With hurricane season commencing Thursday, 1 June and running until Thursday, 30 November 2017, the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) is making its annual appeal for persons interested in becoming shelter volunteers in Grand Cayman.

To facilitate, the Department, jointly with Hazard Management Cayman Islands (HMCI), will hold training sessions on Wednesday, 31 May and Thursday, 1 June.

The DCFS plans to train more than 100 volunteers this year to ensure it has an adequate pool to draw from who can assist in the event of a major storm during the six-month long hurricane season.

Anyone interested in volunteering for hurricane shelter training will need to attend both training sessions to be held from5.30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Prospect Primary School Hall.

During the sessions, attendees will be instructed on all aspects of shelter management. These include basic radio skills to liaise with the National Emergency Operations Centre, the hurricane activation stages, the rules and regulations governing the shelter, safety precautions and other procedures such as signing-in those seeking shelter, understanding what items incomers can bring in, space allocation and child protection issues.

All volunteers who successfully complete the DCFS/CIHM training will receive certification and their contact details will be added to a register, along with those of previous volunteers who have consented to assist in shelter management during the 2017 hurricane season.

As well as being staffed by certified volunteers, some of Grand Cayman’s 16 shelters will also be assigned a first aider from the Cayman Islands Red Cross; others are designated medical shelters staffed by the Health Services Authority.

To sign up to attend this year’s hurricane shelter training sessions, contact Paulette Rhoden at DCFS on 949-0290.

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