Serve On

SERVE ON is a volunteer emergency response organisation founded in 2013. We believe that those who have served in our Armed Forces and Emergency Services are uniquely qualified to inspire & lead young people & the long-term unemployed to help local & overseas communities through emergency response. Our veterans are among the most highly trained people in the world. Their hard-won experience at the sharp end has given them leadership skills, respect, a 'can-do' attitude, discipline & camaraderie. What better people to act as role models and leaders for the 'lost generation': gang members, young offenders & those with few role models, low self esteem & little or no support. What they do have is unrealised potential. SERVE ON intends to harness the veterans' experience & values and use them to unlock the potential of young people & the long-term unemployed to serve their communities. We will achieve our mission in two ways: Through our International Response Team. This 50-strong volunteer team has over 20 years' experience & 23 international deployments under their belts. The team conducts Urban Search & Rescue, Flood Response, Command & Control, Relief Team coordination & Disaster Response training. IRT members will use their leadership skills & experience to train and lead young people as volunteer Disaster Response specialists. Through Community Resilience Teams (CRTs). We aim to create volunteer CRTs, based across the UK, to respond to requests for assistance from Local Resilience Forums during emergencies such as flooding, snowstorms, power cuts & missing persons searches. They will also help communities prepare by providing resilience training. As each CRT becomes established, more members of the community, including veterans, tradesmen and women, business and retail workers, young people and and older people will come together and be supported and trained in the full range of emergency response and resilience skills.