Get Involved

BEMT

Get Involved

We welcome you to become part of the TUready community here at Temple! Join us in our effort to build a culture of preparedness and a disaster-resilient university. 

The Building Emergency Management Team (BEMT) is a critical force of staff, faculty and students who guide the community during emergency procedures. Anyone can become part of the BEMT, and we host special skills training, social events and an annual banquet to develop relationships and enhance collaboration. 

During real-world emergencies, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, we sometimes need to look to our campus community for volunteers. Temple University would need volunteers for various kinds of emergency activations, such as mass sheltering, vaccine or medical distribution, and disaster mental health outreach. We welcome faculty, staff and students to learn more about how to join a roster of volunteers for disasters and emergencies that impact Temple.

Other opportunities to get involved with the TUready community at Temple include volunteering for preparedness events, such as the TUready Fair or Resilience Fair, being part of emergency functional exercises, including active assailant scenarios and public health emergency simulations, and joining in on other special sessions.

Ways to Get Involved

Building Emergency Management Team

Building Emergency Management Team

The Building Emergency Management Team (BEMT) is a team of building occupants who assist with emergency procedural functions during an incident or preparedness drill. The BEMT provides direction to occupants and may help out first responders on scene. If you want to be part of your building's BEMT, please contact us today! 

BEMTs assist with the execution of emergency procedures:

  • Evacuation: Direct building occupants to and from the designated rally points
  • Shelter in Place: direct occupants to locations in the building that do not have externally facing windows and doors. This procedure is used during severe weather events, hazardous material releases outside the building, or other outdoor incidents where the environment is unsafe.
  • Lockdown: direct occupants to a safe location, and, if possible, help secure the building when there is an external threat to building occupants or campus.

To schedule a BEMT training or refresher, please get in touch and we'll get you on the calendar. 

Emergency Volunteers

Emergencies happen. And you can help.

During disasters and emergencies, we need volunteers.

Temple has had to turn to the Temple community for help during real-world emergencies, including a mumps infectious disease outbreak and the global COVID-19 pandemic. In both cases, volunteer students, faculty and staff from central administration as well as our schools and colleges helped distribute vaccines to the Temple population. During COVID-19, we also distributed vaccines to our North Philadelphia neighbor community. Disasters and emergencies can occur at any time, so it is always helpful to learn about interested volunteers. Let us know today if you would like to get involved in a real-world response.

If you are interested in volunteering, please complete this volunteer interest form. Volunteers must have a valid TUid and temple.edu email address. Volunteers are not required to have prior experience or certifications.

Types of Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers are critical to any successful emergency response, whether in terms of medical needs, behavioral health outreach, emergency housing or food provision. Volunteers may assist in a variety of roles, including assisting those in need of help, distributing forms and information, mobilizing supplies, and providing other essential services. We also call on volunteers to help with large-scale preparedness exercises that simulate different kinds of emergencies and disasters.