MC-CERT Virtual Emergency Response Team Program

About the Program

Category: Volunteers (Best in Category)

Year: 2021

The Montgomery County, Maryland Community Emergency Response Team (MC-CERT) faced a challenge in retainingvolunteers’ interest over time. This is also a challenge for many national CERT organizations. With support from its parentorganization, Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service, MC-CERT developed an innovative program that offered new ways volunteers could give back to their community. The program is called the Virtual Emergency Response Team (VERT). It provides MC-CERT volunteers unique and interesting ways to give back to their community from the safety of their residence. The VERT program integrates volunteers with technology and has four strategic areas of focus: 1) situation reports during local weather emergencies; 2) social media monitoring and research during local, national, and international disasters; 3) data call requests; 4) training artificial intelligence systems to extract disaster data. Since itsimplementation, the VERT program has completed 50 initiatives ranging from virtually assisting in local weather emergencies to providing virtual surge support monitoring social media data during large-scale international disasters.