Disaster Relief Fund

Since the disaster date of 12/10. Paducah LGBT Welcome Center DBA Heartland Equality has helped a total of 6,703 individuals directly and a broad spectrum more through item-specific giving and assistance.  We have provided monetary aid to over 14,000 accounts ranging from motel stays, power, gas, rent, groceries, and various utilities.  In late March we continued to offer product and item-specific donations through local churches and with giving partners across the country. At this time we also shifted our primary goal of a direct need to long-term rehabilitating and transitional operations.  Including helping people that received help from local, state, and federal authorities get housing to be able to furnish and replace items that were lost.  We also set up a help center to help families reprint family photos and get replacements for sentimental items.  A lot of the community served to lose these sentimental items that made their home a home were missing or destroyed the look on people's faces when they could go into their new environments with the same photo on the wall or the same type of trophy etc helped to ease this horrific tragedy just a little bit.  We have also blossomed a relationship with a provider of bulk various goods from national retailers and have continuously seen a steady outflow of about 1 Truckload every two weeks this has helped us be able to help families with necessary (as well as comfort) items for the kitchens, living rooms, bedrooms, toys, fitness, bathroom supplies, toiletries and the like.  We wouldn't be able to do this work without the help from our national and local partners including GlobalGiving.  We plan to continue to offer all of these services until all that were affected (and some that continue to get hit) are taken care of and have returned to a "normal" life.

In the remodeling and rebuilding phase, we have volunteers actively working with four groups/families at a time and we have been working with local Lowes / Home Depot and Menards to get people that need certain building materials and supplies that are often overlooked or forgotten (Paint, Trim, Tape, Sealant, Crossbeam supports, caulking access to these for free and at ease.  Our warehouse in Paducah stays stocked with these materials for easy access and fast turnaround.  We also have focused on assisting those that didn't have homeowners insurance and the like to make sure that their repairs or replacements are covered.  We have established a revolving line of credit through both of our regional banking partners so that there is no cut back on the supply to the need.  As we have had two rounds of storms since 12/10 that have followed near the same path.  While these storms have not been near as harsh for those that didn't have homeowners insurance that seen a lower amount of aid from FEMA these storms have added to the devastation..  These resources are helping these individuals rebuild and replace faster with each week.