No matter the time of year or the area of the country, when disasters strike, lives are transformed. Every disaster is uniquely painful to the people it displaces. Hurricanes don't have much in common with wildfires; earthquakes don't resemble floods. But all disasters, natural and manmade, destroy homes and livelihoods. Another commonality: cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all approaches don't work to cope with them.
NeighborWorks America's network organizations across the United States are involved in disaster recovery and relief efforts, focusing on repairing or replacing the homes in the communities they serve and linking residents to the services they need to remain stably housed. The network does more than take action when disaster strikes; it works year-round. This allows them to build trust and take into account the cultural nuances that make each community special. Network organizations also approach each disaster as the unique occurrence it is, combining approaches and partnerships to get results.
Where to Start
Rural areas are particularly hard hit when disaster strikes. Very often, the infrastructure and resources aren't there to help pick up the pieces. That's when NeighborWorks organizations can bridge the gap. And there are a number of different important steps that can be taken to approach disaster recovery."Collaborate, coordinate, and share resources," advises Joanie Straussman Brandon, regional vice president for NeighborWorks America's Northeast Region, who has focused on addressing homelessness after major natural disasters such as Superstorm Sandy in New York and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. "Don't try to do it alone and you'll have a far better outcome. Start by identifying each partner's strengths and resources."
Whether homelessness is caused by natural disasters or other factors, it's imperative to establish trust among the people you serve, in part because housing problems are highly personal. "There's no secret to building trust," says Cynthia Burton, executive director of Community Service Programs of West Alabama in Tuscaloosa, an organization that serves some of the poorest places in the nation.
"Get out there and work in the community. Get to know people proactively."
Leveraging cooperation
Soon after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, Straussman Brandon, says, "Everyone wanted to do something." The challenge was to leverage all that goodwill without allowing organizations to step on each other's toes.Puerto Rico is physically isolated from the rest of the United States, so recovery posed special problems. Mainland disaster response agencies, government and nonprofit, including NeighborWorks America, formed an advisory group. Together, they worked to identify needs and match them with the organizations with the best resources to address them.
NeighborWorks America conducted a workshop for local nonprofits in Puerto Rico. They brought in experts who had responded to major disasters in Louisiana, Texas and New York to share information about the ways people in those disaster-devastated states had partnered with federal agencies and others.
More recently, NeighborWorks America worked with local agencies to build their capacity to establish nonprofit housing. That has included classes on leadership and housing development based the NeighborWorks Training Institute model.
Getting to know communities and partners
West Alabama, part of the Black Belt region, contains some of the poorest U.S. communities. Unfortunately, they are frequently the target of devastating tornadoes.Many West Alabama residents own land but live in trailers or homes disrepair. Some homes lack indoor plumbing and the residents cope with open sewage. When a particularly destructive series of tornadoes struck the area, residents had few resources to rely on.
Community Service Programs of West Alabama, a NeighborWorks America organization, teamed with its longtime partners at Alabama Rural Coalition for the Homeless. Their respective executives, Cynthia Burton and Felicia Jackson, formed a close alliance and friendship. That alliance enabled them to have an outsized impact, both women said.
They had a huge head start because they already knew many of the families affected. They worked together to obtain financing and in-kind support to rehabilitate more than a thousand homes. While they were there, they reached out to local businesses that helped them provide new septic systems, install porches, ramps, and handicapped-accessible entryways on homes and more. And, of course, they referred residents to other resources that could improve their quality of life.
Speaking of their two organizations, Burton says, "We don't complete; we promote each other. We respect each other's staff and their talents, too."
