AFFILIATIONS
We are proud to collaborate with search and rescue organizations dedicated to saving lives and providing support during emergencies. Our association with these brave teams highlights our commitment to community safety and disaster response. Together, we work to enhance training, share resources, and promote awareness, ensuring that help is always within reach when it's needed most.
Ohio Emergency Management Agency
Ohio Special Response Team is recognized as an ESF-9 Search and Rescue Team (Emergency Support Function 9 in the State of Ohio Emergency Operations Plan). This qualification involves completing and adhering to a rigorous set of standards established by FEMA to designate pre-qualified SAR teams to Emergency Management Agencies across the nation. OSRT is the only volunteer search and rescue team in Ohio to reach this designation.
National Association for Search And Rescue
The National Association for Search and Rescue is the premier SAR credentialing entity in the United States. OSRT team members attend a wide range of training and re-certification programs through NASAR. Among the most critical is the SARTech II search credential as well as the Wilderness Medicine program.
American Standards
ASTM, previously known as American Standards, has established its ASTM 2209 credential for search and rescue practitioners. Many members of OSRT have completed this rigorous series of over 100 training programs to achieve the 2209 credential.
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
OSRT is a partner with NCMEC in their efforts to rapidly respond to a missing child incident. OSRT provides on–the-ground force multiplier search expertise, including search K-9s. This service frees up NCMEC personnel to focus on the bigger picture while OSRT conducts the physical search.
National Land SAR School
In the USA, the Air Force is technically responsible for land searches and the Coast Guard is responsible for waterway searches. Together, these agencies developed the National Land SAR School / Credential. Many members of OSRT have completed this rigorous SAR training and credentialing program that combines missing aircraft as well as missing passengers when the aircraft disappears.
Missing Persons Center
The Missing Persons Center is a nonprofit organization that helps families of missing people, law enforcement, and media with profiling, publicity, and research. It also offers counseling and investigations by experts with hundreds of years of experience in missing persons cases.
Child Abduction Response Team
Many of the OSRT search team members are trained to serve on Child Abduction Response Teams. OSRT provides the crucial rapid deployment of trained and experienced responders alongside credentialed SAR K-9s as well as drone operations.
Dock Ellis Foundation
Dock Ellis Foundation’s mission is to uplift minority communities by uniting missing persons with their loved ones. They work to ensure that safety and having a voice are rights belonging to everyone, no matter their background or economic status. OSRT personnel provide on-site search & rescue services when called upon by the Foundation to assist when a minority individual is missing.
Team Adam
Team Adam provides rapid, onsite assistance to law-enforcement agencies and families during critical cases involving missing children. OSRT search teams are affiliated with NCMEC’s Team Adam to assist in conducting searches in and around Ohio. Team Adam consultants are deployed to the scene and provide technical assistance and connect families and law enforcement to NCMEC’s vast network of resources. Team Adam partners with FEMA to provide child reunification services during federally declared disasters, providing assistance to families affected by such disasters nationwide.
Mountain Rescue Association
OSRT members attend a wide range of advanced MRA training to enhance our ability to respond to disasters and other incidents beyond our core search and rescue competencies.
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
OSRT members attend a wide range of FEMA training, both online and self-paced and in live training events, to enhance our ability to respond to disasters and other incidents beyond our core search and rescue competencies.
U.S. Marshal's Service Kid Identification
OSRT members provide services to the Marshals service with credentialed and experienced search K-9s as well as in conjunction with our relationship with NCMEC and Team Adam.
Community Emergency Response Team
OSRT works to coordinate with CERT programs in our communities to provide expertise in areas of CERT training specific to search and rescue as well as disaster response. Many OSRT members also serve on their local CERT units.”
Child Identification Program
OSRT provides information to families regarding developing an identification procedure and supportive materials for each child. The FBI Child ID program is a confidential software application that parents can load on their phones detailing critical information about each child. The information remains private on the phone until the parent shares it with law enforcement in the event of a disappearance
Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters
Composed of over 70 volunteer organizations that respond to disaster incidents, VOAD helps streamline the number and type of volunteer organizations responding to an incident. OSRT is proud to be a member of this vital service
Association of Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster
Many OSRT members belong to and attend meetings of their Local Emergency Planning Committees. The LEPC program was established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency to provide communities with viable Emergency Response Plans. While primarily focused on potential incidents involving chemicals or other toxic substances, members of OSRT provide input relative to SAR and disaster response capabilities