Wisconsin Emergency Assistance Volunteer Registry (WEAVR)
Join WEAVR today!
WEAVR is open to active and retired health care professionals and also welcomes behavioral health and animal health professionals.
WEAVR request form
For a statewide request for WEAVR volunteers, please download the WEAVR Staffing Request Form, F-02741, (Word) and return it to your local public health agency or your local emergency manager.
What is WEAVR?
The Wisconsin Emergency Assistance Volunteer Registry (WEAVR), is a secure, password-protected, web-based volunteer registration system for health care and behavioral health professionals. Volunteers interested in filling critical response and recovery roles following a major public health emergency self-register and are the only ones that can update their information.
Based on the information collected from each volunteer, public health officials identify those professionals willing to fill the specific volunteer roles needed in an emergency. Public health officials use the WEAVR registry to generate a list of volunteers to be contacted. Those contacted will be given information on where to report and the role that is needed, as well as the option to accept or decline the opportunity. Training will be provided at the reporting site.
More questions about WEAVR? See a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
Volunteer spotlight: Debbie Hammen, RN
As an R.N., I wanted to continue to offer my nursing skills to others. I felt that my experiences in disaster nursing and traumatic incident response should not go to waste. All of my years of experience as a nurse, and all of those hats I wore are still a part of me. That’s why I volunteer for WEAVR. The WEAVR coordinators are adept at matching my skills with what is needed. They are very organized and professional. They provided me with support and stayed in contact during my deployment to a Red Cross shelter for residents displaced following a large apartment complex fire. I received prompt updates.
My experience as a mental health professional and home care nurse really came in to play during my WEAVR deployment. Those in the shelter that I cared for were both physically and mentally distressed, especially when we all had to seek out the tornado shelter as the siren went off in the middle of the night. That deployment kept me on my toes. All those years of nursing skills just clicked in. It was indeed a very rewarding experience. I’d do it all over again.
The benefits of WEAVR
WEAVR benefits you as a health professional volunteer and those with other skills who may be called upon to respond to a public health emergency. Your health professional license, certification, or registration information can be verified by state and national databases allowing for faster deployment of volunteers in an emergency.
Volunteer resources
Self-Care Pocket Reference Guide for Emergency Response Deployment (PDF) - A guide for volunteer responders that includes pre and post deployment checklists and self-reflection activities. This resource was originally created for the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Health, and reprinted with their permission.
For more information on the National Medical Reserve Corps, visit the Division of the Civilian Volunteer Medical Reserve Corps
Wisconsin Stat. ch. 257 provides liability and worker’s compensation for specified licensed health professionals deployed as volunteers during a declared emergency. To be considered for this coverage, you must join WEAVR.