Engaging spontaneous volunteers in emergencies
By Melvin Hartley, 4 August 2021
Fellow's Profile
Melvin Hartley
Fellow's Profile
Melvin Hartley
Engaging spontaneous volunteers in emergencies
Fellowship
- Themes
- Focus
-
Planning for emergency response and managing spontaneous volunteers
- Countries
- Fellowship year
-
2019
- Supported by
- Locality
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South East
Contact
Biography
As Safety and Resilience Manager at Eastleigh Borough Council I am responsible for emergency planning, community safety and safeguarding. I lead for community resilience within the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Local Resilience Forum, the subject area of my Fellowship: the role of volunteers in disasters.
Volunteers can include both trained and spontaneous volunteers, who respond to a disaster by helping during and after an incident. Prior to my Fellowship I was developing a young people's response network in Hampshire and was working to include volunteers throughout our response and recovery.
Because of Covid-19 I had the opportunity to put into practice my learning by working closely with local spontaneous volunteer groups supporting those shielding and self-isolating. I am also undertaking further research funded by the Fellowship to examine the work of these groups during the pandemic. I am hoping the learning will lead to much greater acceptance of volunteers in the resilience community.
It has been an incredible experience meeting wonderful and inspiring people and learning so much from them, providing me professionally with a chance to make a positive difference in my field of work.
Ideas
Activity
In conversation with Melvin Hartley: Harnessing the power of spontaneous volunteers
We spoke to Melvin Hartley about how his Churchill Fellowship helped him put spontaneous volunteering into practice during the Covid pandemic and beyond. After travelling to the USA to explore how volunteers are organised in response to disasters, Melvin returned to the UK just as lockdown began and used his learning to coordinate community support in Hampshire. His Fellowship also helped shape HYPER (Hampshire Young People’s Emergency Response), showing how older teenagers can play an active role in emergency response.
By Melvin Hartley, 20 August 2026
March 2021 Fellow's update: Melvin Hartley
Council worker Melvin Hartley (CF 2019) wrote a blog for community resilience programme Communities Prepared, which was published on 16 March. The piece discusses Melvin’s Covid-19 Action Fund project, which will evaluate voluntary community responses during the pandemic.
By Melvin Hartley, 31 March 2021
January 2021 Fellow's update: Melvin Hartley
Council worker Melvin Hartley (CF 2019) spoke at the online event Flood Response in Climate-Resilient Communities, organised by Flood Expo on 26 January. Melvin discussed findings from his Fellowship, which explored the management of spontaneous volunteers at emergency incidents.
By Melvin Hartley, 31 January 2021
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
Ideas
Engaging spontaneous volunteers in emergencies
By Melvin Hartley, 4 August 2021
Activity
In conversation with Melvin Hartley: Harnessing the power of spontaneous volunteers
We spoke to Melvin Hartley about how his Churchill Fellowship helped him put spontaneous volunteering into practice during the Covid pandemic and beyond. After travelling to the USA to explore how volunteers are organised in response to disasters, Melvin returned to the UK just as lockdown began and used his learning to coordinate community support in Hampshire. His Fellowship also helped shape HYPER (Hampshire Young People’s Emergency Response), showing how older teenagers can play an active role in emergency response.
By Melvin Hartley, 20 August 2026
March 2021 Fellow's update: Melvin Hartley
Council worker Melvin Hartley (CF 2019) wrote a blog for community resilience programme Communities Prepared, which was published on 16 March. The piece discusses Melvin’s Covid-19 Action Fund project, which will evaluate voluntary community responses during the pandemic.
By Melvin Hartley, 31 March 2021
January 2021 Fellow's update: Melvin Hartley
Council worker Melvin Hartley (CF 2019) spoke at the online event Flood Response in Climate-Resilient Communities, organised by Flood Expo on 26 January. Melvin discussed findings from his Fellowship, which explored the management of spontaneous volunteers at emergency incidents.
By Melvin Hartley, 31 January 2021
Disclaimer
All Reports are copyright © the author. The moral right of the author has been asserted. The views and opinions expressed by any Fellow are those of the Fellow and not of the Churchill Fellowship or its partners, which have no responsibility or liability for any part of them.
