UMCOR to Lead $66 Million FEMA Initiative to Help Katrina Survivors Recover
Under a new agreement between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the United Methodist Committee on Relief, at least 300,000 of those survivors will come closer to receiving the financial and emotional help they need to recover their lives an
Two months have passed since Hurricane Katrina displaced more than a million Gulf Coast residents, but for most victims, recovery and assistance are still at a far distance. Under a new agreement between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the United Methodist Committee on Relief, however, at least 300,000 of those survivors will come closer to receiving the financial and emotional help they need to recover their lives and become self-sustaining.
According to an Oct. 27 press release by the United Methodist News Service, FEMA chose UMCOR to lead a consortium of providers in a two-year case management grant worth $66 million.
“The program will complement, not duplicate, ongoing government efforts,” said the Rev. Paul Dirdak, UMCOR’s chief executive.
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The grant is the largest ever received by UMCOR, he added. “FEMA turned to UMCOR because of our competence in this sector and their confidence that we can provide accountability.”
UMCOR’s main role will be to coordinate, monitor and report on the work of 3,000 professional and volunteer case managers in the delivery of services to people who were living in Alabama, Louisiana, or Mississippi when Hurricane Katrina hit. The United Methodist agency will also select up to 12 other agencies with expertise in disaster response to help manage the massive initiative.
According to the most recent reports, a large percentage of the survivors have been scattered across the 50 states and Puerto Rico and have no plans to return to their hurricane-battered towns. UMCOR will be dealing with these survivors case-by-case through listening, documenting, connecting survivors with services, and helping survivors make individual action plans.
A great benefit of the long-ranging initiative is the networking between the volunteers. Each network member will have access to case files through a unified reporting system that could help avoid the emotional turmoil or multiple intake interviews and slow response.
“Case management is a concrete way to assure that disaster survivors who require long-term assistance will achieve self-sufficiency, strong families and cohesive communities,” Dirdak explained to UMNS.
For more information on the Case Management network or on the United Methodist Committee on Relief, visit: www.umc.org.
