Schuyler County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is the recipient of a 2022 Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) Operational Readiness Award given by the National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO). NACCHO represents the country’s nearly 3,000 local health departments.
These awards, made possible through a cooperative agreement with the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response’s Medical Reserve Corps Program Office, will build the operational readiness capabilities of MRC units to meet the emergency preparedness and response needs of local, regional, and statewide stakeholders. More than $1 million in awards will support 129 units to build MRC response capabilities (Tier 1) or strengthen MRC response capabilities (Tier 2). Schuyler County MRC received a Tier 1 award.
“Schuyler County Public Health is delighted to receive this grant from NACCHO to help strengthen our Medical Reserve Corps and support the great work of our volunteers”, shared Interim Schuyler County Public Health Director Nancy King, MD. “We are excited to send two of our wonderful volunteers to a national Preparedness Summit using part of the grant funds: Judy Phillips and Marti Dense. Both MRC volunteers were very active during the pandemic and spent many hours helping at our COVID vaccine clinics. This grant will not only help our volunteers gain skills by attending the Preparedness Summit, it will also support them as they apply those skills to help improve MRC volunteer recruitment and retention locally.”
The MRC is a national network of volunteers, organized locally to improve the health and safety of their communities. The MRC network comprises approximately 200,000 volunteers in roughly 800 community-based units located throughout the United States and its territories. According to the 2020 Network Profile of the Medical Reserve Corps, Operational Readiness Awards were the largest funding source for 29% of units that year.
During the 2020 COVID-19 response, MRC volunteers contributed approximately 840,000 hours of service, resulting in a workforce savings of nearly $24 million. Currently, the MRC reports approximately 3 million volunteer hours to support COVID-19 local response efforts, and the numbers continue to grow.
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