Tulsa Mayor's Citizen Corps Highlights

• The Tulsa Citizen Corps Council was established March 25, 2002.
• Since the beginning of 2003, more than 650 volunteers have registered with Tulsa's Citizen Corps. These volunteers are active in seven programs (four national and three local).
• Tulsa was one of 17 communities chosen by the Corporation for National and Community Service to receive a $275,000 per year Special Volunteer Program grant to implement local Citizen Corps programs. Tulsa is currently in the second year of this three-year grant program.
• Tulsa's Citizen Corps was selected by the national Citizen Corps office as one of 10 communities to profile for a "Best Practices" publication to be distributed nationwide.
• In 2003, Tulsa Citizen Corps forged an innovative partnership with McDonald's to create the "McReady" family preparedness and severe weather awareness program that is being used as a statewide model in 2004.
• Citizen Corps and Tulsa Partners, Inc. received a $40,000 grant from SBC in September 2003 to create an enhanced volunteer Web site and online database that may become a model for other Citizen Corps communities.
• Citizen Corps volunteers have participated in community events such as the Home & Garden Show, Parade of Homes, 4th of July Parade, Veteran's Day Parade, Day of Caring and Make a Difference Day, focused on public education, mitigation and volunteer recruitment.
• Citizen Corps has distributed several thousand copies of A Family Preparedness Guide through area libraries, Quik Trip convenience stores and McDonald's restaurants. The guide has also been translated into Spanish using FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program funds.
• Citizen Corps participated with other first and second response organizations in the IEMC Community Specific Homeland Security training for the City of Tulsa and Tulsa County conducted at the National Emergency Training Center in Emmitsburg, MD in February 2004.
• Citizen Corps' CERT program partnered with Tulsa Public Schools to successfully apply for a $400,000 grant from the federal Deptartment of Education to take CERT training into the school system and train teachers, administrators, staff, high school students and parents. The program began in February 2004.
• Citizen Corps' Language/Culture Bank is collaborating with local schools by providing volunteer Spanish translation for the "Parents as Teachers" program.
• Citizen Corps' Medical Reserve Corps program has partnered with the Lawton and Oklahoma City programs to create a statewide network of medical professionals willing to serve as volunteers in disasters and promote public health concerns in their communities. Tulsa's Medical Reserve Corps has received $150,000 in grant funds from the federal Deptartment of Health & Human Services and the State of Oklahoma to establish their program.
• Citizen Corps' Safe & Secure volunteers have worked with nearly 30 neighborhood associations, businesses and nonprofit organizations to help them become more prepared as a community for a natural or manmade disaster. Some participating organizations include the Riverview Neighborhood Association, the Timbers senior condominium community, LaFortune Towers low income apartment complex, Bank of Oklahoma, Dollar Thrifty Rent-A-Car, Southern Hills Country Club, St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church (conducted entirely in Spanish), Tulsa Speech and Hearing Association, Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League, Day Center for the Homeless and Osage Nation Head Start.
• The Safe & Secure program was recognized by FEMA Region VI as a "Best Practice" in the Neighborhood Watch category in November 2003. One of the partners in Safe & Secure is the Citizens Crime Commission's Alert Neighbors program, the local equivalent of Neighborhood Watch.
• Citizen Corps' Tulsa Human Response Coalition volunteers were mobilized to assist in mental health counseling in the aftermath of the spring tornadoes in Stroud, Oklahoma in May 2003. THRC also brought together 50 Tulsa-area human service and first response organizations for an innovative "tabletop" disaster simulation exercise in January 2004.
• Citizen Corps' VIPS volunteers contribute over a thousand hours per month to supporting the work of the Tulsa Police Department, including staffing the Crime Stoppers line, working on cold cases, and participating in the Spanish-speaking Ride Along program.