degrees-National Disaster Relief Management College

I came across this relief organization that has their own college that awards degrees from Associates to Masters based on EMI, college , Red Cross and former military training.
"The United States Disaster Relief Command (USDRC) is an organized military society that aids victims of natural or man-made disasters. Volunteers train and prepare for any event that requires qualified manpower to affect aid to those inflicted by a disaster. The USDRC provides assistance to local communities in rendering aid to the less fortunate or needy as well. The USRDC also provides training to all its volunteers utilizing certified instructors. The USDRC works with all local, state, federal government, FEMA, Red Cross and other disaster agencies."
The college does not appear to have any official accreditation and you must be a member to receive a degree, but the training looks good and worthwhile.
GO TO:
http://www.usdrc.us/ndrmc_college.html
for info on degrees

 

A Google search for "united states disaster relief command" site:.gov produced no hits.

A Google search for "united states disaster relief command" site:.mil produced no hits.

A Google search for "united states disaster relief command" site:.edu produced no hits.

A Google search for "national disaster relief management college" site:.gov produced no hits.

A Google search for "national disaster relief management college" site:.mil produced no hits.

A Google search for "national disaster relief management college" site:.edu produced no hits.

A Google search for "national disaster relief management college" produced one hit, the usdrc page.

A Google search for "united states disaster relief command" produced 94 hits. It seems to be a tiny organization with some grandiose pretensions, ranging from its name and the name of its college to the "brigades" that it claims to have set up in various towns. Apart from its own page, there doesn't seem to be any mention at all of its degrees or its college. The USDRC is mentioned on a few unofficial veteran's and volunteerism pages and seems to be advertising for volunteers.

I don't know, maybe it can do some good work or something, but I'd be leery of making any financial contributions to it until I knew a lot more. Its higher education pretensions seem to me to be entirely spurious.

 

There is no costs for the degrees other than the membership fee yearly to belong in the organization- which to enlisted members is 20 dollars a year and 25 for officers. The courses for the degree are a combination of EMI , college, Red Cross and military.
The USRDC also provides FREE training to all its volunteers utilizing certified instructors.
I found it under sites as volunteer agencies as:
http://volunteers.baou.com/index.php?act=organization_view&id=210&
http://www.volunteermatch.org/opps/opp212473.html

 

By expanding your search terms a bit to this:

• +"United States Disaster Relief Command" OR "U.S. Disaster Relief Command" OR "US Disaster Relief Command" OR "USDRC"

you can get it up to 368 listings (or so it was at the moment that this post was written) -- but still none of them on .gov or .mil or .edu web sites.

I could be wrong, but I get the slightly creepy feeling that it's a buncha' either former-military or military-wanna'-be types who get off on showing-up in military garb at disasters. That doesn't mean they don't do useful things as long as they're there, but the Salvation Army it ain't!

Amen!

Me, too... or, if they're not, then the organization's not doing enough to make sure no one thinks they're not. Too, bad, too... 'cause they might actually be pretty cool degrees for someone working at FEMA, for example, to have.

Also, just for everyone's general information...

Though USDRC appears to be (or at least claims to be) a legit non-profit organization, clearly its "college" isn't accredited by any USDE- or CHEA-approved agency. Whether said "college" is legitimate in spite of that is unclear... in part, because of the very thing we argue about around here whenever the "unaccredited but nevertheless legitimate" argument kicks in: Without accreditation, how's one to tell... that is, without expending an extraordinary amount of effort and due diligence which accreditation keeps one from having to do.

But it is not unheard of for helping organizations/agencies to offer college coursework or even entire degrees that are not only legitimate, but are also accredited by one or more USDE- and/or CHEA-approved agencies. For example, if one is interested in learning how to run a rescue mission, the non-profit Association of Gospel Rescue Missions operates the completely legitimate and DETC-accredited Rescue College; into which one may transfer one's 60-hours of lower-division undergraduate coursework, plus another 30 hours of upper-division, degree-core and/or elective undergraduate courseworkl; and then, having done this, one can than take the Rescue College's additional 30 hours of degree-specific courses (at a tuition rate of only $75/hour or only $225/course) and receive its accredited Bachelor of Arts in Missions degree. In that sense it's really more of a degree completion thing; or perhaps a second bachelors for someone who already has one and simply offers-up 90 of its hours in transfer toward Rescue College's bachelors.

Or, for those not interested in a full bachelors degree, there's the the DETC-accredited Certificate in Rescue Ministry which one may obtain by simply not transferring-in any undergrad coursework and merely taking those exact same 30-hours of courses, for the exact same price.

I'm not promoting this or anything. I'm only offering it as an example of a helping agency that also offers legit and accredited coursework and/or degrees. I'm sure there are others out there.