Gabrielle Russon
The University of Central Florida is ready to deploy a mobile trailer across the state to help first responders and victims in hurricanes, mass shootings and other emergencies.
“Today marks a significant step forward in mental health care for first responders and trauma survivors,” said UCF President Alexander Cartwright in a statement.
The mobile trailer is equipped with quiet spaces and therapy rooms to help first responders deal with the horrors of their jobs, and to assist the victims they’re helping. The space has a TV and necessities like socks or toothbrushes.
“The command center, unveiled at UCF’s Memory Mall, marks a national first: the launch of a mobile, trauma care-specific command center — built with purpose, backed by state and corporate partners, and ready to serve those who lay their lives on the line for Florida’s communities,” the school said in a press release this week.
The idea for such a mobile unit developed at UCF after the Surfside condo collapse in 2021.
“These experiences revealed the lack of secure space to support our emergency personnel to do their work. The command center will close that gap,” said Sen. Tom Wright, a Port Orange Republican. “It will provide confidential treatment, space in the aftermath of disasters and help to strengthen our first responders as they go about the heroic work.”
UCF received $150,000 from the Legislature to purchase the “Resiliency Command Center” from a 2023-24 budget allocation.
“I’m one of the few combat veterans serving in the Legislature today, so I understand the visible and unseen wounds of war and the trauma our first responders deal with,” said Rep. David Smith, a Winter Springs Republican.
“That’s why I was happy to support an appropriation of state funding for the UCF RESTORES Resiliency Command Center. Whether it’s the Surfside collapse or other tragedies that might strike Florida, we need these on-site, real-time assets available for our first responders.”
UCF RESTORES, which works in the mental health care field, has offered about 900 hours of crisis response support during more than 50 emergencies across the state since 2019.
