The Ventura County Medical Reserve Corps MRC-STTRONG Award will better the County of Ventura by focusing on underserved populations and areas, providing valuable medical and community outreach resources.
The Ventura County Medical Reserve Corps continues to grow and mature in ways we could never have dreamed of. We are so fortunate to have such a devoted group of volunteers who care deeply for their fellow citizens in Ventura County. With the enthusiasm of this team, we continue to dream bigger and bigger to meet the needs of our community. For many years the team assisted with basic outreach and training. With the arrival of the COVID – 19 Pandemic, we were challenged like never before to assist with the growing and overwhelming needs of our Ventura County community. VCMRC stepped up in a big way, they assisted with testing clinics, vaccination clinics, PPE distribution to the medical community (over 1.2 million pieces of PPE distributed), augmented medical care at clinics and hospitals and more. In the past few years, we have grown the team, increased the training and education for MRC members and have greatly expanded their footprint in outreach and service. In the next two years, we have great plans to continue growing our VCMRC footprint in Ventura County. The VCMRC Team is going to be making a difference with our Mental Health system by forming a unit within VCMRC with retired psychologists, counselors and social workers who will be trained in crisis management and Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) to assist our first responders and hospital communities. As you look at the plans we have for our VCMRC team, you will see that they will be working in Emergency Rooms to assist our local hospitals who have been overburdened consistently, we will be developing an AED loaner program to make this life saving technology accessible to more community members and so much more.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic the Ventura County Medical Reserve Corps (VCMRC) volunteered approximately 12,101 hours with a total HSS calculated economic value of $454,638.32 in direct efforts alone with approximately 60 volunteers throughout underserved areas/populations. We have been fortunate to receive COVID-19 funding like the 2022 NACCHO RISE Award to expand our unit’s capabilities, however that funding is ending, and we are seeking an award from the MRC-STTRONG Award in order to sustain and expand our current unit. Below are the missions we will accomplish in the 2-year grant period and the missions we will continue to support. All mission sets will be built with the support of the Ventura County Emergency Medical Services Agency (VCMRC sponsoring agency) by experienced grant professionals that have a decades long record with the capabilities of successfully obtaining and implementing various local, state, and federal funding. With the expansion of many programs, additional VCEMS staff will be taking on additional roles and responsibilities to support the success of the overall award. All programs will be evaluated quarterly by a panel of VCEMS’ staff and VCMRC leadership.
All new and ongoing programs listed below will be modeled with the intention of pushing out and supporting pilot programs to any MRC unit that would be interested in testing these programs within their respective units. Expanding out unit would allow us to fill equity gaps throughout our county with the following programs in addition to our ongoing efforts with VCPH.
