Emergent, Spontaneous, Unaffiliated and Disaster Volunteers

This issue of Along the Web deals with a phenomenon that has gained much more attention in the past two years - volunteers who respond during disasters. As publicity about this surge of what has been called "spontaneous volunteering" grows, we can expect the phenomenon to continue. Organizations that work in disaster planning and recovery are now attempting to devise systems for managing such volunteers. The results of this planning will be applicable to every community, whether in response to natural or human-made disasters.

We've divided the Web sites described here into three sections:

• articles and manuals about disaster volunteers
• organizations and groups that respond to disasters
• useful sample materials