The Corps
Welcome to the website of the Joint Civil Aid Corps – a voluntary Civil Defence (Emergency Support) organisation. Its concept is to provide opportunities to learn and train in skills to support communities and professional services during emergencies. People will gain key life skills that will help throughout life, including education and work.
There are three elements to the Joint Civil Aid Corps (JCAC):
1/ the Civil Aid Volunteer Corps (CAVC),
2/ the Community Resilience Volunteers (CRVs),
3/ the Civil Cadet Corps (CCC).
The JCAC is the ‘executive’ element of the organisation. Rather than have completely separate management teams, the JCAC is the overriding body responsible for the management and development of the whole organisation.
The beginning
The CCC was the first element to be started, and aimed at 11 to 18 year old’s. The initial thought was to provide young people with an alternative cadets based on Emergency Services rather than the military.
Research soon showed that an adult alternative was also needed, and was initially for two reasons:
1/ to provide somewhere for cadets to continue on to;
2/ to meet the needs of adults interested in community resilience/civil defence.
Many were not necessarily interested in participating with cadets as leaders or instructors. Therefore, the provision of an adult alternative would give them the opportunity to participate at their own level.
The growing void
It became obvious there was a growing void in society with the emergency services constantly facing budgetary cut backs. The Emergency Services are becoming leaner whilst flooding, extreme weather, wild fires, and other threats, such as terrorism, increase. The need for an operational adult element far outweighed the initial need for a place cadets could move on to. It has become an initiative that would be a strongly positive benefit for society as a whole.
The third element
The third element, the CRVs, was born from the desire to provide an opportunity for people not wishing to participate operationally. It would be for Community aware people, such as the older generations, who could provide a Resilience ‘Neighbourhood Watch’. The aim is for them to work along side and support the operational element.
Ambitious
The organisation’s headquarters is in Milton Keynes, and the plan, like that of Milton Keynes itself, is ambitious. But the ambition is a realistic one and would clearly benefit all young people and adults alike. It would also benefit those wishing to support the project through other means, such as sponsorship or other stakeholder involvement. However, as mentioned above, the benefits will be to society as a whole.