Community Involvement
Community Outreach
Educating the public about disaster preparedness is a key part of our mission. This may be done through presentations to community groups or information booths at public events. Volunteer recruitment goes hand in hand with community outreach. Spreading the word about volunteer opportunities is vital to ensuring we are ready and capable of responding when needed.
Outreach and Volunteer recruitment can include presentations on:
- What is Emergency Management?
- Emergency Preparedness 101
- Severe Weather Preparedness and Awareness
- Personal and Family Preparedness
Anyone is welcome to request a presentation, and we highly encourage groups and businesses in our jurisdiction to schedule presentations to help better prepare their members and employees for disasters. Presentations can range anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours but can be tailored to what you would like covered and how much time you have. Free pamphlets and door giveaways can be done as well to help engage the audience.
For more information on scheduling presentations and outreach classes, contact the Emergency Preparedness Division at (816) 325-7167.
Volunteer with Us
Volunteers in Independence have a long history of assisting the Emergency Management Department in various capacities. We offer Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training twice a year. CERT teaches residents about general disaster preparedness, fire safety, disaster medical operations and light search and rescue. The CERT program offers a consistent, nationwide approach to volunteer training and organization that professional responders can rely on during disaster situations, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks. CERT training meets once a week for seven weeks and then is followed by a disaster simulation exercise.
After residents have completed their training, we utilize those CERT members in numerous roles like storm spotters, event traffic control, lost child operations for community events as well as helping our staff in preparedness presentations to a host of social and civic groups.