Livingston County Health Department shoring up Volunteer Corps

Posted on August 19, 2017
The Livingston County Health Department is looking for volunteers to help when its resources are stretched during emergencies. (WJBC file photo)

By Cynthia Grau

PONTIAC – The Livingston County Public Health Department is looking for people to join the Volunteer Corps in an attempt to plan ahead for potential emergencies.

The purpose of this group is to have available reserves to rapidly mobilize when needed to strengthen the department’s capabilities during local emergencies.

Health Education and Marketing Director Linda Rhodes said the Volunteer Corps has been used in the county.

“If you go back to 2009 when we had the H1N1 flu making the rounds and we were trying to vaccinate large numbers of people in a short amount of time,” Rhodes recalled. “We definitely found we don’t have enough staff to man all the positions we wanted manned, because there’s thing we don’t normally have to do, such as triage people at the front door or get them into categories of groups that can get the vaccine that day. So, volunteers are very helpful at that time.”

There is training offered for interested participants. For more information or to sign up, visit lchd.us.

Cynthia Grau can be reached at [email protected].

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