Information for concerned members of the public wanting to help

Australian emergency and disaster volunteering is changing due to shifts in the nature of paid work, lifestyles, values, new technology and policy. 

ACT Fire & Rescue is urging residents to consider what electrical fire hazards they may have in their home this winter. The focus of this year’s annual Winter Home Fire Safety campaign focuses on power boards. The message to the community is “Keep it neat and it won’t overheat”. Overloaded power points and power boards can overheat and cause a fire in your home.

Nation-wide it is estimated 65% of calls to Emergency Triple Zero (000) are made from mobile phones, with many people unsure of their exact location. This makes it difficult for operators to accurately and quickly dispatch emergency services.

The Emergency+ App offers callers the ability to verbally provide emergency operators with their location information as determined by their smart phone’s GPS functionality.

The website ACT First helps to create empowered communities who are aware of their risks and are better prepared to respond to - and survive - severe weather events or natural disasters.

The website is an easy to use, personalised online resource to help residents of the Australian Capital Territory prepare for natural disasters. It aims to boost readiness and resilience with customised preparedness information for each user. ACT First has been developed by Green Cross Australia with a partnership with the ACT Government and support from the Australia National University; it is funded by the Natural Disaster Resilience Program.

ACT Chief Health Officer Dr Paul Kelly and ACT Ambulance Service Acting Chief Officer Mr Howard Wren today warned Canberrans that prolonged extreme heat conditions are again forecast for the ACT this week from Wednesday 29 January lasting until at least Monday 3 February 2014.

We are proud to announce our partnership with Volunteering Queensland to provide Emergency Volunteering CREW to our nation’s capital and bordering areas of NSW.

Volunteering ACT was announced as the winner of the Highly Commended award for the Not-for-Profit Sector for their project The Emergency Volunteering - Community Response to Extreme Weather Service (EV CREW), in the Resilient Australia Awards.