If a natural disaster, a flu pandemic, major fire or flood affected Lowell residents, would you be someone who would show-up at the disaster headquarters asking “What can I do?” Did you know that to volunteer during a disaster you need to be pre-credentialed?

The Lowell Health Department is asking all potential volunteers to be pre-credentialed as part of the process to become a volunteer. Filling out and sending in the forms attached at the bottom of this page, is the first step in becoming a valuable resource available to the city of Lowell at its time of need. Your signature will give us permission to start the pre-credentialing process, which includes a CORI evaluation. This information will be used to develop a database to provide a valuable resource list of skill sets that may be needed in an emergency. This list is confidential and never shared. Only the Health Department and our local Upper Merrimack Valley Medical Reserve Corps use it when volunteers are needed.

Please feel free to share these forms with family members and friends, and encourage them to sign up to be listed as a willing volunteer in an emergency.  We would like everyone to sign up through the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) of Upper Merrimack Valley because they will do the CORI evaluations for us. You do not need to be a medical person. During a disaster medical personnel are needed, but there is also a desperate need for many support personnel. 

When there is a disaster or emergency in Lowell or the Upper Merrimack Valley, the MRC members become the core group of volunteers. As a first responder volunteer you are a vital resource and therefore are the first to receive any preventative treatments if available. Your pre-credentialing will also provide Lowell Health Department and the MRC with known skills sets that can be put into service and utilized without delay.  Then when there is a need for volunteers and you ask, “What can I do?” disaster headquarters will know how to utilize you.

You should know that by signing up for the Medical Reserve Corps you are never obligated to do anything. If you are unable to volunteer for an event you simply tell us that! We will never badger you or “make you feel guilty”. We want to be “pro-active” by forming a resource group of volunteers who have been pre-credentialed and have provided us with a list of their skills, rather then being “reactive” when an emergency situation occurs and not knowing who our volunteers are or what skills they have to assist us.

Please sign up today and return all the forms (linked at the bottom of this page) to the address below or online at www.UMVMRC.org or call Nancy Burns at 978-399-2549

• Ms. Nancy Burns, Coordinator
  Upper Merrimack Valley MRC
  c/o Board of Health
  55 Main Street, 2nd Floor
  Westford, MA 01886
  

Sincerely,

Frank Singleton
Health Director

Christine Connolly, RN, BSN
Public Health Nurse Manager