Saw this phenomenon all the time in Red Cross-- volunteers of all sorts would come out of the woodwork, during or immediately after a crisis.... most organizations prefer their volunteers to get active BEFORE a crisis and get training, THEN be deployed.... otherwise it's a nightmare of good intentions. So what you CAN do, today, is contact your local Red Cross unit and get into their disaster services training classes, which are intersting and very cool.

Deployment can be local, regional, national, or international, depending on your skills and your training and availability. Some people do this several times a year, and Red Cross supplies the travel tickets and lodging expenses for three-week deployments on major disasters. General training includes cultural sensitivity and practical skills, and then there is additional, on-deployment training and orientation when you arrive at your assignment, for whatever job you will do in the setting you've been sent to. Deployment also includes attention to the stress of the volunteers-- when you give so much to others, someone needs to be sure you're doing OK, too, or you come home in baaaaaaad shape.

I'd have loved to have musicians on call for shelters-- the kids in them can go nuts, making the parents nuts....

There is a lot one can do, but GET TRAINED and THEN be ready!

~Susan