by Dominick Mireles, Director, Philadelphia Office of Emergency Management
As a Philadelphian, I take comfort knowing that I can pick up the phone and call professional, full-time emergency services at any time of day. As a Philadelphia Emergency Manager, I am inspired by the dedicated public servants that staff the City’s behavioral health crisis line and who deliver essential services repairing infrastructure and cleaning up after emergencies. And, even with all of these resources, we still couldn’t deliver for disaster survivors without volunteers.
During National Volunteer Week, I want to especially thank Southeastern Pennsylvania’s Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) and other disaster volunteers. Over the last year alone, VOAD volunteers have contributed so much to Philadelphia.
- In February 2025, Salvation Army volunteers provided hundreds of meals to first responders working around the clock in the Northeast Philadelphia Plane Crash recovery.
- In February 2025, Salvation Army and Second Alarmers volunteers distributed thousands of meals, refreshments, and warming supplies for first responders on stationary posts along the Eagles Parade route. At the parade, American Red Cross volunteers staffed reunification sites along City staff and connected lost individuals back to their parties throughout the event.
- In January 2025, Philadelphia Medical Reserve Corps volunteers worked side by side with City staff in the City’s warming centers.
- Since May 2024, the American Red Cross has responded to hundreds of home fires, offering the Red Cross House to displaced Philadelphians and staffing seven emergency evacuation shelters activated by the City, with additional material support provided by the Salvation Army and other City partners.
- In July 2024, partners including the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, Tzu Chi, Nationalities Services Center, Philabundance, SHARE Food Program, and other SEPA VOAD members provided vital resources to Philadelphians who lost their livelihoods in a fire in Rhawnhurst.
- In November, the Eastwick Unmet Needs group, supported by local faith and community groups, as well as Team Rubicon and SEPA VOAD, completed the last set of major repairs to damaged homes in the Eastwick Community following August 2020 flooding.
Quite simply, volunteers deliver essential services in times of disaster.
From an individual level, I attribute much of my training and personal growth to individual volunteers and voluntary organizations. When I found myself with disaster survivors for the first time following a multiple-alarm fire, it was a volunteer leader from the Red Paw Emergency Relief Team who offered invaluable guidance in an evacuation shelter. Further, when I was responsible for logistics planning for large-scale events as the Logistics Program Manager, it was the operational planning and resource management skills that I learned as a Team Rubicon volunteer that helped me to implement effective strategies for my role at OEM.
At an organizational level, one of every five current OEM staff members has experience with a voluntary organization, either as a volunteer or professional staff member. We find that this experience lends to a true sense of service and mission, which enriches OEM’s competency in working with disaster survivors.
On a personal note, volunteers serve more than the survivors of emergencies and disasters. Time and again, it is the warm smile or the sincere, “how are you” of a volunteer at a disaster site that can energize us as professional staff. On numerous occasions, I have seen volunteers leave their homes a few blocks away from an emergency to come and serve their neighbors in need. Or I’ve met volunteers from 45 minutes, or more, away who have traveled from a surrounding county to be there for their Philadelphia neighbors.
Volunteers deliver so much to so many people.
If you are looking for an authentic way to give back or to connect to your community by being a helper, or if you are interested in a career in emergency management or disaster recovery and are looking for invaluable experience, consider volunteering. If you want to enable others to do critical work in the time of most need, consider donating. And to the volunteers who so tirelessly give of themselves here in Philadelphia, across Southeast PA, or anywhere in times of disaster, thank you!
If you’re looking to make a difference in the community, please visit the websites to our invaluable partners mentioned in the blog:
