Their operation, called Humble Trooper, is providing community relations, incident command, tech support and a variety of other disaster support services. All this without it costing the community, or presumably, taxpayers at the local, state or national level a single dime.
While this is impressive, even more so is their mission of helping each other by helping others. As their mission on the website (great site by the way!) states, in addition to helping communities and regions hit by disasters, they are working to help veterans returning from service:
Team Rubicon seeks to provide our veterans with three things they lose after leaving the military: a purpose, gained through disaster relief; community, built by serving with others; and self-worth, from recognizing the impact one individual can make. Coupled with leadership development and other opportunities, TR also aims to "bridge the gap" between military and civilian life.
It's very possible that many emergency manager leaders around the country are already familiar with this new opportunity. If not, it might be a good idea to learn more. It seems they could really help out.
We've been talking about volunteers around here lately. Whether they really can help or if they just get in the way, as well as how to integrate them into a response. This team looks to be taking volunteerism to a whole new professional level.
