A new arrangement between Civil Defence and Volunteering Hawke’s Bay will streamline the coordination of volunteers during emergency events.

The agreement is the first of its kind and formalises the existing working relationship that

Hawke’s Bay Civil Defence Emergency Management Group (HBCDEM) and Volunteering Hawke’s Bay have developed in recent years, a Civil Defence spokesman said.

Volunteering HB are experts in volunteer management and will manage a list of up to 100 police-vetted volunteers and offer a call centre capability for of six trained volunteer staff in the event of an emergency. People who would like to register can contact Volunteering HB directly.

Targeted at utilising spontaneous volunteers rather than more specialised ones, the partnership will mean Civil Defence can get on with the hard work involved in any emergency response knowing that volunteers with be guided and looked after and put to best use.

“In an emergency, we always encourage people to be part of their own community-led response, looking after their own whānau, neighbourhoods, and communities first and foremost. However, if you want to offer your skills and time to support the official response, you can register your interest with Volunteering HB.

“It will allow us to quickly engage a wide group of volunteers who are supported to help in an effective and coordinated way, while we can focus on coordinating the emergency response,” operational readiness team leader Edaan Lennan said.

The two groups have been working together for several years, but a newly signed Memorandum of Understanding now formalises the arrangement.

“[In the past] we would take down their details and if the opportunity cropped up we might give them a call. I don’t think we had an instance where we used someone like that in the Napier floods. And so this arrangement just brings a kind of structure to it,” he said.

Leanne Collins, who heads up Volunteering HB and who initiated the partnership is an unsung hero of the community, he said.

Collins said there were many dedicated and diverse volunteers in the Bay, ready to use their skills and experience to help the community.

“We know people often come forward as volunteers before, during, and after emergencies, to contribute their time and energy. This MoU means we can channel those skills to get the best out of our volunteers to support the response and recovery,” she said.

The partnership is being done on a cost reimbursement basis. Civil Defence will pay for the police vetting of the volunteers, and a fee for any call centre set up. It also offers training and information to the volunteers – first aid courses and things like that.

The arrangement also covers readiness events like the NZ Shakeout, the annual earthquake and tsunami drill. Last year Volunteering HB drove registrations for the event in collaboration with Civil Defence. There are currently 350,000 people signed up for the next Shakeout event in October, a Civil Defence spokesman said.

Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air.