Operation Re-Anchor is a program based on barriers to volunteerism that were identified in loose community listening activities. Increased work demands, childcare, disabled adult care, health/fitness, educational attainment, and an increasing prevalence in Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Social Detriments to Health are all combining to detach citizens from their communities. As a result, volunteerism has dropped across a wide array of local organizations which includes ours. Volunteer emergency service agencies face unique challenges for their volunteers, due to the strenuous and unusual time commitments, exposures, and professional development that is required. A variety of certifications are often needed so that volunteers can delivery essential health and rescue services. The ability to commit to the training is often hindered just as badly as the volunteer's ability to respond to calls for help.
Our agency saw that these root cause issues would not be solved by social media posts and expensive recruitment campaigns. Instead, if volunteers were going to continue to support their communities, then their organizations needed to be able to support them. Operation Re-Anchor soft-launched roughly in mid-2025 with the mission to make strategic investments and partnerships to remove any and all barriers to volunteerism. This takes a flexible approach, with key target investments in areas such as:
- Childcare and adult care: Many community members are parents, guardians, and/or caretakers for their children, elderly relatives, or disabled adults. Being able to contract or stipend trusted caretakers for volunteers enables them to engage with their community through service. In some cases, this may also serve as a short respite for those with intensive caretaker responsibilities. We currently partner with another non-profit for children to partially address this barrier.
- Educational Attainment: 1 in 5 Surry County citizens will not hold a high school diploma, and the more rural and agricultural parts of the county (such as our district) will host an even worse attainment level. Contracting tutors for not only relevant classes but also basic education (GED attainment, reading skills, etc) is essential for helping volunteers develop and advance. Through this process, volunteers also become more marketable and workforce ready even before they pursue their emergency service certifications. This allows our organization to uniquely conquer a community health issue, economic development issue, and volunteer issue simultaneously.
- Health & Fitness: Health is more than the absence of disease; it is also the presence of wellness. Access to preventative health, fitness facilities, and screenings not only enable volunteers to contribute to physically demanding responses, but also adds back to quality years of life. While providing insurance itself is likely to be cost prohibitive and unsustainable, we have negotiated discounted out-of-pocket costs with local clinical providers and gym owners. Behavioral health services would also benefit volunteers for processing traumatic exposures, building psychological resiliency, and learning/changing to healthier coping mechanisms.
- Transportation: Our rescue district does not have a college campus, a grocery store, a gas station, or a major highway. Basic necessities, while not extremely far away, are only accessible by a day's hike or by driving. Our district is, per capita, well equipped with personal vehicles. However, aging vehicles are not uncommon to own due to the barrier of cost that newer vehicles often present. Additionally, may families can only afford enough fuel for absolutely essential trips. We provide a car for anyone with a driver's license who needs one for training (we call it our "training car"), but we also strive to reimburse volunteers for mileage. While it has not yet impacted our agency, anecdotal trends being reported locally and regionally reveal a decrease in youth's desire to drive or obtain a driver's license early. We are preparing for the potential need to help adults obtain their drivers license not only for operating rescue apparatus but also so they can mitigate many of their own barriers and detriments through independence and access.
- Lost Wages:A particular problem for part-time workers without time-off benefits, many families live paycheck-to-paycheck. Taking off to attend classes, assist with events, or responding to calls could put households at risk of financial crisis. While we never expect to be able to replace a full income or provide for unemployment, being able to medium for "paid time off" through lost wage reimbursement has been a major goal of the program.
- Social Determinants of Health (Volunteer Aid): Volunteering, from a psychosocial perspective, is seldom a priority for community members when basic survival is at risk. Having a "volunteer aid" component is critical for the program because it addresses a variety of fundamental needs for volunteers who may find themselves struggling. Groceries, utilities, emergency repairs not covered by insurance, transportation failures, hospitalization costs, and similar burdens may not only lead to volunteers disconnecting or leaving the agency, but can also have a lasting impact on them that may persist through generations. Addressing social determinants of health for individual volunteers also stand to yield benefits for entire communities in both the medium and long-term since community members can remain engaged and productive.
This is separate from an incentive program that provides reward for action or stipend for carrying out duties. This is also not a welfare or benefit program, as not all mitigation are expected to be a check to volunteers. Operation Re-Anchor is a program that seeks to address the root causes of disconnect and isolation that rural community members face. To date, operational funding is allocated but is severely limited. Not every volunteer or prospective volunteer will need all of these services all of the time, but 100% of our volunteer force over the past 7 years could have been retained or been more engaged had they been able to receive some of these barrier Mitigation strategies.
Chief Austin C. Love initially presented both the results of Operation Bryan and the plan for Operation Re-Anchor to the Surry County Board of Commissioners on January 21st, 2025.