Mass.: Volunteer in a Disaster

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Volunteer in a Disaster

Volunteers can best help victims and responders by working with an experienced disaster relief agency. Organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, provide volunteers with many hours of disaster relief training before a disaster happens. The best way for you to help is to become a trained volunteer with one of these organizations.

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• Disaster Relief Opportunities
  
  Volunteers can best help victims and responders by working with an experienced disaster relief agency. Organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, provide volunteers with many hours of disaster relief training before a disaster happens. The best way for you to help is to become a trained volunteer with one of these organizations. In order to connect with these agencies, review the training opportunities found in Connect and Serve.
• Register
  
  Additionally, you can register on Connect and Serve to create a disaster response profile. This information will be shared with Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) and they will distribute it to the appropriate organizations in the event of a local or statewide disaster.
• Donations
  
  In the event of a disaster, the best donation is cash. It is easily received, transported and distributed. Cash also helps a local community restart its economy. In-kind clothing donations are best when they come from companies that can provide new items in quantities to meet the mass-care needs of victims. Unsolicited, spontaneous donations of clothing from individuals and community groups, although well intentioned, have hidden costs and pose a number of complications for initial relief efforts. For this reason, sending or delivering used clothing to a disaster area is not recommended.

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