Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America 2016. This work is written by (a) 

US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.

1

Public Policy & Aging Report

cite as: Public Policy & Aging Report, 2016, Vol. 00, No. 00, 1–4

doi:10.1093/ppar/prw011

Spotlight Article

Senior Corps—RSVP: Disaster Services and Community 

Resilience During 2012 Colorado Wildfires

Erwin Tan, MD,*,1 Ventana Harding, MPA,2 Christopher Spera, PhD,3 and Kelly Menzie 

DeGraff, BS,4

1

AARP, Washington, DC 2Corporation for National and Community Service, Office of Field Liaison, Denver, CO 3U.S. Health, Abt 

Associates, North Bethesda, MD 4Corporation for National and Community Service, Disaster Services Unit, Washington, DC

*Address correspondence to Erwin Tan, MD, AARP, Director of Thought Leadership – Health, 601 E Street NW Washington, DC 20049. E-mail: 

mhyde@cns.gov

Manuscript received April 22, 2016; Accepted April 27, 2016

Decision Editor: Robert B. Hudson, PhD

Keywords: Elderly, Volunteerism, Fires, Community resilience, Disaster services

Introduction

The Corporation for National and Community Service 

(CNCS) is an independent federal agency that supports 

community resilience (CR) and traditional disaster services through National Service programs, including Senior 

Corps and AmeriCorps (Bullock, Haddow, & Coppola, 

2013). CR is the capacity of a community to withstand, 

respond, and recover from adversity and is a component 

of the National Health Security Strategy (Chandra et al., 

2013; Moore, Chandra, & Feeney, 2013; Plough et  al., 

2013; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 

2009). Traditional disaster service strategies often require 

disaster-specific investments,while CR strategies leverage existing non-disaster-specific activity. As communities 

experience greater fiscal constraints, they need to be able to 

“leverage work in other areas and engage in activities with 

dual benefit for both routine and disaster times” (UscherPines, Chandra, & Acosta, 2013).

We present a conceptual framework of how Senior Corps 

grantees, through the RSVP (a Senior Corps Program), 

can contribute to both CR dual benefit volunteer service 

activity and traditional disaster services. RSVP (which 

originally stood for Retired Senior Volunteer Program) is 

a flexible volunteer service model that engages Americans 

age 55 in six national focus areas that includes disaster services. Although older Americans can be at higher risk of 

mortality during disasters (CDC, 2012; Chiu et al., 2013), 

Senior Corps programs like RSVP can engage Americans 

age 55 and older in support of CR. The RSVP Senior Corps 

model requires no set service schedules and provides no 

monetary compensation for volunteers (with the exception 

of meal and mileage reimbursement), but provides funding 

for volunteer recruitment, supervision, and training, which 

are important but time-consuming components of disaster 

preparedness (Aakko, Weed, Konrad, & Wiesman, 2008). 

In fiscal year 2012, RSVP engaged over 320,000 volunteers 

through 676 grants, providing independent living services 

to 742,800 adults, respite services to nearly 24,000 family 

or informal caregivers, and mentoring to more than 82,590 

children. RSVP also supports traditional disaster services 

through training and volunteer placements that are specific 

to disasters. Finally, RSVP funding provides communities 

the capacity to manage RSVP volunteers in traditional disaster services or redeploy RSVP volunteers in a CR dual 

benefit roles through existing service relationships.

In 2012, the Denver and Larimer RSVP Projects engaged 

in disaster response activities associated with the wildfires 

in Jefferson, El Paso, and Larimer Counties in Colorado 

(wildfires; Makings, 2013). Some RSVP volunteers served 

in deployments that reflect traditional disaster services, 

while others served in their routine volunteer stations in 

dual benefit roles in support of CR during the wildfires. 

The flexible nature of RSVP allows grantees to identify 

and address multiple community needs through National 

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2 Tan et al.

Service. In advance of the implementation of the new disaster services performance measures, CNCS also worked 

with the grant sponsor of the Denver and Larimer RSVP 

Projects to retrospectively review administrative data collected during the wildfires. We now use the Denver and 

Larimer RSVP experience as a case study to understand the 

barriers to implementing the national RSVP disaster services performance measures during a disaster to measure 

both disaster services and CR-related dual benefit activity. 

Although older Americans can be at higher risk of mortality during disasters (CDC, 2012; Chiu et al., 2013), we 

seek to demonstrate how Americans age 55 and older can 

also be part of community solutions to disasters through 

National Service programs such as RSVP.

Methods

RSVP grantees include nonprofit organizations and state, 

local, and tribal governments. The sponsor of the Denver 

and Larimer County RSVP Projects is the Colorado 

Branch of Volunteers of America, a national faith-based 

organization.

In the fall of 2012, CNCS worked with Volunteers of 

America to assess the barriers to implementing the national 

RSVP disaster services performance measures. The CNCS 

Colorado State Office worked with the Denver and Larimer 

County RSVP Projects to retrospectively report on national 

performance measures that include measures of unduplicated individuals served and the number of hours served 

by RSVP volunteers. This analysis used administrative data 

collected as a routine part of volunteer activity. We now 

categorized the RSVP volunteer disaster service activity, 

as measured by the number of volunteers and volunteer 

hours, to determine if the activity was typical of traditional 

disaster activity or represented disaster-related extensions 

of dual benefit service activity that preceded the wildfires.

Results

The Denver and Larimer County RSVP Projects supported 

101 volunteers who served 3,137 hr in response to the 

wildfires. The majority of RSVP volunteers (83%) responding to the wildfires served in their usual non-disaster service activities (see Table  1). In response to the Larimer 

County, High Park Fire, 83 Larimer RSVP volunteers 

served 1,441 hr at their usual volunteer stations in the context of disaster response, which we characterized as dual 

benefit service activities.

The following are examples of activities characterized 

as dual benefit: The Larimer RSVP’s Handyman Project, 

which provides home improvements for individuals with 

disabilities. During the High Park Fire, four RSVP volunteers provided a wheelchair ramp to a disabled evacuee who 

did not have accessible accommodations. Sixty-five RSVP 

volunteers who regularly serve at the Colorado Welcome 

Center and the Downtown Visitors Bureau provided upto-date information to the public regarding the fire, including helping to direct first responders and helping tourists 

find safe alternative accommodations. Several RSVP volunteers who regularly serve at the HELP (His Everlasting 

Love Prevails) International Warehouse, sorting and preparing donations for international disaster relief work 

provided statewide shipments in response to the wildfires. 

Five RSVP volunteers who regularly work with the House 

of Neighborly Service, a human service agency, processed 

clothing and food donations in response to the wildfires.

Although 83% of RSVP volunteers served through their 

routine volunteer stations in a dual benefit role, 54% of 

hours served by RSVP volunteers in response to the fires 

represented the contribution of 18 volunteers who had 

Table 1. RSVP Disaster Response: Disaster-Specific Activity and “Dual Capacity” Volunteer Service

RSVP Program Disaster-Specific Activity and Stations “Dual Capacity” Volunteer Service

Denver RSVP Six RSVP volunteers served 898hr 

during the

• Jefferson County—Lower North Fork Fire

• El Paso County—Waldo Canyon Fire

• Larimer County—High Park Fire

Larimer RSVP 12 RSVP volunteers served 798hr 

during the 

Larimer County—High Park Fire

83 Larimer RSVP volunteers served 

1,441hr during the Larimer 

County—High Park Fire

Hours of service 

by subcategory

18 RSVP volunteers (6 from Denver 

RSVP and 12 from Larimer RSVP) 

served 1,696 hr

83 RSVP volunteers served 1,441 hr

Total volunteers 

and total hours

101 RSVP volunteers served 3,137hr during the course of the 2012 wildfires in Jefferson, El Paso, and 

Larimer Counties in Colorado

While older Americans can be at higher 

risk of mortality during disasters, we seek 

to demonstrate how Americans age 55 and 

older can also be part of community solutions to disasters through National Service 

programs such as RSVP.

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Public Policy & Aging Report 3

received disaster-specific training through RSVP. Six of the 

Denver RSVP volunteers provided 898 hr of service related 

to the wildfires (see Table 1). During the Lower North Fork 

Fire, the Waldo Canyon Fire, the Denver RSVP volunteers 

stationed with the Colorado Voluntary Organizations 

Active in Disasters (COVOAD) helped establish and operate 

the Disaster Recovery Center and served with the Colorado 

Office of Emergency Management and Mountain Resource 

Center. RSVP volunteers prepared press releases and public service announcements and coordinating resources with 

many local and national COVOAD partners. RSVP volunteers also monitored and distributed donations, managed 

updates on displaced people, and provided resource referrals to evacuees. The RSVP volunteers also assisted other 

local faith-based groups in organizing their own response 

activities.

In response to the High Park Fire, 12 Larimer RSVP volunteers served 798 hr in disaster-specific service activities. 

They assisted the American Red Cross disaster response 

activities through case management services to 50 family units and through staffing an Emergency Response 

Vehicle that distributed thousands of meals and bottles 

of water. RSVP volunteers serving with Catholic Charities 

Archdiocese of Denver–Larimer County Region provided 

emergency assistance for evacuees in the form of $100 gift 

cards for gasoline, clothing, food, and household items. 

Eight RSVP volunteers served with the Fort Collins Habitat 

for Humanity to assist six families in debris removal from 

sites where their homes once stood.

The administrative data collected in the midst of the disaster were often insufficient to link a specific RSVP service 

activity to specific unduplicated individuals as required by 

national performance measures. Because many RSVP volunteers served to support disaster response logistics and 

capacity and did not work directly with evacuees, it is very 

difficult to know how many unduplicated survivors were 

supported in many of these examples.

Discussion

There is initial evidence that RSVP grantees can recruit,

train, and deploy volunteers in disaster service-specific roles 

and in dual benefit roles in support of CR. The vast majority of volunteers who served during the wildfires served

at their routine volunteer stations in a dual benefit role

in support of CR. The majority of hours served by RSVP 

volunteers during the wildfires were served by a relatively 

small group of volunteers with disaster-specific skills; this 

example reinforces how traditional disaster preparedness

complements CR. Experience with traditional disaster service activity, volunteer coordination capacity, and 

established service placement relationships may also have 

been important in the Denver and Larimer County RSVP 

Projects capacity to redeploy volunteers in support of CR. 

However, RSVP grantees had difficulty collecting data on 

the number of unduplicated people served in the midst of a 

disaster. RSVP grantees will likely need continued technical 

assistance to collect impact data in future disaster response 

settings.

The RSVP response to the wildfires demonstrates how 

National Service investments can leverage ongoing volunteer activity to support CR. In 2013, CNCS provided disaster 

recovery supplemental grants to the communities of West, 

Texas (industrial explosion); Moore, Oklahoma (tornado); 

New York City (Superstorm Sandy), Springfield, Missouri 

(flooding); and the following communities in Colorado: 

Denver, Boulder, Broomfield, Larimer, and Weld Counties 

(flooding). These combined grants totaled over $750,000 

and represent RSVP’s capacity to support CR across a range 

of disasters. Future research should also consider if the presence of a disaster-specific capacity contributes to the volunteer coordination capacity to redirect and deploy volunteers 

in a dual benefit role in the event of a disaster.

The Senior Corps RSVP response to the 

wildfires demonstrate how National 

Service investments can leverage ongoing 

volunteer activity to support Community 

Resilience.

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