LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Volunteers — especially bilingual residents who are fluent in Spanish, Korean, Armenian, Farsi, Chinese or Tagalog — are being sought to join Mayor Eric Garcetti’s Crisis Response Team, which aids individuals who have just undergone a traumatic experience, his office announced today.
The Crisis Response Team responds to the scene of an emergency to give guidance and emotional support to people who are grieving a death or have just suffered through serious injury, violent crime or other traumatic situations.
“These volunteers provide on-scene emotional support and resources to families and witnesses, freeing the LAPD or LAFD to do their work at the incident and saving the city money while comforting grieving families,” Garcetti said.
The team has already responded to at least 205 emergency calls this year, including to the Aug. 3 Venice boardwalk rampage in which a motorist drove into a crowd, killing one woman and injuring 16 others.
The team is also assigned to non-emergency events involving large numbers of people, such as the widely watched delivery of the Space Shuttle Endeavor through city streets and the Kingdom Day parade.
The team, which has bureaus in South, Central and West Los Angeles and in the Valley, is managed by the mayor’s Office of Homeland Security and Public Safety and works with the police and fire departments.
Volunteers must be at least 21 year old and in good physical shape. They must take part in an intensive seven-week training session running Sept. 9 – Oct. 23, on Monday and Wednesday evenings, at the LAPD’s downtown headquarters.
Applications are due Aug. 23. For more information, email lacrt@lacity.org.
