National Priorities...Meeting Local Needs
The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) was founded after President Bush’s 2002 State of the Union Address, in which he asked all Americans to volunteer in support of their country. MRC is a specialized component of Citizen Corps, a national network of volunteers dedicated to ensuring hometown security. Citizen Corps, along with the Corporation for National and Community Service, and the Peace Corps are all part of the President's USA Freedom Corps, which promotes volunteerism and service throughout the nation.
MRC units are community-based and function as a way to locally organize and utilize volunteers – medical professionals and others - who want to donate their time and expertise to promote healthy living throughout the year and to prepare for and respond to emergencies. MRC volunteers supplement existing local emergency and public health resources.
MRC volunteers include medical and public health professionals such as physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dentists, veterinarians, and epidemiologists. Other community members, such as interpreters, chaplains, office workers and legal advisors, can fill other vital support positions.
MRC volunteers support local public health while advancing the priorities of the U.S. Surgeon General by:
- Promoting disease prevention
- Improving health literacy
- Eliminating health disparities
- Enhancing public health preparedness
- Assisting local hospitals and health departments with surge personnel needs
- Participating in mass prophylaxis and vaccination exercises and community disaster drills
- Training with local emergency response partners
MRC can benefit your local community by: - Bolstering public health and emergency response infrastructures by providing supplemental personnel
- Enabling communities to meet specific health needs
- Allowing the local community more autonomy-not as reliant on state and national resources
- Giving community members the opportunity to participate in developing strategies to make their communities healthier and safer
- Providing mechanisms for information sharing and coordination between all partner organizations
- Provides a dialogue between emergency management and public health agencies
- Allows for national recognition of local public health and emergency response efforts
Interested in becoming a volunteer but have more questions? Please visit the frequently asked questions section of this site. To register as a volunteer with the Tristate Medical Reserve Corps visit http://www.serveohio.org/ to register online or download the Tristate Medical Reserve Corps registration form. You may also be interested in volunteering with the Clermont Citizen Corps. To find more information for this corps click here. For additional questions or concerns please contact us.
Additional Resources
Clermont County Citizen Corps Brochure (pdf)
TriState Medical Reserve Corps Brochure (pdf)