Help volunteer doctors in your community to save lives.
"Welcome to the ChangeX ICRR Community Champion guide! We're delighted you're thinking about becoming an ICRR Community Champion. We will support and help in many ways, this guide is just the first step and will provide you with an overview of what's involved. We're looking forward to having you on board!" - John Kearney, Irish Community Rapid Response
As a community champion you’ll need to commit to approximately 5 hours a week
Once you've Registered to get Started through ChangeX and you've had a quick call you'll be connected with John, the founder of ICRR. This will help you in deciding that becoming an ICRR Community Champion is right for you. Following a Skype or phone introduction to introduce the idea more fully to you and for him to learn more about why you want to be involved, John or someone from his team will arrange to visit you in your community.
The purpose of this visit is to ensure that you're fully up to speed on the mission and ethos of ICRR and particularly how it works at the community level. You'll get a full induction pack and a full overview of the supports available as you set out on your ICRR journey
On a mission to save lives in communities across Ireland the top 3 challenges faced by ICRR are:
In partnership with the local G.P., ICRR and your team of local volunteers, your community unit will focus on these three areas.
You'll also be assigned a mentor who'll give you ongoing support and advice so don't worry about knowing everything after your first training session.
After meeting with ICRR and getting a full understanding of how you can support ICRR services in your area, it'll be time to complete training. ICRR have designed a tailored training programme for community champions and this will be delivered in small groups on a geographic basis.
The training will ensure you have everything you need to begin operating as a local champion in your community including:
Your relationship with the local medical team will be crucial to the success of ICRR in your area.
After your first visit with ICRR, you'll be introduced to the G.P. and they'll also be involved in the training process so by now you'll know them very well! There are a number of different levels of medical volunteer and together with the local G.P. you'll help to build this team over time depeding on the level of demand in your area.
You can arrange a visit to one of the ICRR centres in Cork or Wicklow to see exactly how they operate.
As well as your team of medical volunteers, having some help with fundraising, communications, financial management will be a great help.
Don't worry if this sounds daunting at first. It'll take some time to get this level but once you've created some awareness in your area and the medical volunteers are responding to emergencies, awareness and support will grow and people will want to be a part of it.
All the skills you might need in your team as it grows will be covered in your training and induction but here's the full list:
Now that you have your team in place, it's time to come up with a local engagement and fundraising plan. This plan will cover how you spread the word about the work of ICRR in your local community and come up with fundraising plans to ensure that the local medical team has the equipment and resources it needs to operate effectively.
Who are the stakeholders in your community that you need to engage with to ensure that ICRR is a success in your community?
Typically these would include:
