Rebuilding St. Croix, USVI

Season’s Greetings to our members, supporters, funders, and volunteers,

It is hard to believe, but 2019 is almost in the books! In fact, this will be the last e-newsletter communication until 2020.

Each of our staff of 3 considers it our privilege to serve our community each and every day. From the smiling faces of our youth, to the seniors who have received a new home, to the faith congregations that have received disaster response training, to our funders that keep the work moving…all inspire to recognize the value of community and demonstrate how working together only makes us stronger and more resilient. So, on behalf of the staff, I would like to thank you for allowing us to witness this each and every day.

The recovery from the 2017 storms is slow and there is still much work for us to do moving into the new year. That said, I thought this would be a good time to reflect on all that we’ve accomplished so far!

Since its official inception in August 2018, our Disaster Case Management program has enrolled 183 participants. Even with the limited resources available, our DCMs have closed 40 of those cases! The needs addressed have included: home repair, roof restoration, financial assistance, therapeutic services, food, emergency housing, acquisition of new appliances, clothing, child-care services, and advocacy for many any the community whose voice is not always heard. The DCM clients have consistently verbalized that this program has been a vital link in the chain of recovery. Clients have expressed feeling isolated and overwhelmed prior to DCM interaction and verbalized heartfelt gratitude for developing a recovery plan in partnership with DCMs that helped them navigate the recovery process. Although many continue to wait for Envision Tomorrow & USDA many expressed appreciation for assistance through various DCM interventions that made their living situations more comfortable and gave them hope for complete restoration in the future.  

A special thanks to our DCM Committee chair Karen Hunt, Virgin Islands Partners for Healthy Communities, and our wonderful DCMs!

And while I’m thanking folks, a special shout-out to the chair of our Construction/Rebuild Committee Chris Finch, Lutheran Disaster Services, and Lutheran Social Services for taking on the monumental task of bringing volunteer teams to the island to provide free housing repairs to referred clients. 

The first volunteer team landed on St. Croix in June of 2018. Since then, more than 50 teams have contributed 43,973 hours of labor (a value of more than $1 million). These teams have helped us complete 55 homes, with 6 additional homes currently being worked on, and an additional 100+ in queue. The clients they have served did not qualify for any government programs, some did not receive adequate government funding, and most are senior citizens. 

Although FEMA recently withdrew their financial support of this program to offset the travel expenses of the volunteer teams, our Rebuild/Construction committee doesn’t stop. We are working with National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) to identify other sources of funding—and they’ve already identified a partner that will help with the next few teams! This is also a reason to celebrate the return of the VI VOAD and how this local branch of the organization (of which I hope each of you has signed up for already) brings such needed value to all of our community organizations, non-profits, local businesses, and faith congregations active to make a difference in our community.

Between the work of these first two committees, we have been fortunate to not have to tap into our Unmet Needs Committee for funding. This committee has been hard at work preparing for the day when our DCMs cannot meet all of the needs of a client and require additional support. I like to think of this group as the “safety net for the safety net.”

This committee has created an online portal for DCMs to securely and anonymously upload their client case information to outline these unmet needs. Funders to this group can review the cases and then decide if it falls within their organization’s mission scope to fill the need. The committee is happy to also announce that they have secured the first donor to the Unmet Needs Roundtable from our partner GlobalGiving (who have also generously funded additional areas of the LTRG work!). Additionally, this group created the resources for DCMs and donors to understand the process, function, and technical requirements of the Unmet Needs Roundtable portal. Thanks to our committee members, Cheryl O’Reilly for chairing this committee AS WELL AS serving as vice-chair for our Youth Committee! 

The Youth Committee’s fearless chair, Xawntoia Franklin, and her committee have a mission to include youth voices in the recovery process—for the youth, by the youth. This year alone they hosted a Youth Opportunity Fair that brought together 30 youth serving organizations into one space to inform our community. At this Fair, they had 120 youth and 40 adults in attendance, 10 youth volunteers, 16 adult volunteers, and showcased talent from 6 different youth groups. Additionally, they coordinated a school supply giveaway (serving approximately 3500 students), hosted 2 focus groups, and held a youth stakeholder event. They are going to start 2020 with a bang by having a Disaster Preparedness Troop in the St. Croix Carnival Children’s parade on Jan. 3^rd.

The LTRG has a focus on our faith community largely through our Wellness Committee, chaired by a woman with boundless energy and dedication, Lori Edwards. This year this committee has hosted/collaborated on 15 workshops, trainings, and events as well as participated in 46 additional events. They also created a database of 120 faith organizations and managed the mini-grants program (with funding from GlobalGiving) that has awarded $86,140.84 to 22 different faith organizations! 

The newly revamped Communications Committee, chaired by guru volunteer Laura Saxman, has been focused on expanding the reach and the effectiveness of the Facebook page. Facebook is a primary communications tool on the island. Many businesses eschew a website presence in favor of contact with their customer base via Facebook. While the design, frequency and type of posts are critical for effectiveness, the reach of the feed determines how many users see posts. Therefore, the LTRG Facebook page is only as strong as the number of users and expansion must be a primary goal. So, here is a hint: www.facebook.com/stxltrg

As I said before, the work in 2020 will not slow down! Please help us continue the work through spreading the word, attending our town hall meetings, volunteering on a committee, and monetary donations. 

We are grateful and proud of the work that has been accomplished, and we look forward to continuing to serve in 2020.

Happy Holidays and New Year!

Jay Rollins, Executive Director of Regional and National Relationships

Delia Richardson, Executive Director of Community Engagement

Christina Joseph, Executive Assistant

In the disaster response world, people will often speak in acronyms. In fact, you can have entire conversations in a series of acronyms. So, let's explain the title of this project report (since it limits us to 50 characters): NY VOAD stands for New York Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. Every state and territory in the U.S. has a state VOAD and are guided by the National VOAD. This organization has been in existence for more than 40 years and has national partners representing more than 50 organizations.

Why is this important? NVOAD practices the "4 C's": collaboration, communication, cooperation, and coordination. It allows for civic groups to partner with government groups to fill the gaps during disaster recovery. It is particularly important to us because of the resources that these 50 organizations offer to us as partners in this large umbrella.

This reporting period we were able to utilize GlobalGiving funding with FEMA Invitational Travel to bring Peter Gudaitis to St. Croix for three capacity building workshops. Peter currently serves as Executive Director & CEO of New York Disaster Interfaith Services (NYDIS), Chair of New York VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster), and President of the National Disaster Interfaiths Network (NDIN). He has over 30 years of experience in chaplaincy, disaster emergency management, faith-based philanthropy, program management, and social services administration –including almost a decade in Emergency Medical Services.

Currently, Peter is a member of the Faith-based Caucus of the International Association of Emergency Managers; Guest Lecturer and Advisory Board member for the Metropolitan College of New York, Emergency and Disaster Management Program; Contributing Fellow at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California; Chair of New York State VOAD (Voluntary Organization Active in Disaster) and, has served on the Board of Directors of New York City VOAD for over fifteen years.

The first workshop was part of a Faith Leaders Breakfast where we gathered 81 faith leaders from 43 faith organizations for a time to network, learn, and participate. The day opened by hearing from a few leaders about their faith tradition--what language they use and how community service ties into their faith. 

Peter then led the group through a presentation on emotional and spiritual care and the role a faith leader fulfills in times of disaster and crisis. Faith leaders reported on the gaps that they saw in their communities following the 2017 storms and discussed ways that they could partner with other faith leaders to fill these gaps in times of crisis. The next breakfast will be held in the beginning of 2020 and these initial plans will be furthered discussed and written out.

The second workshop took place during a St. Croix Long Term Recovery Group (STX LTRG) Town Hall. Community members and LTRG leadership worked with Peter to discuss the benefits of revamping and building the Virgin Islands VOAD (in partnership with our sister islands) and the St. Croix COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster) specific to the island of St. Croix. The VI VOAD is currently conducting a membership drive to engage community leaders, non profit organizations, local businesses, and government entities into the work that the VI VOAD needs to do as the LTRG continues to focus on the recovery needs of the community.

The third workshop was particularly impactful and timely for our island. Since the 2017 storms, St. Croix has seen a steady rise in violence--specifically gun violence. There is a severe lack of mental health resources on island and this crisis is direct result. This full-day workshop focused on trauma and the effect it has on mental health and then transitioned into ways that the 25 faith leader participants could take immediate action to intervene and help get this crisis under control.

These workshops would not have been as impactful without the expertise that Peter brought. And his participation was only made possible through the generous donations to GlobalGiving. Thank you for allowing us to continue to make our community whole.