufficient families there are on Vashon, the more emergency personnel will be able to focus their energies on the truly needy in a crisis.
- Work with businesses to take basic business continuity steps.
- Socialize with your neighbors and create basic communication lists so you can reach each other during times of limited communications availability. Who will care for your children, pets and livestock if you are stranded on the mainland for several days? You've just created a NERO.
- Consider obtaining an amateur radio license allowing you to communicate with a network of others on and off island regardless of distance or reliance on external power or communication lines.
- Take a CERT class to get advanced training and proactively help others during crises.
- Learn about Incident Command System (ICS) and the National Incident Management System (NIMS) by taking a free hour-long FEMA online course.
- Investigate the courses at www.volunteerready.org, on Code of Conduct, Know Before You Go, Spirit of Service, Physical Safety and more!