Harris County Citizen Corps was established in 2002 in response to a presidential call to action to give citizens the opportunity to volunteer. The Citizen Corps offers residents training programs designed to help them prepare for and respond to emergencies in their community.
Volunteers and partner organizations have logged more than 1.4 million volunteer hours serving our community. So far the Harris County Citizen Corps program membership includes 234 Community Emergency Response Teams with 10,805 trained residents, 21 Volunteer in Police Service agencies with 5,686 trained volunteers, one Medical Reserve Corps unit with 2,653 trained professionals, 18 cities and 304 neighborhoods participating in the USA On Watch program with 3,937 volunteers, and 22 Fire Corps agencies.
Harris County Citizen Corps has earned numerous awards for effectively supporting emergency services. It has been recognized as a National Best Practice. Most recently, it received Honorable Mention in the2010 National Citizen Corps Achievement Awards–Celebrating Resilient Communities in the category of Outstanding Citizen Corps Council Serving a Population over 750,000. In 2009, it received the National Citizen Corps Council Achievement Award for Volunteer Integration. President George W. Bush also awarded the Harris County Citizen Corps the 2007 President’s Call to Service Award for coordinating the volunteer response during the Hurricane Katrina relief Effort. In 2006, it received the Governor’s Volunteer Award for Community Capacity Builder and in 2003, the Best Practices for Innovation Award from the Texas Association of Counties.
