The Together We Prepare AmeriCorps Program

The Together We Prepare AmeriCorps program, administered by the American Red Cross, utilizes AmeriCorps members to improve the capacity of communities to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters in locations across Michigan. In addition to preparedness education, members provide direct assistance to individuals experiencing disaster. AmeriCorps members are responsible for increasing the number of Michigan residents prepared for disasters both large and small. The members will also leverage an additional 400 volunteers who will be engaged in disaster preparedness, response and recovery.

As a Together We Prepare member, you will gain experience in presenting on disaster preparedness. Our members routinely go to schools, libraries, and other community centers & events to instruct others how to be prepared for emergencies. Under the preparedness umbrella, our members also participate with the Red Cross’ home fire campaign, which is where the Red Cross provides free smoke alarms to the community. Our members are trained to go into homes and install smoke alarms and instruct people how to prevent home fires and help them create a plan should a fire ever occur.

On the disaster response side of our program, members have the opportunity to deploy to both local and national disaster responses. Members are trained in casework, dispatch, sheltering, and disaster response. Locally, our members are most often responding to individuals who have recently experienced a home fire, and occasionally different emergencies that individuals need help to recover from as well. AmeriCorps members can meet with these individuals and provide them with resources that may help them recover from the event. Nationally, if there is a large-scale disaster, our members can deploy for 2 weeks to help with recovery efforts.