About the MRC

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, thousands of Americans responded by volunteering their skills and talents to assist the community. Many more Americans asked, “What can I do to help?”.

In 2002, President George W. Bush created the USA Freedom Corps to help Americans answer his call to service and to foster a culture of service, citizenship, and responsibility. The Medical Reserve Corps program is sponsored by the Office of the Surgeon General, in cooperation with the White House’s USA Freedom Corps, and the Department of the Homeland Security’s Citizen Corps. Prior to the Medical Reserve Corps program we did not have an organized volunteer effort to support the response to public health emergencies.

In Virginia there are currently 29 MRC units and over 10,000 volunteers.

VA MRC Vision

Volunteers Protecting Virginia's Health

VA MRC Mission

Community volunteers prepared to support ongoing public health initiatives and emergencies in localities throughout Virginia.

VA MRC Purpose

Each MRC unit is a local program and was built on the concept that communities can help themselves by organizing volunteer resources from within. The purpose of MRC units is to:

Recruit health care professional and support volunteers
Create a framework to match volunteers’ skills with the communities needs
Train volunteers to respond better to the needs of individual communities thereby enhancing local emergency response efforts
Provide reserve capacity at the community level to respond to local public health needs and priorities

Because each community has different needs the MRC units throughout Virginia vary in their structure and activities. To learn more about the local MRC unit in your area go to our FIND A VA MRC UNIT page.

logos

Last Updated: 04-21-2009

Printable Version

E-mail This Page