King County Regional Community Partners

Citizen Corps Learn more about the Citizen Corps Program!

In response to the national request for Americans to work together to strengthen our communities, King County government has established a national registered Citizen Corps Council to assist in the coordination and dissemination of local volunteer emergency response opportunities and information in the King County region. During President Bush's State of the Union address on January 29, 2002 he requested that all citizens devote time in volunteer service into their own community by "getting organized to offer citizens opportunities to help make their communities safer, stronger, and better prepared for preventing and handling threats of terrorism, crime, and other emergencies and disasters."

The King County region offers a broad range of opportunities for volunteer service. The goals of the King County Citizen Council are to stimulate interest at the grass roots level, to provide accurate information of available resources, to coordinate interests in order to avoid duplication, and to create funding, when available, for increased program growth.

Citizen Corps Programs

Citizen Corps' efforts to encourage and assist Americans to become involved in their communities and our country. The following programs provide those service opportunities:

• Citizen Corps Councils will help drive local citizen participation by coordinating Citizen Corps programs, developing community action plans, assessing possible threats and identifying local resources.
• The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is a training program that prepares people in neighborhoods, the workplace, and schools to take a more active role in emergency management planning, and to prepare themselves and others for disasters.
• An expanded Neighborhood Watch Program (NWP) will incorporate terrorism prevention and education into its existing crime prevention mission.
• Volunteers in Police Service (VIPS) will provide support for resource-constrained police departments by utilizing civilian volunteers in order to free up more law enforcement professionals for frontline duty.
• The Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) will coordinate volunteer health professionals during large-scale emergencies to assist emergency response teams, provide care to victims with less serious injuries, and remove other burdens that inhibit the effectiveness of physicians and nurses in a major crisis.

Citizen Corps efforts at state and local levels will be coordinated nationally by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Learn more about the FEMA CERT program!

Our region offers many growing opportunities especially in the area of CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, training. CERT is a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) program that is provided to citizens throughout the United States. The classes offered by many King County cities and local organizations provide an excellent base for citizens to engage in aiding your own neighborhoods and workplace with skills to increase the resilience to emergencies and hazardous situations here in the King County region.

The cities and organizations linked below can provide you training opportunities close to your own home. If you have the need for further information you may call Timothy Doyle, at the King County Office of Emergency Management, 3511 NE 2nd Street, Renton, WA 98056; phone 206.205.4071; fax 206.205.4056; and e-mail: timothy.doyle@metrokc.gov.

Local King County Region CERT Contacts

Contact information for our partners who share county boundaries (Snohomish and Pierce Counties):

Volunteer Today!

If you would like to see what service opportunities exist in your community and other communities throughout the United States, check out the "USA Freedom Corps" link for ways you can serve your country.