Following our initial coverage of United Rescue’s launch of an emergency response system on January 23^rd, we are back with an exciting update! On November 12^th the first 51 Jersey City volunteer participants, known as Community Based Emergency Caregivers (CBEC), graduated in a ceremony that took place at City Hall.

The recently-graduated Jersey City volunteers were trained for 60 hours in medical first response care by the Jersey City Medical Center -Barnabas Health (JCMC)  EMS team. With that training, they are qualified to provide transitional treatment for all trauma incidents including chocking, bleeding, heart attacks and strokes.

Now, any of the 51 trained New Jersey volunteers can respond to 911 calls in Jersey City using a GPS-enabled mobile app called Now Force, which taps into the JCMC dispatch system. A responding CBEC aims to arrive on the scene within minutes by foot or bicycle so they can tend to a patient in the vital moments before the ambulance arrives. 

As you may recall, Jersey City has an emergency response time of about six minutes per 911 call. Mayor Steven Fulop and JCMC plan to decrease that time to only three minutes through this new initiative.

In an announcement to the press, United Rescue Chairman Mark Gerson said, “Ambulances get stuck in traffic. They are too expensive to be ubiquitous and too big to be fast. The good news is there can be a core of trained and equipped first-responders ready to save lives that can get to the victim immediately.”

Congratulations to all the Jersey City volunteers. We are proud of the work you do for the Jersey City Community.

Interested in joining the force as a volunteer in Jersey City? Click here  to sign up to become a Community Based Emergency Caregiver!

Looking for other ways to volunteer in Jersey City? Check out our local NJ news page for information on volunteer opportunities, such as volunteering at a Jersey City community soup kitchen, and other articles about non-profit events in the area.