Volunteer Corps

A local team of trained volunteers that can be activated by the local government during emergency or crisis situations to support the professional emergency services.

The municipal volunteer corps is an initiative of Flemish Deputy Minister-President Hilde Crevits in cooperation with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders.  

Volunteer corps support professional emergency services. They are complementary to existing emergency response systems. While specialized relief workers are indispensable in disasters, at the same time many hands are needed for other administrative, and logistical tasks. For example, volunteer corps can be used for food distribution, cleaning up after a flood, filling sandbags in case of flooding, helping to set up shelters... They never take the place of regular relief workers.

Training them additionally in First Aid helps create a more self-reliant population. 

Belgian Red Cross-Flanders plays a central role in the establishment and coordination of volunteer corps. Among other things, he is responsible for the development of the crisis tool, registration and training of the volunteers, and ensuring 24/7 permanence so that every request for help is dealt with immediately.

A request for help is activated once the following four review criteria are met

• There is an acute or emerging crisis situation (e.g. extreme weather conditions, local emergencies, disruption of basic services)
• Social impact is large enough to justify external support
• The safety and employability of volunteers can be ensured
• The request for help is not within the exclusive jurisdiction or responsibility of regular government services or professional social workers

Example 1 - accepted request for help: Due to flooding, some streets are impassable and elderly people cannot get out of their homes. (Motivation: acute emergency, social impact, deployable and safe role of volunteers, not exclusive competence of professional responders).

Example 2 - denied request for help: a municipality wants to use volunteers to clean up a gym after a party (Reason: no acute need, no social impact).

No. We obviously respect local autonomy, so participation is completely voluntary. When a municipality registers and commits itself, further communication and guidance follows from Belgian Red Cross-Flanders. Municipalities are taken care of as much as possible, financially and administratively. 

Specifically, the congregation commits to:

• To apply for the project at www.rodekruis.be/vrijwilligerskorps; 
• Launch a call to residents through locally available communication and recruitment channels to register for the municipal volunteer corps (after signing a cooperation agreement with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders), Belgian Red Cross-Flanders provides communication templates that the municipality can use without obligation;
• To register as an aid applicant on the Belgian Red Cross-Flanders digital crisis tool;
• Establish a volunteer corps (minimum 10 volunteers);
• Designate a point of contact;
• Designate who within the municipality may launch aid requests through the crisis tool (mayor and/or emergency planning coordinator preferred);
• Have the volunteers undergo basic training and an annual refresher course (organized by RKV and funded within the Flemish offer);
• To use the crisis tool (together with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders) in a crisis or emergency situation.

No, you can also fill out the page to learn more about the project. Once you apply, we will contact you to further explain the process and answer any questions immediately. Only after the establishment is approved at the city council and the cooperation agreement with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders is signed, citizens can apply for your volunteer corps. 

The project is funded by the Flemish government. In a first phase, the Flemish government provides funding for the expansion of a municipal corps to a maximum of 80 members. Local councils that wish to develop a larger corps can do so from the 81st member with their own funds. We will evaluate the upper limit of 80 members every year. Belgian Red Cross-Flanders is responsible for training (basic training, refresher course, simulations), 24/7 permanence by crisis coordinator, development and maintenance of the digital crisis tool, and receives the necessary funding from the Flemish government.

It is a shared responsibility between Belgian Red Cross-Flanders and the municipality. Belgian Red Cross-Flanders is responsible for much of the management:

• Registration and administration;
• Follow-up training and refresher course;
• Communication with volunteers related to refresher courses and simulation exercises;
• Practical support in alerting the volunteer corps (decision to alert can only be made by the municipality). 

In the field, operational direction is taken by the municipality actors present there, who know the area well. If desired and needed, the crisis coordinator may also arrive on site.

No. The volunteer corps is a complement, not a replacement. Volunteers perform supportive and complementary tasks and provide social impact at the local level. They never replace regular responders. 

No, the municipality does not have to register with the government as well. Once you have registered via our landing page, we will contact you to explain the next steps of the process (approval by the municipal council and signing of the cooperation agreement with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders). Reporting to Flanders about which municipalities set up a corps is also done entirely through Belgian Red Cross-Flanders. The municipality itself does not have to report on this.

It is great to hear that you have already established a volunteer corps in your community. We encourage you to link this volunteer corps to the operation offered by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders. We are happy to discuss with you how this can be done practically. 

The establishment of a volunteer corps is the autonomous decision of each individual municipality. If you and a few neighboring municipalities still prefer to set up an intermunicipal corps, this is possible. The municipalities will then be treated as 1 municipality in the crisis tool, which means that in case of an emergency call, the entire intermunicipal corps will receive the call. It is then not possible to launch a call for corps volunteers from one specific partner from your intermunicipal corps. 

Our preference is for one volunteer corps per municipality. Municipalities wishing to cooperate could register separately, establish their own volunteer corps, and then authorize their joint emergency planning coordinator to launch calls for help for each municipality. In this case, however, it is possible to call the volunteer corps of one (or a few) municipality(s) in some cases. 

Belgian Red Cross-Flanders: crisisvrijwilligers@rodekruis.be 

• Step 1 is always notification by the local government itself. Only after that is it the citizens' turn.
• Belgian Red Cross-Flanders provides a registration link specific to a municipality where citizens can register for the volunteer corps;
• Citizens sign up through the link shared by their municipality;
• After registration of at least 10 volunteers, the volunteer corps is established and the municipality can schedule the basic training together with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders ;
• Notified citizens may enroll in the training;
• Once at least 10 citizens are enrolled in the training, it can effectively proceed;
• Citizens attend basic first aid training (hybrid training: 0.5 day digital and 1 day on-site);
• At the end of the training, citizens register in the crisis tool and are assigned to the municipality's corps. They can then be called upon for requests for help; 
• Members of the volunteer corps receive an SMS when there is an urgent request for help. Through a link in the SMS, they can indicate if they are coming to help, and receive more information about the request for help;
• Deployment is on a voluntary per-call basis, with support and coordination by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders;
• In the field, the steering of volunteers is basically taken up by local actors, who have knowledge about the field; 
• When deployed via the crisis tool, members of the volunteer corps are covered by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders civil liability (BA) and physical accident (LO) insurance.
• The volunteer corps takes an annual refresher course (1/2 day), alternating between digital and on-site.

The minimum age is 16. You must also be able to show a clean criminal record. As a volunteer, you must be willing to attend basic training (1.5 days) and an annual refresher course . After completing the basic training, the volunteer is a member of the volunteer corps and can be called upon during emergencies. 

Each local government can decide to establish a volunteer corps with a minimum size of 10 members. The Flemish government initially provides funding for the expansion of a municipal corps to a maximum of 80 members. Local councils that wish to develop a larger corps can finance the compulsory basic training with their own funds from the 81st member onwards. We will evaluate the upper limit of 80 members every year.

Yes. When deployed, members of the volunteer corps are covered by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders civil liability (BA) and physical accident (LO) insurance. Also during training, refresher course and simulation exercise, members of the volunteer corps are insured with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders . 

In case of a request for spontaneous help, where untrained citizens can also help, the volunteers are also insured, if the request for help was launched via the crisis tool and validated by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders.

Once your municipality is registered and has signed the cooperation agreement, the municipality will receive a registration page for its residents. Residents can then register.

Volunteer Corps can be a valuable complement to our regular operation in times of crisis. Corps volunteers are therefore complementary to regular emergency services and never act in their place. They perform complementary tasks and thus do not walk alongside Red Cross volunteers. They walk alongside, and alongside the other Disciplines. Nor will they ever be mixed. Each has its own duties, and its own direction. Because Corps volunteers provide the more practical (administrative, logistical, operational) assistance, Red Cross volunteers can focus on the more specialized tasks for which they are trained.

The volunteer corps does not fall within the departmental operation. They are not directed by the department chairman, but rather by the local board. They are municipal volunteers, called only at the request of the local board. 

Volunteer Red Cross Department company first aid instructors who have completed the necessary refresher course may also teach classes to the volunteer corps. The refresher course course includes information on the role of the volunteer corps in the crisis chain and the registration process in the crisis tool. We would like to emphasize that this will never be imposed on the Red Cross Department and must fit into the schedule of the volunteer instructors. Furthermore, it is also important to mention that the responsibility of scheduling the lessons lies with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders .

Auxiliary service volunteers do not automatically become members of the volunteer corps and we also hope that they will continue to perform their duties as auxiliary service volunteers. Volunteer corps have a complementary role and complement the existing relief systems. None of the current Red Cross volunteers automatically become members of a volunteer corps. However, they all have the free choice to do so or not. We suspect that some volunteers who do not currently have a role in disaster preparedness may choose to join the volunteer corps on their own as well. 

Basic First Aid training (hybrid: 0.5 day digital + 1 day on-site) includes;

• Life-saving operations (e.g., CPR with AED);
• Treatment of injuries, fractures, burns;
• Practical practice sessions in small group;
• The role of the volunteer corps in the crisis chain;
• Registration in the crisis tool;
• ...

The digital portion (e-learning) must be taken before the on-site training day. 

The volunteer corps performs administrative, logistical and operational tasks that are complementary to the existing emergency response systems. By training them in First Aid, we contribute to creating a more self-reliant population. 

The digital part (e-learning) is concluded with a multiple-choice test. If you do not pass this test, you can retry it indefinitely. For on-site training, continuous evaluation applies and there is no exam or test. 

Candidate volunteers who obtained a valid first aid certificate, which is considered equivalent by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders , can receive an exemption. For them, only the annual refresher course and simulation exercise will be financed.  

The training sessions are organized by Belgian Red Cross-Flanders. At the request of a local authority and in consultation with Belgian Red Cross-Flanders, these sessions of basic first aid training can possibly be given by the Vlaams Kruis, or another partner who meets the quality charter for first aid lessons.

A request for help can be submitted by the municipality (mayor or emergency planning coordinator). The municipality launches the request for help via the crisis tool and calls our number 105. Belgian Red Cross-Flanders provides 24/7 permanence by a coordinator, so that every request for help is followed up immediately. Belgian Red Cross-Flanders validates requests for help and alerts the corps volunteers, at the request of the municipality. Only the municipality has the right to decide to call up the corps. Belgian Red Cross-Flanders will support the practical alerting of the volunteer corps. In the field, operational direction will be taken by the municipality actors present there, who know the field well. If wanted and needed, the crisis coordinator can also come on site.

Belgian Red Cross-Flanders validates all requests for help before activation. An assistance request is activated if it meets 4 assessment criteria. The slide below shows the criteria and gives some examples of requests for help which are/are not validated.

If the emergency situation requires more support than the municipal volunteer corps can provide, a request for spontaneous assistance can be launched to which any citizen can subscribe (even those who are not members of the volunteer corps). Anyone who does so via the crisis tool is also insured via Belgian Red Cross-Flanders. That way, in emergency situations, a lot of people can be mobilized in the short term. 

The local administration is responsible for providing PPE. Belgian Red Cross-Flanders only provides a vest (for members of the volunteer corps) for recognition in the field.

After launching your call in the crisis tool, immediately dial the number 105. Through that number you reach our Dispatch with 24/7 permanence. Our dispatch immediately contacts the crisis coordinator to validate the request for help and support you in the practical alerting of the volunteer corps. The waiting time is thus limited to a few minutes.