History has shown that when an emergency occurs members of our community are only too willing to get in and lend a hand.

During the Eyre Peninsula bushfire in 2005 over 1,000 people turned up to assist in the recovery process - to help mend fences, remove rubbish etc. These are our neighbours and ordinary folk who arrive at an emergency to help.

A short movie: Black Tuesday provides an insight into how Country Fire Service volunteers helped in the emergency response to this horrific event.

The report into the South Australian Government’s recovery operations of the bushfire found that,

“…………….. with so many volunteers wanting to help ………, the recovery operation needed to have a volunteer management strategy in place incorporating volunteer registration and induction; task allocation and management.........".

In 2006, the Office for Volunteers was commissioned by the State Recovery Committee through the South Australian Department for Families and Communities to undertake a project that would examine and design a system that addressed this need.

The resultant product is the Volunteer Emergency Recovery and Information System (VERIS) (external link).

This system is designed to facilitate the relationship between volunteers wanting to donate their time and the actual identified needs of impacted victims. It provides a structured tool to manage the volunteer resource.

In essence, people wanting to volunteer will be able to register their interest as opposed to turning up at the site of the disaster. The registration system will help to collect important information about the volunteers skills and availabilty which can then be used to match to required tasks.

Once a volunteer is required they will be contacted direct and provided information about where to go, who they should speak to, what to bring etc.

The system will remain dormant until an emergency occurs at which time a general marketing campaign will be launched to alert the community that they may now register their interest. A link to the registration form will become available on this page once this occurs.

Listen to a Radio Adelaide (external link) interview with the Department for Families and Communities SA on the use of VERIS in support of recovery efforts after a devastating storm hit Renmark (external link) early in 2007. Click here.

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