Emergency Preparedness Webinar announced by Volunteer Tennessee

Led by Don Sowers, Volunteer Tennessee’s manager of disaster volunteer services, and Michael Rojas, Volunteer Iowa’s disaster programs officer, this training will help prepare you and your organization for possible disasters in your community and is of particular interest to nonprofit organizations, disaster response organizations, civic organizations, city and county governmental officials, AmeriCorps members, AmeriCorps alumni and anyone interested in engaging in community service.

Guest Speaker Don Sowers is Volunteer Tennessee's Manager of Disaster Volunteer Services and acts as a liaison to FEMA when providing administrative support to locally led Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) programs in Tennessee. Don has been both a professional first responder and volunteer leader for many organizations and disasters. Recently, he was one of the Volunteer Reception Center managers for the Putnam County EMA 2020 Cookeville tornado response and the 2021 Waverly flooding. On an ongoing basis, he participates in coordination efforts with Tennessee Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters (TN VOAD) volunteer disaster responses on behalf of Volunteer Tennessee and Tennessee Tech University.

Guest Speaker Michael Rojas joins us as a former AmeriCorps member and leader with the Habitat for Humanity Mobile Response Team. Michael continued working with Habitat for Humanity before joining Volunteer Iowa in December 2020 as a Disaster Programs Officer. Since then, he has worked through multiple local and national disasters. Most recently, he assisted with the 2022 March tornados, 2022 Missouri floods, and Hurricane Ian.

To learn more, visit the Volunteer Tennessee’s web site www.volunteertennessee.net or email Volunteer.Tennessee@tn.gov. Event registration is open at: https://bit.ly/VolTN911EmergencyPreparednessWebinar.

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The mission of Volunteer Tennessee is to encourage volunteerism and community service. Volunteer Tennessee is the 25-member bipartisan citizen board appointed by the Governor to oversee AmeriCorps programs, manage the Tennessee Serves Network, promote service-learning opportunities and foster community service initiatives and partnerships in which people of all ages and backgrounds engage in addressing the educational, public safety, disaster preparedness, environmental and other human needs in the Volunteer State.