About the Nonprofit
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Mission Statement
Our mission is the enhancement of search and rescue, emergency response to the London area and the promotion of outdoor safety in South Western Ontario.
To provide Ground Search and Rescue (GSAR) volunteers for the following reasons:
To save life through education, prevention and rescue
To work with all appropriate agencies to provide GSAR
To provide relief of distress caused by natural disaster or sudden catastrophe
To protect the lives and property of members of the community
To assist police and emergency services in times of need
To provide emergency communications and aid to those in need
Vision Statement
To provide an effective and efficient Ground Search and Rescue Team that proudly supports search and rescue and civil emergency responses in our community.
The London Search and Rescue team consists of 65 trained professional volunteers. We have a memorandum of understanding with the London Police Services, OPP and several other local police services and are the only ground search and rescue team located within 100km of London, ON. There is a demonstrated need for a volunteer search and rescue team in London, ON. The citizens we search for are often physically or mentally vulnerable and their life or well being is in jeopardy. The purpose of our team, to search for vulnerable persons, improves the lives in our Community.
London Search and Rescue is unconditional in our purpose and our love for our community – we will search for anyone the police asks us to search for, in any weather, at any time of the day or night, and we will travel hours outside of London when requested. We are endlessly dedicated to the well-being of the public, and members commit to training twice monthly to ensure our skills are maintained, and we leave our families whenever a call for help comes in. The ability for the Police Services to have reliable, dedicated, and professional search team in London and the surrounding area has alleviated the cost of having paid police staff on searches and has expanded search capabilities. Our team and teammates are passionately committed to the well-being of others. In 2020, London Search and Rescue members logged an accumulative 14,500 volunteer hours in London which is a combination of searching, training, exercises, instructing, meetings and administration. We are passionate about our skills, and committed to upholding these skillsets, in order to improve the lives of people in London.
Each searcher on our team is trained in search patterns, missing person behaviour, psychology of survival, orienteering, map and compass work, GPS and Radio usage, evidence handling, administering first aid and several other skillsets. Several members have advanced training in man-tracking, rope rescue, medical first responder, and search management.
The London Search and Rescue team, in addition to searching for missing persons, runs a preventative educational program called AdventureSmart. This program was developed in British Columbia and we have 20 certified instructors who deliver free educational courses to the public with a focus on educating youth. These programs promote educational safety regarding outdoor leisure. The courses we teach are called Hug-a-tree and survive, Survive outside, Paddlesmart, Survive outside Snowmobiling, and Snow Safety. To learn more about this program you can view it here: https://www.adventuresmart.ca/programs/#.
