Joint Information Center

(Harris County, TX) – The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that Harris County Citizen Corps has been chosen to receive Honorable Mention in the 2010 National Citizen Corps Achievement Awards–Celebrating Resilient Communities in the category of Outstanding Citizen Corps Council Serving a Population over 750,000.

Awards are presented to Councils across the nation that exemplify excellence in community emergency planning, foster successful public-private partnerships, prioritize collaboration, demonstrate creative and innovative local problem solving, and implement sound programs that can be modeled for use by other communities.

The winning Councils will receive their awards during a ceremony later this month and then participate in a meeting with other award winners to share their community preparedness information, ideas, solutions, and questions with selected officials.

Harris County Citizen Corps Program membership includes more than 220 Community Emergency Response Teams, 21 Volunteer in Police Service agencies, Medical Reserve Corps, 300 neighborhoods participating in the USA on Watch program, and 20 Fire Corps agencies.

Harris County Citizen Corps has been recognized as a National Best Practice, with its most recent recognition coming in 2009 when it received the National Citizen Corps Council Achievement Award for Volunteer Integration.  Other awards include the 2003 Best Practices for Innovation Award from the Texas Association of Counties, the 2006 Governors Volunteer Award for Community Capacity Builder and the 2007 President’s Call to Service Award for coordinating the volunteer response during Hurricane Katrina relief effort, awarded by the White House in 2008.

For information on Harris County Citizen Corps, go to www.harriscountycitizencorps.com.