Samaritan's Purse, the international Christian relief organization, is still recruiting individuals and teams, including youth groups, to help rebuild homes devastated by the Joplin EF-5 tornado. As we approach the holiday season and look forward to spending time visiting with family, it is important to remember that some of our neighbors are still without homes. Samaritan's Purse is recruiting and scheduling about three months ahead, so this might be a good time to start planning a couple of teams from this area. Projects like this which use unaffiliated volunteers are excellent for people whose schedules don't allow a steady time commitment to an organization like the Sheriff's Auxiliary or CERT, but may sometimes have a chunk of time to put in on a large project, perhaps as a family commitment for parents and older children. It takes all kinds to get the job done.
Incidentally, for those who do not have the time commitments for volunteering with a regular response/relief organization, but may volunteer in an actual emergency, there are some quick resources which can help you be more effective, such as this list of "Just-In-Time" training materials for spontaneous volunteers from the Disaster Resistant Communities Group. The videos cover topics such as building a disaster kit and performing shelter operations, are free, and can be done at your own pace. If you can make a larger one-time commitment, we recommend families (parents and older children) take the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) basic training in your community, which covers a mix of topics, including disaster safety, fire suppression, search-and-rescue, triage, and so forth, in one two-day class.