ISO 22319:2017

Overview

ISO 22319:2017 - Security and resilience - Community resilience - Guidelines for planning the involvement of spontaneous volunteers (SVs) - provides practical, risk-based guidance for planning and managing the participation of unaffiliated volunteers in incident response and recovery. The standard helps organizations decide whether, when and how SVs can safely contribute to coordinated emergency operations while prioritizing the safety of volunteers, the public and response staff. It excludes coordination of volunteers already affiliated with formal voluntary or professional organisations.

Key topics and requirements

ISO 22319 structures planning around preparedness, operational involvement and longer-term engagement. Important technical topics include:

• Preparatory measures: assign responsibility to lead/manage SVs; understand volunteer motivations; clarify liability and insurance.
• Planning SV involvement: create a documented plan addressing effort, resources and information needs.
• Defining relationships: assess how SVs will be integrated (from immediate first-on-scene help to travelling volunteers).
• Risk assessment and risk reduction: identify tasks suitable for SVs, evaluate hazards and implement controls to reduce risks.
• Selection and coordination: processes for selecting, registering and identifying SVs; defining coordination mechanisms and communication methods.
• Setting expectations and monitoring: clarify roles, provide supervision, monitor tasks and safety, and track performance.
• Training and recognition: identify training/instruction needs and recognise or reward volunteer contributions.
• Longer-term issues: assessing SV impact, engaging volunteers in recovery, encouraging organized volunteering and continual improvement.
• Tools: Annex A checklist of planning tasks to support implementation.

Practical applications

ISO 22319 is designed to be actionable for emergency planning and volunteer management:

• Enables governments and emergency services to integrate spontaneous volunteers without overwhelming operations.
• Helps NGOs, community groups and businesses prepare safe, lawful and effective volunteer engagement plans.
• Supports incident managers in establishing registration, identification, communication and monitoring systems for SVs.
• Guides risk managers and legal teams on liability, insurance and health & safety implications.

Who should use this standard

• Local, regional and national governments
• Emergency management agencies and statutory bodies
• Non-governmental organizations and community groups
• Businesses involved in emergency planning
• Disaster recovery planners and volunteer coordinators

Related standards

• ISO 22300 (Societal security - Terminology) is cited as a normative reference. Organizations may also align ISO 22319 guidance with other incident management and community resilience frameworks to build a comprehensive volunteer management policy.

Keywords: ISO 22319, spontaneous volunteers, volunteer management, community resilience, incident response, emergency planning, risk-based approach.