The Citizen Corps Councils will bring together leaders from the relevant sectors of your community to coordinate the Citizen Corps effort. The purpose of the council is to have all decision makers at the table to manage existing volunteer resources, to leverage mutually supportive endeavors among the represented groups, and to direct the overall local plans to implement Citizen Corps in the community. Each community should have only one group that is implementing the Citizen Corps.

Each community and region will have to determine its geographic boundaries and its own membership. Suggested membership of the Citizen Corps Council, or similar entity, includes the following:

• Leadership from elected officials, such as the mayor, city council members, county commissioners, or the tribal government leaders;
• Leadership from emergency management and from the first responder community: law enforcement, fire, and emergency medical services, and health care providers;
• Leadership from volunteer, community service, and faith-based groups, including a local VOAD group and a volunteer center, if you have one;
• Leadership from any existing community substructure, such as advisory neighborhood commissions, wards, voting districts, water and sewer districts, or other groups that represent a large cross-section of the community; and
• Leadership from major industries or other groups in the area, such as community leaders from educational institutions and school boards, the business community, environmental and transportation groups, including airports, and utility providers. Other representatives could be from specific segments of the community, such as the elderly, minority populations, non-English speakers, and local media executives.

The primary qualification to participating on the council is making a commitment to educate the public on safety, to help citizens take an active role in protecting themselves from harm, to teach citizens what to do in the event of a crisis, and to expand volunteer opportunities that will make the community safer.

You do not need to create a new organization to start Citizen Corps. Leveraging existing resources is strongly encouraged. If your community already has a strong team that brings together all sectors of your community, including first responders and volunteer groups, you may want to ask this group to take on the responsibility of promoting Citizen Corps and to acknowledge this group as affiliated with the Citizen Corps.

There may be an existing group in your community that includes many of the appropriate participants, such as local emergency planning committees, that could take the lead on joining with additional relevant parties to implement Citizen Corps.

There are a number of national organizations, such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army, that could be key participants in your local management structure. If your community does not have local representation of these groups, you may want to contact the national organization to see how you can start a local affiliate.

However you choose to establish the local management structure, this group should be charged with managing all aspects of Citizen Corps at the local level and with bringing Citizen Corps programs and principles to residents of the community. And there should be only one group officially assigned this responsibility.

The purpose of the Citizen Corps Council, or similar coordinating group, is to develop a systematic, efficient, and effective method for providing public education, stimulating wide-spread participation, and organizing volunteer programs to increase the safety of your community. Having duplicative efforts or competing entities is not productive.

Depending on the size of your community, you may need to have a steering committee within the Citizen Corps Council and subcommittees to focus on particular efforts. Subcommittees could be assigned a particular function, such as marketing and communications, or a particular focus, such as K-12 education on emergency preparedness.

Leadership within the council is critical for success. This leader could be an elected community official, an executive with one of your community’s major employers, the head of your community’s economic development group, or a leader from the volunteer community. Because of the first responder’s role in the event of an emergency, it is suggested that first responder representatives not take the lead role for the council.

The most important qualifications for the leader of the council are the ability to motivate team members to reach your collective goal of making your community a safer place to live, work, and play and of providing opportunities for all citizens to participate; and a commitment to broad community representation. If the local elected official is not the operational leader of the council, it will be critical that he or she provide clear and public support to the council through public endorsements and be kept informed of council activities.