Interested in Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response? Consider joining the GCSU Medical Reserve Corps (MRC)!  

Interested in Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Response? Consider joining the GCSU Medical Reserve Corps (MRC)!  

Georgia College & State University is expanding its Medical Reserves Corps. Faculty, staff, and students are all invited to join our MRC! 

What is the Medical Reserve Corps? 

The Medical Reserve Corps is a national network of local groups of volunteers engaging communities to strengthen public health, reduce vulnerability, build resilience, and improve preparedness response and recovery capabilities. There are about 800 MRC units nationwide with over 200,000 volunteers throughout the United States. MRC volunteers supplement existing emergency and public health resources. 

MRC units are established in specific areas to target and strengthen the public health infrastructure of their communities.  The U.S. Surgeon General defined priorities that touch on the health of individuals and the nation as a whole and serve as a guide to the MRC. The overarching goal is to improve health literacy, and work towards increasing disease prevention, eliminating health disparities, and improving public health preparedness. Visit the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response website for more information.

What makes our unit unique? 

Our unit is one of a few located on university campuses across the country that supports the MRC with a unit comprised of its students, faculty, and staff.

What would I do as a Volunteer? 

Many MRC volunteers assist with activities to improve public health in their community – increasing health literacy, supporting prevention efforts (such as vaccine clinics), and reducing health disparities.   

Do I have to be in a “medical” field?

No! The MRC program does seek medical and public health professionals as volunteers. However, volunteers who have no medical or healthcare backgrounds are needed to properly conduct emergency preparedness and response efforts.  

Next Steps:

1.     The FEMA course, IS C.100 is web based and provides training on the Incident command system.  This course takes about 45 minutes to complete and is available online on the FEMA.gov website.  It is recommended.

2.     Sign up with Serve GA on the SERVGA website-

Note: if you are called to participate in a disaster response, participation is NOT MANDATORY.

Contact: Dr. Fowler at catherine.fowler@gcsu.edu or Dr. Kaninjing at ernie.kaninjing@gcsu.edu

 

Updated: 2022-10-31
Catherine Fowler
catherine.fowler@gcsu.edu
(478) 445-8567
Nursing, School of