Contributed by Sherwin Levinson, Director – MRC GEM
MRC GEM (Medical Reserve Corps–Georgia East Metro) is an all-volunteer nonprofit in its 19th year of operation. Our mission is to augment community health operations during large-scale emergencies, aid response to pressing health care needs and improve community emergency preparedness. We serve Georgia’s Gwinnett, Newton and Rockdale counties, a highly diverse population of well over 1.2 million people.
Anyone can volunteer with us, regardless of prior experience or training. While many of our volunteers have health care backgrounds, two-thirds of us do not. When disaster strikes, all kinds of volunteers are needed. We provide monthly training opportunities free to our volunteers.
COVID is a perfect example of when our help was needed: Our volunteers provided more than 17,000 hours of support, helping with 375,000 vaccinations and tests. We’ve assisted with hurricane evacuation shelters, TB testing, distributing Narcan kits and providing first aid stations at public events, among many other functions. We have more than 1,300 deployable volunteers who either have an active health care license or a current background check. Our work has received awards and special recognition from GNR Public Health, the Gwinnett County Commission, the Georgia State Legislature, FEMA and the U.S. Surgeon General.
We accomplish all this with no paid staff — we’re all volunteers, including our entire management team. We also do our own fundraising, depending on grants, individual donations and corporate concessions to fund ongoing recruitment, training and supplies, so we’ll have the trained volunteers needed to respond quickly to disasters and other emergencies. Go to mrcgem.com to find out more, to volunteer or to donate.