Award Honors Trauma Volunteers : Public service: A North County group has won a $100,000 Ford Foundation grant for its work helping victims of tragedy. The money will be used to help other communities establish the popular program.

A North County volunteer corps that provides emergency support to families and friends in time of disaster has been named one of 10 winners nationwide of Ford Foundation grants for innovative public service programs.

The program, which has received attention from cities nationwide that want to set up similar systems, sends out volunteers within 20 minutes of an emergency to comfort the families, run errands, cook or do whatever is needed to help out after a loved one has been killed or injured by violence or in an accident.

The winners, announced today, were among nearly 2,000 applicants for the prestigious honor and will receive $100,000 grants to expand their programs.

Wayne Fortin, executive director and creator of the Trauma Intervention Program based in Carlsbad, said the grant money will be used “to advertise and introduce the TIP program in areas across the country.”

The 6-year-old TIP program has 62 volunteers who respond to calls from paramedics, police and other emergency agencies to help those in shock after a death or other personal catastrophe has touched their family or close friends.

“Someone has to be there after the ambulance has gone,” Fortin explained. “Someone has to be there to comfort the survivors, those in shock and to fix the meal or pick up the kids from school.”

The low-budget TIP program is funded by six cities, two fire protection districts, two hospital districts, the county coroner’s office and Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base. Volunteers respond to dispatcher calls from Del Mar to the Marine Corps base and inland to Rancho Santa Fe, Vista, San Marcos and Fallbrook.

“We’re going to use this money to help other areas start their own TIP programs,” Fortin said.

The Riverside-Temecula area is seeking information and aid in setting up a similar program, and several other cities, including Seattle, have requested aid from the North County program.

Volunteers in the local TIP program work two or three 12-hour shifts a month, receiving calls from emergency dispatch operators. Volunteers might stay for a few minutes or a few hours, doing the tasks necessary to ease the distressed survivors until relatives or friends arrive to take over, Fortin said.

“We take a lot of pressure off the law enforcement officers,” Fortin explained. “They have to deal with the injured and don’t have time to comfort and aid the family. We take care of that.”