The head of the state Department of Homeland Security gave emergency management officials from around the state a preview of what he plans to say to a congressional committee in three days. 

Jim Walker has been tapped to testify before the House Committee on Homeland Security's Subcommittee on Management, Investigations and Oversight this Tuesday about homeland security in rural America.

At a Friday meeting of the county coordinators for the Citizen Corps, Walker said that trained volunteers are the foot soldiers of emergency preparedness, particularly in states like Alabama that have large rural populations.

The Citizen Corps is a federal program that was started after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and its focus is training volunteers to respond to natural and man-made disasters, and to fight crime in their communities.

Walker said he plans to stress the importance of the Citizen Corps and how well it's worked in Alabama.

"Congress seems to always play cat and mouse with Citizen Corps money," he said. "The Citizen Corps is often considered low hanging fruit and easy to cut ... but the way I see it, it's a low-cost, high-yield program."

Emergency management officials say having trained volunteers can be a valuable resource that supplements their small staffs.

Elmore County recently started its Citizen Corps Council, which coordinates training and other preparedness activities in local communities, and it has attracted volunteers with varying backgrounds and expertise including a chaplain with training in stress management, a former Red Cross employee with shelter management experience and an engineer.

"It's really been a huge asset," said Elmore County EMA Director Eric Jones.

When a tornado hit Prattville last February, trained volunteers fanned out and organized other volunteers.

They patched wounds and turned off leaking gas pipes to clear the way for emergency responders to come in and do their jobs.

Autauga County EMA Deputy Director Crystal Ousley said the help of those volunteers made the difference in managing the response and even the clean up of that disaster.

"We had over 2,000 spontaneous volunteers show up and that could have been a disaster by itself, with them walking around," she said. "But we had people setting up and manning a volunteer reception center."

Walker said the kind of training received by people the Citizen Corps is key to making sure that lives get saved in rural communities, and that volunteers don't get hurt when disaster strikes.

Because emergency officials are often few and far in rural counties, residents of a community are often the first and only response until help can arrive.

Walker said it is imperative to preserve the Citizen Corps.

"People in rural communities are self-reliant," he said. "They don't have the mindset that government is going to come. If we can equip them with some training and some supplies they won't need to call government."