Emergencies are a sprint, preparation a marathon (Lesson 3)

Everything goes triple speed during an emergency. If a framework for translating the good will of volunteers is not already in place, it's too late. Preparing that framework in the absence of the emergency is difficult, because, well, there’s no emergency. Communities that already have a helping system in place are more likely to manage a great demand on their resources. I think the key is to have leadership that can maintain a minimal readiness when there is no demand. In our case, I have been working with a student at the university to form teams of three student volunteers who can be activated quickly to provide assistance with information (a family doesn’t know if their bank still exists. Find out what the family needs to know and report back to the case manager.) At the moment, we have 24 teams of three assembled.

I also hope to set up a volunteer family befriender program, a sort of registry of families willing to work with a family in crisis from outside of the community. I am dusting off material I created for use with “Parent Share,” a mentoring program that involves parents. We have a Press Conference today where I hope to meet Matthew Cobb, Coordinator of Pastoral Care at Mercy Regional Health Center who will serve as coordinator for the “Volunteer Family Sponsor Project.” Lots of details to work out on this. We do have families who might be able to use this support now. Since we are not having the arrival of huge numbers, we have some breathing room to put this together. The phrase for the project was selected at an emergency meeting of the Manhattan Ministerial Association. I like the inclusion of the word “sponsor,” though we have to work out what this really means.