Major disasters in a community can overload the capability of first responders. Having citizens who are better prepared to take care of themselves and others during times of crisis will allow paid responders to focus their efforts on the most critical, life-threatening situations. In the City of Tampa, the Citizen Corps Council will help citizens take a more active role in crime prevention, risk reduction, and emergency preparedness by:

• Bringing together the volunteer and paid responder communities to facilitate the understanding that everyone can contribute in making our communities safer, stronger and better prepared.
• Bringing all stakeholders together in order to discuss crisis and consequence management in the City of Tampa.
• Enhancing citizens' pride and desire to assist their communities in preparing for disasters.
• Allowing local citizens to become engaged in public safety, crime prevention, emergency medical response and preparedness.
• Giving local residents a greater sense of security, responsibility and personal control by actually participating in protecting their communities and nation.
• Allowing paid responders to focus their efforts on highly skilled search and rescue efforts while utilizing volunteers from the community to support these efforts.
• Creating an efficient and more organized community - especially in times of disasters.

There are many tasks a well-trained, organized group of citizen volunteers can perform on an ongoing basis.