Amid disasters, we need a National Service Reserve

The devastation left by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria is immense, and the work ahead is daunting. People from across the country are sending money, collecting supplies, and lending their couches or spare rooms to people who have been displaced by the storms. Still, many want to do more.

And there will be new disasters in the years ahead — fast-moving ones like hurricanes and wildfires, and slower-moving ones like the water crisis in Flint, Mich. We will want to help, and our help will be needed: Emergency response officials are increasingly relying on the public to augment their efforts. What if we had a more effective way to activate volunteers when crises occur?

Hillary Clinton and her policy team proposed an innovative idea last year that went largely unnoticed: the establishment of a National Service Reserve.

Most conversations about national service focus on full-time programs for young people of college age who sign up for a year or two with programs such as the Peace Corps or AmeriCorps. Those programs have touched millions of lives and represent America’s most cherished values. But they require a time commitment that many can’t make.

A new National Service Reserve would be similar to the armed forces reserve. It would be voluntary. Members would commit to one weekend of training every two months. They could be called up once every two years for a defined period of time to deal with a local or national crisis. Employers and universities would agree to give participants the time off without any penalty. And reservists would earn certifications for their work, including credentials for specialized skills they develop, which could be useful for their careers.

Rather than operate at the federal level, however, the service reserve would be organized state by state, like the National Guard. It would generally be called up by governors or mayors through delegated authority, and would be activated by the federal government only in times of acute need.

When I lived in Minnesota, I joined the American Red Cross National Preparedness & Response Corps. I got trained in handling the needs of displaced families, and was called up — literally, the dispatcher would call my house in the middle of the night — to help people find shelter and get back on their feet after house fires.

The National Service Reserve would take this kind of work to scale. Millions could participate. There is so much that needs to happen in the weeks and months after disasters — tons of debris to be moved; water, food, clothes and blankets to be delivered; homes to be built; children to be cared for while their parents focus on putting their lives back together.

We see these needs every time we turn on the news. And the demand is there, too. AmeriCorps receives five times more applications than it has spots to fill, and the Peace Corps saw a 32% jump in applications in 2015 alone.

The service reserve idea is non-partisan and could restore a lot more than hurricane-damaged homes. It could help us rebuild something much larger — national common ground. America is badly in need of that right now.

Jake Sullivan, Hillary Clinton’s senior policy adviser on her 2016 presidential campaign, was national security adviser to Vice President Biden.