Coordinator: Good afternoon. And thank you for standing by. All lines will be in listen-only until the question-and-answer portion of the call. At that time to ask a question, to press star then 1. And today’s call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. Thank you, sir. You may now begin. Richard Serino: Okay. Operator, are we all set? Coordinator: Sir, your line is open and live. Richard Serino: Okay. Thank you very much. So good afternoon, everyone. My name is Rich Serino. I’m the Deputy Administrator at FEMA, and Thank you for all joining us today at seventh Think Tank call that we’ve had here - that we’ve had. The purpose of these Think Tank calls is really to provide a forum for the whole community to connect, converse, really share best practices, and sometimes more importantly some of the stories, and find solutions to some of the emergency management issues that we all face. I’m really excited to host this conference call. And today is a unique opportunity for us to discuss the role of the faith-based n the community organizations in advancing the whole community approach to emergency management. Firs, I want to start today by thanking Brian Campion, the Associate Director of Leadership Giving External Affairs Department for hosting us here today at Bennington College. We’re at the Center for Advancement of Public Action -- a beautiful state-of-the-art, green academic facility. And we got a tour of this. And just for people on the phone, it’s an all - it’s a granite facility from granite here in Vermont, and it’s an absolutely gorgeous site. So, Brian? Brian Campion: Great. Thank you. Well, I do have the honor of welcoming everyone on behalf of Bennington College, representative of FEMA, representative of the faith-based organizations and other local officials and interested neighbors. As mentioned, my name is Brian Campion. I am a member of the College Administration. But additionally, I represent the Vermont - I’m a member of the Vermont House of Representative. I represent this area in (unintelligible). As I mentioned, I believe it was to Reverend Myers earlier today, there is a little irony. (Not to be lost), so today’s meeting with the faith-based community is being held at what is (unintelligible) listed as the (unintelligible) college in... But Bennington believes as the - certainly the Center for the Advancement of Public Action, that good ideas and solutions to problems come from everywhere and everyone. And to that, we are delighted that you’re on campus today and in particular at the center. And this building really is a resource for those engaged in dialogue around global - national and global issues. Whether we’re exchanging, brainstorming, sharing or debating, this is the place of (digging deep), thinking hard and working together to make this world a better place. One of the goals of CAPA is to enhance our capacity of citizens in a democracy to converse meaningfully around issues and ideas that affect us all. And certainly this is our agenda today. There is no doubt that the role of faith-based organizations and other community groups in reaching out a hand when our neighbors are in need is an integral and essential asset to any relief effort. I witnessed this firsthand as a state legislator while visiting homes in Bennington after Hurricane Irene. The true relief that was brought to this area by both FEMA and faith-based organizations was nothing short of stunning and essential. And certainly the more we can do to coordinate our efforts and encourage dialogue among all of us, the better. So with that, again, welcome. I hope you will all make yourselves comfortable. And I wish us all the best of luck. Thank you. Richard Serino: Great. Thanks, Brian. And now - to turn to Paul Ford, the Deputy Regional Administrator from Region 1. Paul? Paul Ford: Thanks, Rich. And thank you, Brian, for the facility -- beautiful facility. And I also went along with a tour with Richard. It really is an amazing place. It really is for sure. I just wanted to talk for just a minute about some of the things that have gone on in Vermont over the past year after Irene (unintelligible). The faith-based and community organizations (unintelligible) with the State of Vermont and local emergency management to form nine local active and independent long-term recovery communities. And six of these communities were based on faith-based leadership, which is a real, real step forward as far as we were concerned. They’ve been able to bring citizens together. They’ve been able to bring communities together. And they’ve been able to bring faith-based individuals together to be able to move forward and raise funds. The National Volunteer Agency Active in Disaster has been very, very involved with it. And as I indicated before that the spiritual aspect of it has been very, very far-reaching for - not only for the State of Vermont, but for the locals and the communities around it. I won’t take very much more time. I just wanted to talk for a minute about some of the things they did. Volunteers marked up 300 houses of debris, which is a huge, huge thing. I mean it’s - if you’ve ever been in a house that has been flooded in this, what’s left after the water goes away. It’s really, really difficult to do. But I think you take your hats off for the people who are willing to do that. I think that has, you know, transpired the State of Vermont that is really integral part of the people standing shoulder-to-shoulder. And as Rich talked about, this is a whole community effort. And I think one of the things that this administration has brought in to Rich and Craig in particular is that how do we engage the whole community. I think in Vermont is an example of the entire community of Vermont, getting together, working side-by-side and move forward to make repairs of things that are damages, to make things better so that they don’t happen again. And I think this is the next step forward for them. We really appreciate you coming to Vermont to do this, Rich, very much. Thanks very much. Richard Serino: No, I’m glad I could. And Vermont is a great place. I’m having a good time so far. Next on the phone is opening remarks. We have Max Finberg, the Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships at the White House. Max? Max Finberg: Thank you very much, Rich. And to everybody who’s there, on behalf of President Obama and his Administration, our thanks for the work you’ve already done, but also spending today figuring out how to do even more. And I just want to echo the comments before that faith-based organizations of all stripes, congregations and organizations, play an integral role in preparing for disasters and then in responding to them. And that’s something that the leadership with FEMA has come to recognize and understand, and led by Reverend David Myers and his wonderful team, to really work a great deal with the voluntary organizations active in disasters and plugging in new ones of all stripes to participate in that process in meetings just like today’s think tank and really to be commended. This is one of the things that the White House Faith-Based Office continues to hold up and demonstrate as a perfect example of civic partnerships between government and congregations and organizations of all kinds. I, too, like many of you were personally affected when Hurricane Irene hit a year ago next week, my hometown in the Catskill Mountains of upstate New York, much like the Green Mountains there in Vermont, got really hard hit. And there was 19 feet of extra water flowing down the main street of Margaretville with destroyed homes and businesses and all the rest. And on a very personal note, I was able to see with David Myers and Ken Curtin and other FEMA staff the real impact of what the Catskill Mountain Christian Church in the interfaith council was able to do and coming together to really respond and help people in need. So again, on behalf of the White House, we really, really appreciate you guys taking the time. But also the work that goes on there at FEMA with your faith-based and neighborhood partnership - partners in the biggest way. So, my thanks. Richard Serino: Okay. Thanks, Max. I appreciate the words from the White House. And now as (he just) referred to - is Reverend David Myers, the Director of the Department of Homeland Security Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnership. David? David Myers: Okay. Thank you, Rich. And on behalf of the DHS Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships, I do want to thank you, Rich, the Deputy Administrator, for your commitment to and recognition of the faith-based and community organizations. And they’re really very critical role in the whole community approach to emergency department. You’ve been a real champion of it, and I want to thank you. And I also want to thank you, Max, for your greetings and add my thanks to all of you here at the college, as well as on the phone for giving your time and talents today to contribute to this important conversation. My commitment to you is that we will take your ideas and your recommendations back to the DHS Center, back to FEMA, and use them to enhance our critical mission. So again, thank you all very much. And, Rich, I’ll turn it back to you. Richard Serino: Great. Thanks very much. And what I’d like to do now is just very quickly go around the room in the table here for folks to just tell us who you are, where you’re from. And then we’ll get into more - a little bit of that later. And we’ll start right here. William Elwell: Sure. I’m Bill Elwell. I’m the United Methodist Disaster and Relief Coordinator for the Vermont District, as well as the Chair of Vermont Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster. Richard Serino: Great. Peter Coffey: I’m Peter Coffey. I’m the Deputy Director of Vermont Emergency Management. Philip Steadman: Phil Steadman, Pastor of Capstone Baptist Church here in North Bennington. Sandy Daly: Sandy Daly, I’m United Church of Christ Pastor. I’m here at the interfaith community I Brattleboro and also Chair of the Long Term Recovery Committee in Southeastern Vermont. Ken Curtin: I’m Ken Curtin, Federal Disaster Recovery Coordinator based in FEMA’s Region 2 in New York. (Ann Cooper): I’m (Ann Cooper with the (unintelligible) of Vermont (Peter Redlin): I’m (Peter Redlin). I’m the Construction Coordinator through the FEMA Grant Program, and as well I represent (unintelligible) Long Term Recovery Construction Coordinator. Richard Serino: All right. Thank you. Man: (Unintelligible) disasters here in Vermont. Anne Duncan Cooley: I’m Anne Duncan Cooley. I’m Upper Valley Housing Coalition Executive Director and Chair of the Long Term Recovery Committee of Upper Valley Unintelligible). (Miley Nichole): I’m (Miley Nichole), (Unintelligible) Region 1 Voluntary Agency Liaison. (Nancy Churngill): And I’m (Nancy Churngill), (unintelligible). Michael Fawcett: Mike Fawcett, American Red Cross Government Liaison Officer for (North group). Richard Serino: Okay. (Lisa Roll): (Lisa Roll), (unintelligible) Long Term Recovery. (Kate Holiday): (Kate Holiday), FEMA Voluntary Agency Liaison (unintelligible), Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. Kristen Jerome: Kristen Jerome, Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. John Stewart: John Stewart, Voluntary Agency Liaison for FEMA Region 1. Chris Baker: Chris Baker for the American Red Cross. And I’m also the chair for Connecticut VOAD. Harold Colston: Hal Colston, Chair of Vermont to provide voluntary management and disasters. Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup: I’m Christopher Kaufman Ilstrup. I’m with the Vermont Community Foundation. Man: (Unintelligible), Executive Vice President of (unintelligible) USA. Vivian Orlowski: Vivian Orlowski, Faith Community Partnering Emergency Preparedness Project of the Western Region of Homeland Security Advisory Council. (Bruce): I’m (Bruce) (Unintelligible). I’m with (unintelligible), Vermont. Woman: (Unintelligible). Richard Serino: Okay. (Robert Rose): Excuse me. (Robert Rose), (Unintelligible) Region 1. Terry Monrad: I’m Terry Monrad, the Executive Officer for the Department of Homeland Security Faith Based & Neighborhood Partnerships. Richard Serino: Great. Well, thank you, everybody. And on behalf of Administrator Fugate, Craig, I want to thank you all for joining me here in Bennington Vermont. And just to set the tone for the people that are on the phone, we’re at the base of the - what - Green Mountains on one side and the Mountains - Taconic Mountains on the other side, at this beautiful setting. If you hear this little squeak on the phone every once in a while, that’s because we currently have a few... Man: Cricket. Richard Serino: ...crickets that are... ((Crosstalk)) Richard Serino: ...in the room here. So if you hear that little noise in the background, there’s nothing wrong with your phone. It’s just the crickets that we have in the room with us. Just to sort of let you know that we’re in Vermont. But I think it’s important that we have over 250 people that are on the phone now and still more people calling in. And people will have the ability to ask questions on the phone -- we’ll get to those shortly -- as well as to tweet questions in. And they can follow us on Twitter at #femathinktank -- #femathinktank. And we’ll be taking questions and comments from there as well. And we recognized that a lot of people are on the phone here today and recently aware of some of the, you know, what goes on in the frontlines, especially what happens in your community. People here and on the phone deal with these challenges on the ground, and very quickly, as the challenges come up, really find creative solutions to those. We’re now looking for your expertise, both people here in the room and on the phone, to share your expertise in how we can develop and further some of these creative solutions with the entire emergency management team across the country. As I mentioned, this is the seventh call. We’ve had previous calls at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Missouri Southern State University, Joplin, at the Texas Medical Center, and most recently in Colorado Springs at Northcom where we brought together the public-private partnership and how people work together. And each one of those calls we had hundreds and hundreds of people on the call. In addition to that, we have a social media platform where we’re able to engage the whole community for people to submit their questions online. As I mentioned, we have the large screen here that we’re following Twitter on. And this really gives us an opportunity to have really a conversation and look at the questions and comments that people have. Last one that I - an example we had where we brought different people together, we had Dr. Lurie actually. For the first time, we co-hosted one with the - Dr. Lurie is the Assistant Secretary Preparedness and Response, Department of Health and Human Services. And we did that in Texas and looked at some of the Texas network - emergency tracking network that they have to track people and track patients during a disaster. But it’s also importantly that I think that, you know, as we look at this in Twitter when we did that call, it was the seventh most active Twitter account during the two hours that we were doing this. It even beat out some of the, you know, really important things that were going on with some of the celebrities for a while. But I think as we look at, you know, some of the discussions that have happened, we had a very lively discussion in Colorado, which included this Citigroup, you know, Citibank, Citigroup that actually look at how we can do financial literacy project in what’s coming out and how we can develop that more and send that out for disaster preparedness for people to understand some of the financial impacts of that as well. We received, since we launched this almost a year ago, literally hundreds of ideas and comments. And we really look forward to the continued input from folks both online. And I’m really, you know, thrilled to be here in Vermont for many reasons. I think that it’s a beautiful place. It’s a great time of year to be here. And it’s also home for me in Region 1. But, you know, the topics we’re going to focus on today, we have three topics. First is the local story of Hurricane Irene and working with the faith-based communities’ organizations here and across Vermont. The second topic is creating mutual beneficial partnerships between diverse faith-based and community organizations and emergency managers. And our presenters will be on the phone for part of that discussion. And the third topic is identifying what steps emergency managers, faith-based and community organizations can take to enhance existing partnerships. At the end, we’ll set aside some time for open discussion to really talk about each of these at the end of each one of those to get into discussion. At the end of the call, we’ll open it up to lots of different topics that people want to. But, you know, we’ll talk and (re-present) for a coupe of minutes. And then we’ll open it up to questions in the room and on the phone and Twitter. But first, I’d turn it over to Kathy Fields. She’ll have a very important message from our lawyers. We have to do the lawyer (again). Kathy Fields: We do. Thank you, Rich. Just very quickly, this is the Federal Advisory Committee Act disclaimer. FEMA recognizes that the best solutions to challenges we face are generally by the people in communities who are closest to these challenges. The goal of these monthly calls - conference calls is to listen to and discuss ideas generated by individual members of our community. FEMA is not looking for and will not accept group or consensus recommendations from FEMA conference call participants. Also, FEMA will not be making any decisions on agency positions or policy during this call. Instead, the agency is seeking individual viewpoints from a broad and diverse spectrum of stakeholders. Everyone’s input is valued. And we thank you for participating on our call today. Richard Serino: And thank you for that message from our lawyers -- some of the things that we have to be able to do. And when people are asking questions speaking - just I ask you to speak up so people on the phones can hear and able to, you know, hear what you’re saying. And again, for people on the line, you can get us by #femathinktank. And if you want to ask a question when the time comes, you press star 1. And the operator can place you in the queue to ask a question. But with that, the first topic today is the local story of Hurricane Irene, working with the faith-based community and the community organizations across Vermont. To start the conversation, we have Bill Elwell, United Methodist Minister in Vermont, VOAD Chair; Pastor Philip Steadman, the Capstone Baptist Church in Bennington, Vermont; and Peter Coffey, the State Emergency Management Director of Vermont. Each presenter will speak about Hurricane Irene, their effects to their community, what they did, the lessons they learned, best practices used during the flood. And we’ll start off with Bill. William Elwell: I think before (unintelligible) Irene, we have to look at the spring floods of 2011 because that’s - we have a small VOAD here in Vermont. And we have some really close relationships. We’ve really worked together at different denominations, working with the Red Cross for the Emergency Management, building relationships, getting prepared for the storms that would come. In the spring, we really got to put some of that into action from the first week of May until the day before Irene hit. We were able to (mark out) operation. That was the leadership came from both the United Methodists and the Southern Baptist Church, working with Emergency Management and AmeriCorp triple C to (mark out) many homes and to really track where people (at the process). We learned a lot of lessons there that we could turn over to serve Vermont as Irene hit to do some voluntary management during that time. As Irene hit, we continued to work closely together. But we also had a lot of faith-based groups that wanted to come into Vermont. And we’re - so we worked a lot, helping them to find different areas that needed help, so that everybody was working in the same community because as some of you that are traveling around Vermont know, it’s not only you can get from one spot to the other (unintelligible). Following that, our goal really began to look at long-term recovery and what were some of the needs that were going to need to happen. We worked with the government office to establish the Vermont Disaster Relief Fund. And so we had three organizations more than being United Methodist Church with myself as representative, the other one being Southern Baptist Church and the United Way being the third VOAD member. We became part of that long-term - that Disaster Relief Fund. The governor appointed three officials that were kind of from the philanthropist community here in Vermont; had some great financial and leadership gift they brought to the table. And then six of us got together (two, three more). And so we were able to launch a fundraising campaign and to begin to collect money and put in policies the procedures that would help us to use their money to meet unmet needs of Vermonters in the coming weeks, months. And we’re really being able to put that money to good use during this year. Our faith-based community here in Vermont played a major role here. We’d take a lot of input from the local churches about what (are out there for need), as well as all the local long-term recovery committees that make up our long-term recovery network in Vermont. We’ve been able to take a lot of inputs from them that influenced the decision-making. We’ve also leaned on a lot of our national faith-based partners and (unintelligible), ISS, United Church of Chris, just trying to take best practices from them and apply to what was going on. And I really - you know, I used that word “long-term recovery network” because at first, we just started looking at how working with FEMA (VALs) and different folks, how to, you know, how do you start a local long-term recovery community here and a long-term recovery community there. And that of course just happened at the local level. And we’ve tried to keep everybody connected and to build a network. We have a lot of conference calls every week as we moved from response into recovery really keep everybody connected. We’ve shared best practices from one group to the other to try to standardize them across the state to make things flow a little bit smoothly. And I think that’s one of the things that gone well. You know, we’ve got a lot of bumps and rocky (pieces) along the road. But, you know, we’ve overcome those challenges and just continue to build stronger relationships. And I think that’s the one thing that’s come out of that for all of us, is that relationships at the heart of the work that we need to do. And by staying focused on the needs of survivors and being willing to put aside our individual ideas, our organizational - some of our, you know, organization missions, you know, keeping our mission in mind, but yet saying, okay, how can this work with everybody else to the best - to take the best care of the people in need of our help. I think that’s really a successful piece here in Vermont. Richard Serino: Great. Thanks. Thanks very much, Bill. Pastor Steadman? Philip Steadman: My experience with Hurricane Irene was certainly different than Bill because he was coming from a point of having experienced the disaster floods that we had up north and being the state VOAD chair. For us, what’s happened is this new member of the church discovered she was living without a roof on her house. She’s been given (unintelligible) for several years. And when we figured that out, we (unintelligible). And before we got a chance to take the ladder (unintelligible) and pick up the shingles off the ground, Hurricane Irene took her house up and its foundation. And it was a stunner for us. We were already back there trying to help her get her belongings out, to find her a place to stay. And we’d met many of the neighbors as a result of the work on the roof in that preceding week. And we started saying that they were bailing out the basements, the shoveling, the shoveling and we just started making phone calls to local people for - you know, to come and help. And so we were again down there before I would say the municipal authorities were able to get in. We were already there because we were the neighbors. And we had stronger relationships already. But I started getting phone calls from different folks in my denomination from around the country -- “Hey, do you need any help? My first response is no, we’re all right. The church didn’t (get wet), you know. But I discovered that these people were already organized for disaster relief, which is something I’m not familiar with. And I invited the disaster relief team that the Southern Baptist wanted to send us to use our church building as their headquarters. I didn’t know what I let myself in for. For the next six weeks, we had dozens of people coming in and out of the community, trucks and trailers. We were visiting every home that we could find. It’s interesting that one of the things that we saw that there was no general attempt to go door-to-door to discover who was in need. And so there’s a lot of advertising to get people to volunteer that they were in need. Vermonters tend to be (unintelligible). And they’re going to try to figure it out themselves even if they’re not really able to. So we ended up going door-to-door in areas that we knew were hard to get. We relied on information from FEMA and also from the Crazy Russian Girls Bakery, which is they found - I’ll tell you what, Natasha at the bakery has a good Web site, Facebook page and also the cupcakes. And she had a couple of (pals) and followers on Facebook. And they started, you know, writing to her saying, well what’s needed. And she’d say, well, we need 20 gallons of bleach so we can clean up some wells. And the next thing you know, there cam the bleach. Before long, food, water and other cleaning supplies that were being store-housed right there at the bakery in addition to making tons of food that they send out all over the area; not just this town, but surrounding towns. So the interfaith council in Bennington actually moved someone into the bakery to set their area in response so that it could get on with (unintelligible). But they worked closely with us. And what we did since we started out bailing out basements and shoveling mud, we got a handle on who was doing what. We didn’t know in advance. But we just decided we wouldn’t duplicate efforts with anyone. If somebody donated water, we send that right over the bakery. If somebody had clothing, it went right to the folks who always contribute clothing. And we’re stock with the mud out. And in the aftermath, we have an interest in our local church in participating in these things going forward. But also I would say in our community - in the church’s community, there’s an interest in getting more organized than being prepared in advance before the next thing comes along. Richard Serino: Great. Thank you, Pastor. That was great. And one of the places that I was at just before I started this call was meeting with Natasha, the Crazy Russian Girls Bakery. And hearing her tell the story firsthand was impressive. And she - the work that she did - and she kept saying, oh it wasn’t me; it wasn’t me. But you can just see all the work and the knowledge of what she was able to do because she had the social media site that probably - and probably one of the most active ones in Town. That’s where people flocked to. Peter? Peter Coffey: Yes, thank you. In my six years in Vermont Emergency Management, I’ve been attending the VOAD meetings regularly. When I first started, it was usually the President, the Secretary and myself. And as time went on, we changed leaderships a couple of times. And when Bill Elwell moved to Bristol to take the pastorship at the church right across from the fire station - and I was in that town and Bill and I are now in the same fire department together. And he found out what I did. And he said, oh I’d like to get involved in that. And I said, I got a deal for you. ((Crosstalk)) Peter Coffey: He hasn’t forgiven me, I don’t think. But he’s clearly done a tremendous job as our chair. So some of these things that we did at Emergency Management and going, again, going back to the spring flooding because sometimes that’s kind of put on the backburner, it was an incredible thing for us. And we had actually along with (chaplain) - there were places that were flooded for as long as six weeks because there’s just no outlet to that lake in Canada. So we were able to provide (staff number) to VOAD to assist them in doing logistics and gathering all the information and doing the scheduling and that kind of thing. So that was a huge help for both sides because we had that liaison. And it puts that person in there on full-time basis to help the VOAD folks getting that done. I think after Irene, one of the biggest things that was done that made a big difference was the Governor, less than 48 hours after the storm had left, appointed an Irene Recovery Officer. He actually took the Secretary of Administration from the previous administration of the Office of Political Party. And he got a leave from his private sector job for four months to get this thing picked up. And it was a huge thing to have that central person. He reported directly to the Governor. And they went out and coordinated these community meetings. There were 11 of them held around the state. They were usually the secretary or commissioner from some of the top agencies and departments in Vermont that were there. People came in. They shared information. It was all taken down and the community and the people really felt good about, wow, the state is listening to us; the government is listening to us. And that carried on into some of these other long-term recovery groups that have been mentioned already. And you’ll probably hear a lot more about later on. So that was a real great connection from government to the communities through - and then connecting the VOAD folks, the volunteers. And I don’t think we have a handle today on the number of small groups of volunteers that Pastor Steadman was talking about. This has popped up all over the place. We just keep hearing about it a year later how many of those there were. So that’s pretty incredible. And the third thing, which may be off topic a little bit, is the donations management. And it kind of intertwined a little bit with volunteers. So we had a plan in our state emergency operations plan. I was quickly overwhelmed because this Irene got a lot of national attention for the State of Vermont, which we’re not used to. And there were donations; people wanted to bring a lot of things. And it’s how do we coordinate that, which resulted in some - hiring some temporary people to really look at the plan, rewrite the plan. And that took a couple of months. But that is done now. We will get to have a chance to test it. But that’s just a huge thing. We have it in plan. We’d never tested it. And that’s just - the best advice out there is get there in plan. But then test it and see how it’ll work. And I don’t think you ever can test until you actually need it.. Richard Serino: Okay, Peter, great. Thank you very much. At this time, I’d like to open it up more for questions and discussion. People who have questions again, you can put a #femathinktank online. And you can - on Twitter, and can also - if you have a question, you can hit star 1. Operator, do we have any questions on the call? Coordinator: Not at this time, sir. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Any questions in the room? Yes? And I do ask you to - from the second row here, if you could really speak up so that people can hear you on the phone. Woman: Okay. Before last year, has there been any outreach to the state’s community in preparedness action, helping them draw up their own plans or partnering with others in the community in case of a disaster? Peter Coffey: I can start with that. ((Crosstalk)) Richard Serino: Can I just ask the people, when you ask a question and when you answer the question, to identify who you are because there - we have over - just about 300 people on the phone now, so... Peter Coffey: Yes, this us Peter Coffey from Emergency Management. We actually at the VOAD meeting have a lot of discussions and actually work with one of our exercised planners to put something together, how do we actually call out the VOAD so it was... Woman: I got... Peter Coffey: ...in the - it was spinning, but we never actually did that site. But it was there. Woman: And (now)? Peter Coffey: And now we know how to do it because we did it. Richard Serino: Okay, great. And, operator, I believe we have question on the phone? Coordinator: Yes, we do. Once again, to ask a question, to press star then 1. One moment. Hal Colston from - Director of Emergency Management, you may ask your question. Harold Colston: My question for the VOAD partners is do the local groups and the VOAD have a county VOAD or do they have a say at the Local Emergency Planning Committee or Citizen Corps Council at the local level? William Elwell: As far as counties of the state -- it’s Bill Elwell for the VOAD chair -- as well, you know, we - in Vermont, we have - we’re broken up by counties, but we don’t have county government. So things are set a little bit differently regionally than some states. So we were connected to the state level. We didn’t have a whole lot of connection at the local level either from VOAD to the local churches or, I don’t think, the local churches to the Local Emergency Management Committee. That’s changed a lot now as long-term recovery committees have come into place and networks really developing. So it’s definitely going to be a whole different story in the future. Richard Serino: Okay. Thank you. A question from - online from - actually from Twitter from (211healthline), is there a distinction between the VOAD and the Long-Term Recovery Committees? William Elwell: Sure. It’s Bill Elwell again. Yes, there definitely is a distinction between the VOAD and the long-term recovery committee. Our long-term recovery committees here are made up of a lot of faith-based organizations and made up of specific organizations. Different state partners are at those tables as well. So there’s a wide group there. We’re beginning to develop relationships - you know, continuing to develop relationships between VOAD and those local long-term recovery committees. So there’s definitely a difference between the two. Peter Coffey: Yes, this is Peter Coffey. We’ve got 13 local emergency planning committees around the states. And I’ve been to all of them multiple times. And a couple of them do have a big, big person attending them. But it’s certainly the exception rather than the rule. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Operator, do we have another question on the phone? Coordinator: Yes. Paulette Adams from People’s Emergency Center, you may ask your question. Richard Serino: Go ahead, Paulette. Operator? Coordinator: Her line is on hold. Richard Serino: Okay. Is there another one? Coordinator: One moment. Richard Serino: Thank you. Coordinator: Douglas Towne from Disabilities Relations Group. Douglas Towne: Thank you. And, Director, I’m not sure who there in the room might be able to answer this. But on the long-term recovery committees, kind of two-part. First of all, did you have in place your recovery committees in advance so everybody knew who was on it, who needed to be called, who needed to show up before the disaster? And if not, would you recommend that those things be done in advance? And secondly... Richard Serino: Yes. Douglas Towne: ...do your recovery committees deal with only declared disasters or emergencies or do they deal with localized small community events that all affect a few households or a few people? Richard Serino: Okay. Just to set the tone, when you’ve asked the first part of that question, there was a little bit of giggling in the room. So I’m sure there’s quite a good story behind this one, so... Sandy Daly: This is Sandy Daly. I’m the Chair of the Long-Term Recovery Committee in Southeastern Vermont. And we - the short answer to the first part of your question is no, we weren’t in place. And it has evolved over time with - immediately after the disaster, there was a large number of people around the table. And then that sort of sifted out to those who felt they could make the commitment over the long term, still keeping communications open to everyone. And, yes, one of the things that we’re hoping to do is at least leave blueprint of what kind of structure would be helpful in the future, assuming that we may need to respond to another disaster. And I forgot the second question. Richard Serino: Yes. The second half of your question? Douglas Towne: The second part is do you deal only with large declared disasters or emergencies or are you working at the local level where there may be some incident or something that happens and it only affects, you know, one street or one small community, one - you know, few families? Sand Daly: This is Sandy Daly again. I can respond from our community, the Brattleboro Community. We didn’t have a flood like the upper part of the state did. But we had a fire in our town. And so there was a similar kind of response where faith-based and service organizations and town governments came together to respond to that particular incident. So that was a little bit of a head start for us in having done that. And I imagine in the future, with this understanding of how to do it that we’ve gained over the past year, we would respond to whatever came our way. Peter Coffey: Yes. This is Peter Coffey from Emergency Management. That has happened in many communities around the State of Vermont that we’re aware of where you have something that definitely doesn’t rise to a level of even a state declaration. But the locals just do come together as the service clubs, leaders in the town, business owners. And they do fundraising things to help people to get back on their feet. It’s very common. Richard Serino: And just, you know, on a national level, at a number of states already where there was not activity level that disaster could get to a declared disaster - presidentially-declared disaster, quite often they have utilized the long-term recovery planning from - and National Disaster Recovery Framework and utilizing that to move forward. They’ve done probably half a dozen states just this year and a little bit of last year just to give people perspective. You don’t need to have a presidentially-declared disaster to bring people together and utilize the recovery framework. Douglas Towne: Thank you very much. William Elwell: As far as long term - this is Bill Elwell from VOAD. Before Irene, our state plan actually had a long-term recovery committee, which consisted of three VOAD partners, somebody from the agency of Human Service and somebody from the Community Action Program. And basically wherever that disaster was, they sat down and worked with whoever was there locally. But, obviously, that plan was overwhelmed quickly this time around. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you. Operator, the next call? Coordinator: Alex Rose from American Red Cross, Los Angeles, you may ask your question. Alex Rose: I just want to process this. But I’m only asking on behalf of myself. I actually have a day off today. So just as a local Los Angeles resident, I’m curious if there’s documentation or guidance on the communication tools that long-term recovery teams - community teams can use. You know, I guess examples could be e-mail list, SharePoints, Google Groups. So, you know, how does everyone have access to the right forms that they might need to fill out? How can a local community be ready before a long-term recovery committee needs to be stood up? Richard Serino: Okay. Good question. Ken Curtin: You’re stealing my little presentation. But the basic... ((Crosstalk)) Ken Curtin: ...- sorry, Ken Curtin from FEMA. The basics of long-term recovery organization formation can be found in two places. One, at the National VOAD Web site -- N-V-O-A-D, National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster@.org, they have a brand new revised long-term recovery organization guide. And they have a short form, too, for those who don’t want to read the whole thing, available. I really do recommend that. It captures all this surprisingly large numbers of functions that you’ll need to do in your interagency household recovery coalition for your disaster. Another area is the Church World Services Guide for faith-based disaster recovery organizations, which is a little simpler and plainer language, and is aimed at the pastor who finds him or herself in that position of leadership suddenly. That can be found at www.cwserp -- that’s Church World Service Emergency Response Program -- .org. They also have Webinars, seminars and training available, too, on how to organize long-term recover groups. Richard Serino: Okay. Thanks, Ken. And I think that was some good information. We’ll make sure that that information gets on the Twitter account, but more importantly, gets on the Web site. So keep looking actually. You know, if you didn’t catch it today, we’ll make sure that it’s up there again. Okay. And, oh, we’ve now - I understand we have now over 300 people on the call. And, operator, the next call? Coordinator: (Priscilla Ascos) from the National Associate, you may ask your question. (Priscilla Ascos): Chaplain. Right. (Unintelligible). I have a question. On the national level and/or on the local level, is there a seat or a place for a disaster spiritual care, you know, a professional disaster spiritual care or chaplain? You know, we are the National Association of Jewish Chaplain. We had a lot of involvement in the Gulf Coast where we had a chaplain there for, you know, for four or five years, you know, both for the immediate first responders, second responders and then the long-term recovery. Is there on the national level and was there -- I think I heard the answer on a local level -- a seat for a professional spiritual care provider? Richard Serino: Okay. Thank you, (Raj). Ken? Ken Curtin: Well, Ken Curtin from FEMA again. There’s some good guidance again at the National VOAD Web site. There’re points of consensus on how - the principles of how to deliver emotional and spiritual care. Both the mental health and the spiritual care people who come together agreed completely that it’s a function that should be done together. And you’ll find communities on VOAD - various state and local VOADs of organizations, mental health and spiritual care organizations, that are preparing to work together at the state and local level, too. But for something - for written guidance, the National VOAD site is a good start. Richard Serino: Okay. Any other part of the question (Priscilla)? (Priscilla Ascos): No, I’m going to save it to the last part of the conference call on suggestions. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you. And, operator, do we have another call? Coordinator: Paulette Adams from People’s Emergency Center, you may ask your question. Paulette Adams: Hi. Thank you so much. We are a physically located - well first, we provide emergency housing for women with children who are experiencing homelessness. So we have a number of residences like that in a neighborhood. But also in our neighborhood is a home for the blind. And not too far from that are three high-rise senior apartments. And so when we were working with the communities of faith in the area, we started kind of plotting out all of these large-scale housing units and the type of emergency management that will be required for each of those types of populations. And I wanted to know how you guys kind of work with those populations and if there are resources available for looking at and making doing an assessment for seniors and then people who are disabled. And then we’re also looking at specialized populations of homeless people as well. Richard Serino: Okay. We really turn that to - somebody from Vermont first? Peter Coffey: Yes, this is Peter Coffey. Those types of things are high on our awareness list, people with any type of special needs, whether it’d be homelessness, single-parent and that kind of thing. Back to the local level, certainly the local communities really knew who - where are the areas that were damaged, where are the people that live there. In Vermont, we have 251 communities. And over half of them are less than 4,000 people in population. So everybody knows everybody. You go to the town (unintelligible). They know everybody and all their issues and that kind of thing. So those types of things are actually very helpful to reach out to those kind of people. We do have some areas of the state where they’ve actually voluntarily put together a list of people that might have special needs in a disaster or any particular type of situation, even if it’s just an evacuation from the (unintelligible) from a large fire to - if the smoke is going to affect them. So we do have those types of things. And certainly something could be enhanced so all those things can always be better. Richard Serino: And - thank you. And I think one thing that Pastor Steadman and I were talking earlier about in a certain - in the faith-based community of churches and especially here in Vermont in New England, is some of the smaller congregations in there, a lot of elderly folks. And they know people who need help throughout the community as well. Philip Steadman: That’s right. In fact - this is Phil Steadman, a pastor at Capstone. We’re very close in New York here. And I know that one of our bordering towns (unintelligible) fire department there has a list of everybody who’s on oxygen. And the first thing they do when there’s a power outage is they go check and see how everybody’s tanks and if they’ve done enough. I certainly (unintelligible) to see if we knew those things in our towns in Bennington, and we did not. And so that’s one of the things that I hope that we’ll address directly as we get more organized going forward that we have people perhaps in the faith-based community who volunteer to make phone calls and check and see if people have medications that need to be refrigerated or if they have wheelchair mobility only, and if there’s a real evacuation situation, which we did not have right away during Hurricane Irene, what measures have been prepared to take care of those situations. So I think it’s a great call and great question. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you. Operator, the next question? Coordinator: (Lisa Fresh) from Small Business, you may ask your question. (Lisa Fresh): Hello, good afternoon. I was wondering if you could recap on the relationship of the public-private partnership, some of that call? Richard Serino: Very briefly I can. During that call, we actually had people from Citigroup. We had people from (Target). And we had a number of people that were on the call - in the room with us, as well as on the call, and really looked at a lot of things that the private businesses can do in preparing for disaster; very similar to what we’re talking about here today with the faith-based community in the voluntary agencies. It’s really a whole community effort. And Citigroup, for example, as I mentioned is helping - doing some of the financial emergency kits and (this) training with that as well. Target has developed some trainings (unintelligible) that they’ve opened up to the local emergency managers. And I believe online, we have a complete summary of the whole call online that we’ll be able to get that information online as well. Okay. The question online, let’s see. Let’s see. Could you - that’s a repeat I think. But there was also a question or a statement from (mkelly007) who tweeted that we should utilize our social networking as a group to amplify and spread the message where info is needed. And I think that that’s absolutely key with people from - that are online. I think the Crazy Russian Girls Bakery, Natasha who amplified that has said that the Facebook page was one of the most popular Facebook places. And it’s an opportunity to really I think take that to the next level. So, operator, next question? Coordinator: One moment. Marianne Stevenson from AERObridge, you may ask your question. Marianne Stevenson: Good afternoon. Has general aviation been incorporated into the written plan? Because AERObridge had over 75 donated fixed and rotary aircraft available after 36 hours that we’re able to participate in any way that was required. And if not, how can we be plugged in faster? Richard Serino: I’m - I’ll defer to Vermont and then I’ll go national. Peter Coffey: Yes. At Emergency Management, we do have a flight plan, an (air-branch) plan that we utilize. We depend on our National Guard to actually assist in that, use their expertise in that. We did through the (EMAC) system bring in helicopters from other states because we had 13 communities that were totally isolated after Irene who (unintelligible) in or out of them that a normal vehicle could go on. And we utilized those helicopters to get supplies and commodities to them. I was not aware of any volunteer situation like you speak of that may have been available. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you. And for folks, feel free to ask questions. And if you’re on the phone, hit star 1. As we go on, a question - another question was - on Twitter, was 211 used during the Vermont response and recovery? Peter Coffey: Yes. Richard Serino: If you would, maybe just expand a bit on what that was. Peter Coffey: Yes, this is Peter Coffey again. Big time, 211 use. They actually - because in the flood, our state emergency operations center had to be evacuated after we’ve been there for 14 hours. And because of the spring flooding, the joint field office nearby in Burlington and the FEMA folks helped us set up. We actually brought in 20 extra 211 callers into the JFO to take calls and take information, as well as (unintelligible) volunteers to do the same thing so we could quickly get a handle on who needed assistance, where it was and that kind of thing. So we - that’s a very strong partnership we had with our 211 folks here in Vermont. Richard Serino: Great. Thank you. And, operator, do we have another question on the phone? Coordinator: One moment. Kimetta Coleman from Base Faith Community, you may ask your question. Kimetta Coleman: Yes. My name is Kimetta Coleman. I’m with Spirit & Life World Ministries Church. I’m in Phoenix, Arizona. We’re perhaps at 115 degrees. (Unintelligible) Vermont, we’re really mad at you. Nevertheless, in the past week, we’ve 250 individuals that had to be hospitalized in one day because of heat exhaustion. We have a problem here. It’s not that natives that are doing this because we know to evacuate and run, hide. The college students and the who think that they can beat the heat through this and people who haven’t - don’t live here who are coming here for school or whatever reason, finding themselves passing out, having heat stroke. And we have a crisis. What can we do to get the word out to newcomers that you really have to hydrate, you really have to keep your clothes on, you have to cover up? How can we have the fait-based community move faster with - given the message that the sun is beautiful, but it’s not for you? Peter Coffey: Again, this is Peter Coffey. I think Vermont is probably not the best place to have to deal with that. But I think the social media probably is the best way. That’s the way college and students communicate today. I know our Emergency Management office has both a Facebook and Twitter account. And we’ve got a lot of people that utilize that and collect their information. And it has been mentioned, you know, during this post Irene, that was a huge way to get it out. So I think if you can work with your colleges and universities to maybe get that out that way in maybe people that have been suffered from heat stroke and hopefully survived can say, look, this is not a joke and it’s serious stuff. Richard Serino: I think the social media is an absolutely, you know, key way to communicate. But also you asked specifically with the faith-based community. I think that taking the opportunity when they stop by to their, you know, place of worship is a way to mention those especially for newcomers. And I’m sure the schools when they welcome in their freshmen orientation or whenever when people come, it’s just an idea as well. Put that information in their packets before they come to the area where it’s hot as well. I’ll pass up. Man: I visited Lynchburg, Virginia last year when the kids were going to college. And one of the local churches provided cold water to the students and rubber banded to the water bottle when - an invitation to church. And you could easily include (unintelligible) thoughts about dehydration. So that’d be a great way for the faith-based community to get out and invite at the same time as, you know, making a helpful suggestion. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you. Thank you for the call. Bill, earlier you had mentioned you had been, you know, meeting with the different groups. And you mentioned that you talked about, you know, they shared best practices. Do you have one or two of the best practices that we’re able to come up or anybody else, for that matter, that has best practices that came up to this that maybe they didn’t have before to share those? Anybody in the room, if they have some, they can. (Peter Redlin): (Peter Redlin). I think a good example would be working with health and organizing volunteered coordinators with construction coordinators... Man: Yes. (Peter Redlin): ...to standardize how the process of volunteer groups could be safe. It’s been a major plus as we move forward. And I think the chairs that are here would understand and agree with that. Richard Serino: Great. (Peter Redlin): Okay. Thanks. Richard Serino: Great. And any other best practices that came out so that - you know, things that, you know, maybe you didn’t have in the plan, but things that ended up just working really well that you didn’t think about, that didn’t come other than, you know, Russian Crazy Girls? ((Crosstalk)) Richard Serino: Crazy Russian Girls. John Stewart: This is John Stewart. I’m the Voluntary Agency Liaison for FEMA Region 1. We collected many, many best practices from what happened in Vermont. It was an extraordinary effort with great results. (Unintelligible) to the document that we could make available. Richard Serino: Guys, I was just wondering if there’s one or two people could just share on the line. If you know one or two, so people - and I have a couple here. And we’ll get that online as well. (Ann Cooper): I’m (Ann Cooper) from the (unintelligible) of Vermont. And it sounds very simplistic. But constant conference calls, so that people are coordinated or up-to-date, flow of information - facilitating flow of supplies, flow of services. Richard Serino: Great. Sandy Daly: I - this is Sandy Daly, Southeastern Vermont. I got sort of read for this. But for my sticky paper wall, we found ourselves dealing with case-by-case and case-by-case, and finally said let’s put a break big map on the wall and actually create a visual of what we had for cases. And it was very effective in not only having a sense of where people were and what the issues were, but also for strategizing, it was very helpful. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Ken? Ken Curtin: I’ve got one statement - Ken Curtin - (unintelligible) but across the Taconic Mountains, across the Brookshire’s in Albany, 34 counties declared there. There were four regional assistance guides that were done by the Regional 211s. And those are both in paper. They were mounted on their Web sites. They were updated every week. And they saw it to be comprehensive, accurate and up-to-date to give people every kind of information they needed for relief resources for recovery programs and even how to proceed themselves, how to go about, deal with mold in their own houses or pushbacks in their insurance companies, how to deal with FEMA. They could write about FEMA things we can’t write about ourselves. Which was helpful to the general public. So that’s a great practice, comprehensive assistance guide in a timely way, updated often in every disaster. Woman: Yes. Richard Serino: And I think that’s the key, is that it’s updated often. Woman: Yes. Ken Curtin: Oh yes. Richard Serino: Yes? Woman: (Unintelligible) Vermont and Recovery. Richard Serino: Speak up again because.... Woman: I’m sorry. I actually was in one of the towns that was completely isolated. And one thing that we struggled with was no phone, no power basically. The junction boxes went down the river. And we also didn’t have cell tower at that time. And it was knowing where we could get to obtain signal from another tower and (unintelligible). And it’s every day, one of us would hike that top of the list and going through the local - the next town over Chamber of Commerce and texting them our list of needs. And then people were coming down on ATVs and mountain bikes and gathering the stuff and bringing it to us. We got that stuff before any federal agency got into our area. And that was key for us. I mean it was - we needed insulin and we actually had a Medivac for several people out because they were on dialysis. Richard Serino: That’s a great point, I think, is to know, you know, especially in, you know, in Vermont and other parts of the country as well, I mean in city as well, that - where you could be able to get that reception if your primary site goes down. That’s a great one. Man: One last one... ((Crosstalk)) Richard Serino: Yes. Man: Along with the conference calls, we’re fortunate we have - after the spring flooding, we had AmeriCorps VISTA that came on board with VOAD. So (unintelligible) was able to be right there in all of our meetings and all of our conference calls. And he had a quick set of minutes that went out immediately after that meeting, after every conference call. So even the folks that couldn’t make the conference call were able to get the information in writing that way. So whether it’s a VISTA or somebody else that can get that information out for you, it’s huge. Richard Serino: Okay. And... Sandy Daly: This is Sandy Daly. Just one last thing when (Renaso) was talking about the (moth) bites and so on. Many communities, it was neighbor-to-neighbor that - so one of the best practices was actually going door-to-door, walking down your street and seeing how your neighbor was doing because that was sort of the closest on-the-ground way of having help. Richard Serino: And I think neighbor-to-neighbor is something universal that can make a difference because the neighbors know what’s needed in their community. And the, you know, the churches in their community know the people who really need that and how to get that. So that’s great. I think it’s time to move on to the next one. Next topic today is getting mutual beneficial partnerships between diverse faith-based community organizations and emergency managers. On the phone we have Curt Summerhoff from the Miami-Dade Emergency Manager, and as well as Chaplain Rolando Gonzalez, Executive Director of Victory for Youth via the phone. So, Curt? Curt Summerhoff: Yes, sir. Richard Serino: And if you can take it away. Curt Summerhoff: Thank you. Well, here in Miami-Dade County, we’re in Year 2 with Miami-Dade CORE. And that stands for Communities Organized to Respond in Emergencies. It’s part of DHS Center’s building resilience with diverse communities. And in Year 1, what we did was we were focused on engaging organizations that served key population groups -- population groups such as elders, children and youth at risk, people with access and functional needs; immigrants, low-income, homeless and other vulnerable populations, as well as those with limited English proficiency. And our four-step process included assessment, engagement, training and affiliation. And what resulted from that was 25 new affiliated faith-based community organizations and identified for us 250 additional community volunteers, new methods to assist over 8,000 after a disaster, nine new potential feeding and shelter facilities for us in the county, five new points of distribution sites. And then these new CORE members began reaching out to each other to their, you know, to the - whom are their traditional partners; thus identifying 65 potential new stakeholders for us to reach out to and engage with. We’re now in Year 2. And in Year 2, we’re of course focused on expansion, adding new faith-based community organizations and of course sustaining the existing ones. You know, as far as lessons learned from CORE and the first year of being engaged with this initiative, I would just communicate to anybody who was interested in doing something like that you got to begin where the organization is. And that means you go to them. And I would encourage you, you don’t try and change what it is they do. But help them further their capacity for doing it. I would also recommend developing trusted relationships, going in, understanding and respecting cultural sensitivities within these groups. And then of course utilize the power of force multipliers, you know, leveraging resources. You know, we’ve already seen CORE members here in Miami-Dade begin establishing new networks amongst each other and helping one another. We see it, you know, we see it on blue sky days for things like just expertise in certain areas. And we’ve seen it with sharing resources and equipment. I would recommend also be flexible. You know, a lot of these organizations are - they’re not 9:00-5:00-ers. So you have to be flexible in the way that you communicate with them. We use flexible communications. You know, we call them on the phone. We may do face-to-face and visit them. We of course push out information via e-mail. But not everybody has e-mail. We also use newsletters and then hold engagement sessions to make sure that we’re communicating. Also think out of the box about what these various sectors can do within your community. You have to demonstrate commitment. We have staff that I’ve dedicated to make sure we’re working and continuing to engage the faith-based community partners. You need to make sure we’re including them in the process of our planning and our training, and our exercising. You got to manage expectations. One of the things we said from the beginning here when we started this initiative, we were clear to communicate this was not about money. This is about coordination of resources. This was about leveraging resources. And we lost interest from some, but we still had a lot of people who were still interested. And I think they recognized the value of partnership. And that’s why they hung around. And then of course ensure everybody knows their role. Nothing like going into a disaster where people are asking, you know, what it is that they need to do. As far as continued engagement, I just can’t stress this one enough. You’ve got to be engaged with your partners. You got to use the flexible communications. We’re doing training with our community-based partners. Our - one of our local hospitals is providing some invaluable spiritual care training. The American Red Cross is involved, providing some of their expertise with MassCARE. And then of course we’re engaged with some of the incident command and making sure everybody understands how to operate and - (what’s) under NIMS, including these folks in our trainings, in our meetings. And of course, if you’re going to plan together, you need to exercise together. And so that’s what we’re looking at in the future, is making sure that we’re including the faith-based community organizations in our functional and tabletop exercises and - as well as our drills. And, you know, that’s been our focus here in Year 2. We’ve been very successful. And we’ve been very happy with some of the outcomes that we’ve seen. And I think Chaplain Roland can attest to that. So I’ll go ahead and turn it over to him. Rolando Gonzalez: Good Bless, everyone, today. My name is Rolando Gonzalez and I represent the Share Your Heart and Victory. I first would like to comment on something that Mr. Peter Coffey said that he was excited when the government - he saw that they were engaging with our faith-based. We represent, here in Miami, over 350 pastors from the - some of the Hispanic associations of pastors, the Asian communities, the African-American community as we all work together. The beautiful thing was when I went to a CORE meeting and worked with just community leaders, and we saw the excitement of FEMA coming down to Miami and starting this all with Mrs. Scott. And that showed to us that we needed to collaborate. And so as we went and saw the Emergency Management in all our local partners, and that’s how we engaged through also the 365 days need of our community. This is not just waiting for something to happen. Our communities right now have a lot of economical issues like Curt said right now that they’re struggling at home foreclosures. So what we did is we engaged with the Department of Children & Family and started from the local side, engaging our faith-based communities. And that’s how the churches are getting involved right now. We’ve had a tremendous success. But the most important was what he - what Curt said, is continuing to train and equip and to partner with our faith-based initiatives. And that’s how we’re doing it with all of the different diversity of languages and everything we have in Miami. It’s beautiful to see a room of 200 people being trained and of all different denominations from our Southern Baptist brothers to the Presbyterians, to orthodox. Because our common denominator is to equip our community and show them the low that we have through what God has given us through the faith-based. Thank you. Richard Serino: Great. Thank you. Any questions first from - in the room here for Curt or Chaplain Gonzalez? And, Curt, you had given I think some really good bullet points. And so people on the phone again, if you have a question, hit star 1. Or you can ask a question on Twitter as well. And, Curt, you had a couple of good suggestions. And I think you laid them out really in a good way that, you know, especially that we go to them and develop those trusts and relationships and people knowing their roles. I think that’s - those are really key. Can you - it’s the same question I asked people here. Some of the best practices are things that you learned. I don’t want to say worst practices are things that you would have done different after the - during the first year. How’s that? Curt Summerhoff: Sure. You know, I think, you know, I mentioned the develop trusted relationships. And part of that is going in and understanding and respecting some of the cultural sensitivities. And, you know, I’ve got a staff member who I dedicate to going out and meeting with a lot of these folks. But I as the director wasn’t necessarily in the first year doing some of that. And there was something I should have been doing from the beginning. You know, the Chaplain speaks about the faith-based. But we’ve also had some, you know, obviously the community activists and some of those in the community and doing some very good things. And, you know, establishing that rapport, making sure that they understand that it’s just not a staff member I’ve got engaged, but it is the department of Emergency Management that’s engaged that I do have my face out there as well and be communicating our commitment to being able to provide this training. And that we’re, you know, we’re all on the same side, that we’re trying to bring them into this Emergency Management framework and leverage our resources. And, you know, there’re - a lot of these groups are doing things day in and day out. You know, the Chaplain spoke about this. You know, they do things for families that they don’t have food for, you know, abused women; all these different things. And, you know, they’re doing them every day. So we want to make sure that we can continue to equip them to do those things, you know, day-to-day as well as following a disaster when those resources are needed... Richard Serino: Curt, are you there? Did we lose you? Operator, are you still there? Coordinator: Yes, he’s still connected. It looks like he’s just dropped off. Richard Serino: Okay. Did they lose all of them together there? Curt and the Reverent were together? Coordinator: Yes, they were. Richard Serino: Okay. Okay. Operator, can you let us know when they come back on? Coordinator: Yes. Thank you. Richard Serino: Okay. I’m going to actually go back to something for the group here. People are starting to really go with a lot of the best practices. And it seemed like more people wanted to talk. And (I cut you off) to get to them. But is there continued best practices that people had up here Vermont? And just again identify yourself and... ((Crosstalk)) Anne Duncan Cooley: This is Anne Duncan Cooley from the Upper Valley Strong Long-Term Recovery Community. One of the things we were concerned about was a lot of people who were in local homes who’ve been displaced. And we were looking for space potentially to put those folks in the local homes and trying to figure out who would know a site. And it was an unlikely partner... ((Crosstalk)) Anne Duncan Cooley: ...in our local conservation land (unintelligible). They are familiar with real estate and have searched for (unintelligible) and are just experts in that area. So they were an unlikely partner. But that turned out to be a very productive partnership. Richard Serino: Great. Perfect. Thank you. Any other best practices? And I think what we’ll do, unless we got Curt back on the phone in the next minute or two, we’ll move onto the third and come back. Pastor? Man: (Unintelligible). Richard Serino: Who’s back on? Curt, are you back on? Coordinator: He’s not reconnected, sir. Richard Serino: Okay. Thank you, Pastor? Philip Steadman: Yes. One of the things that - it’s Phil Steadman. One of the things that you would think be automatic in a faith-based group is being already connected in the community with people who are in need. That’s actually not the case in many situations. Churches tend to over time to become insular, looking inward, dealing with their own needs. And although they’re open to anybody from the community being there, often they don’t have very good connections within the community. In fact, in many cases, the social networks end up all being focused inwards. So they don’t even have friends outside of that community. And I would say that one of the best practices they could possibly have is that they were fully engaged with people who are in need before there was a disaster. We found that all of our avenues of communication during the first three or four days were ones that were already established where we already had the relationships outside or a relatively new church. And so we still didn’t have a lot of those connections with the community. So I’d say best practice would be to get engaged particularly since those who are in need under general terms are usually the most vulnerable at a time of emergency as well. Richard Serino: Okay, great. And, operator, I’ll ask one more time if they’re back on? Coordinator: Not yet, sir. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you. And then we’re going to move onto the third topic which is what steps emergency managers, faith-based can take and community organizations to enhance existing partnerships. And we have Reverend Sandy Daly from the Brattleboro Area Interfaith Clergy Association and Chair of the Southeastern Vermont Long-Term Recovery Committee. ((Crosstalk)) Sandy Daly: (That’s three times fast). Richard Serino: I know. Ken Curtin from the - one of our FEMA Disaster Recovery Coordinators. Reverend Daly, would you like to start us off? Sandy Daly: Sure. Well, first of all, I feel as though I need to be clear that I’m speaking from my experience in the Southeastern corner of the state, and I don’t speak for all long-term recovery committees in the state nor for all faith-based or community organizations. But I’m happy to speak from my experience. During the response phase, the first couple of months, we had a large group come to the table, so to speak -- representatives from government agencies, from service agencies, emergency managers, faith-based organizations, towns, very broad spectrum. Once we began to move from the response stage into the organizational phase of creating a charter or guidelines how were we going to administer funds, who had what responsibility for what, the table (unintelligible). And we found that in our area, it was primarily service organizations the agencies that already reached out to people with need - who’s kind of stayed at the table, as well as 211 FEMA caseworkers. And myself is actually the only faith-based person representative there. We tried to create the model of organization that is represented by a wheel where you have a board and then you have used various focused committees off to the side, volunteers, fundraising, construction, so on and so forth. One of the things that I would change about that is we evolved into that. And it took a lot of energy to get there. Now that we kind of know what’s needed, I think we can be up and running a lot faster when something comes about. And one of the things that we found as well - and there’s pluses and minus (attached) to all of this. Communications, there was a lot of communication out there. We had a Web site. There were weekly conference calls and such. And yet there still was sort of a number of arms to the octopus that were moving forward, doing things not necessarily knowing what each other was doing. And so when the whole idea of CAN, the... ((Crosstalk)) Sandy Daly: ....Coordinated Assistance Network - thank you - came on sort of on the scene, there was a lot of hope that that at least in the future would be a place where we would know what each other is doing. Again, unfortunately, it wasn’t in place at the start. And we were already so much in the thick of things that to try to back enter information into CAN felt so cumbersome. So thinking about, you know, looking forward, one of the things that would be really helpful is to have people who have access or trained and could begin getting that information on sort of right at the get-go. And other as I mentioned is to not have to spend so much energy creating an organization and what are our guidelines and procedures and so on, but rather to be able to have that already existing there. And we didn’t have any paid staffing for our long-term recovery committee. And looking back, I think it would have - it could have been good use of some funds or grant applications to get some people right away to be a part of the ongoing structure of this committee because who we had around the table also had their full-time job. And so it was not only stressful, but it was hard to have really the focus that was needed. So that’s something that is definitely going to go in my notes for the future. And on that note, hopefully we will be able to create some sort of summary to leave in our wake so that that can be helpful to the next round. I know that my denomination and I believe others in the state are recommending that each faith community designate someone who will be the liaison between that faith community and the local emergency manager, so that you’re not trying to figure out who’s going to do what. But there’s somebody from that faith-based community right away that can make the contact and begin to utilize whatever resources are available. And on that note, of course, Vermont is a unique and challenging place, and that we don’t have any standardized, you know, this is the way the towns work. You might automatically think that a town manager would know everything, or the fire department chief would know everything, or the town clerk or the selectman. But it varied from town to town as to who was the go-to person or the local... ((Crosstalk)) Richard Serino: Yes. Sandy Daly: Yes. And so I think, somehow, we’re trying to identify both -- who was the official person and who is the unofficial person -- and to be able to connect those dots so that the official people are the ones that most often have connections with the government and various types of resources. But it’s that community person that has the connection with the people on the ground. So trying to link those together... Richard Serino: I was going to interrupt you for a minute because I think that’s a very, very good point. I think that, you know, who the official person and where the official person and the information they have, but really who has the information, who does the public go to. Woman: Okay. Richard Serino: You know, I’ll bring up Natasha again. But it’s a good example that, you know, people found the person - who would have thought it was the, you know, Crazy Russian Girls Bakery would be the place that would be the place for the information? But people found that mainly through social media now. And I think the key is for government to make sure that we link up as well and not take over what they’re doing, but share the information. Sandy Daly: Enhance it. Richard Serino: Right. Exactly. ((Crosstalk)) Sandy Daly: That was one of the things that I appreciated that Curt said, is don’t try to fit them into a - don’t try to fit an organization into a different box or the way something works, but rather how can you take the way things organically work and enhance or strengthen it. So... Richard Serino: Great. I’m going to use that as a quick segue because I understand, Curt, you’re back on the line? Curt Summerhoff: Yes, Rich, I’m here. Sorry about that little technical difficulty on our end. I think we’re under control here. Richard Serino: No problem at all. I, you know, we were going through and you had listed out a lot - a very - some really good points, both yourself and the Chaplain. And I think that that was great. And you were in the middle of giving us some of the challenges I think, is when we lost you. Curt Summerhoff: Yes, you know, I - one of the things I would definitely, you know, in Year 1 do again is I think certainly, you know, though I dedicated staff to be out there - and Dr. Scott from DHS has been tremendous and been down here to support us and be in a lot of these engagement sessions. But even just talking to the Chaplain today kind of confirmed this. You know, it sells your commitment more when you have, you know, others, you know, with regards to leadership out there and engaged from the get-go. And so, you know, that’s what I’m trying to do a little bit more of in Year 2, is making sure that these new partners that we’re engaging with that they see my face, that we have that dialogue and, you know, they’re hearing it from me about what the commitment of our office is behind this, you know, faith-based initiative in Miami-Dade County. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Any others? Curt Summerhoff: You know, so far, I mean I think, you know, other than the, you know, the lessons learned, I think some of them came just from, you know, continuing to collaborate and hearing good ideas from these partners. You know, it’s kind of been like an ongoing after-action, so to speak, as we meet with the partners. And, you know, each engagement session, we’ve been learning and that we’re employing those lessons learned to, you know, the next step in the process. But I think, you know, training has been one of the key things we’ve been doing to keep these folks engaged. And so, you know, training partners, identifying training resources has been one of the things that, you know, where we’re continuing to work on. Like I said, earlier, you know, one of the hospitals down here has been great. Other partners like the American Red Cross have been fantastic. But a lot of these organizations really have a thirst for the knowledge and the training. And they want to participate in that way. And that’s a good problem to have though. Richard Serino: Yes. No, that’s a great problem to have. And just again, if people have questions, they can hit star 1. And I’m just going to read a couple of tweets that came over in the past few minutes. One from (dwin2win) - I think that’s it. Is assess, engage, train and affiliate, is one of the things that came out of that. So I think that that’s good. And you may also add innovate as well for that as well. So I think that that’s a good one. And I just saw one from - that’s suggesting for a possible think tank call just on some of the tips and tools, which I think is a good idea as well. We also have one from (Tim McQueen) that says having a good relationship with faith-based community was the key to our success in New Jersey during Hurricane Irene as well. And (mkelly007) says my agency sends a rep to VOAD and the long-term recovery meetings; would go to meet everyone in an effort and it also goes to the VOAD (comp) just to meet people as well and just - I’m not sure which agency (mkelly007) is from. So if you can throw that up there, that would help us too. But I think that that’s a good - you know, I think there’s a lot of good conversation and good ideas. And any other comments or questions from - in the room? Yes? Woman: (Unintelligible) Long-Term Recovery. I have a question about all the donated clean supplies that (unintelligible), we still have hundreds of supplies, and I know the other chair that I’ve spoken to around state. I’m wondering what do we do with this massive supply of reach that will expire? We don’t want to just throw it away. We’re trying to figure out what’s the best thing to do with disbursing that and (unintelligible) than just putting it on the corner and put a (free sign) on this. I want it to be used for what it was intended to be used for. Richard Serino: Right. And does anybody in the room have a response to that? Yes? Curt Summerhoff: So I would say first, hurricane season is upon us. So don’t give it away too quickly. Woman: (Unintelligible). Man: You think so? ((Crosstalk)) Curt Summerhoff: Secondly, you can offer it on a National Disaster Management Network and other places might want to take it from you. You may be able to deliver it; you may not be able to deliver it. You put that terms of the offer on the National Disaster Management Network and it’s out there as an offer. You might look towards the Red Cross and Church World Service and (on CORE) -- I think all have the ability to build what they call flood buckets, clean-up kits. Woman: Right. Curt Summerhoff: Of course, the logistics may not work. But they may. And it’s worth engaging in the conversation. Man: (Unintelligible) in exchange. Curt Summerhoff: When you hear about a flood, they’re always appropriate. Woman: Oh yes. Richard Serino: Okay. Anybody else or anybody that can tweet in that as well, if people have suggestions (unintelligible)? Woman: Oh actually I had a question for Curt and for Chaplain Gonzalez on whether they have been working with the congregations to prepare internally to help people within congregation, having emergency plan for their (folks) And the second question whether you have - what you’ve done is really inspiring. Are you trying to do something like that in our region? And I’d like to know what other models you drew upon in developing your program? Curt Summerhoff: Yes. Let me take the first - the second part first. Actually as far as models, you know, DHS actually approached us down here in Miami-Dade to be a pilot community and, you know, based on how we did down here, use us as the model for the rest of the country. So we’re kind of learning as we go. And we’ve been getting a lot of great guidance from DHS. And of course, you know, David Myers and Jannah Scott have been tremendous and helping us through this process and committing some of their time to making sure that we are successful down here. You know, with regards to preparedness of families in the community - and that’s a very good point. You know, we’re engaging all these new stakeholders. And we’re identifying all these new resources and doing all of those things. But it’s very important that we also, you know, make sure that through all these new stakeholders, we’re communicating the preparedness message because it’s great to have all hands-on deck and all these resources. But we really want to make sure that all these resources are going through those that most critically need them. Those are who are the true victims, those who do not have the ability because of maybe their finances or whatever their situation may be, you know, to have the disaster kit or, you know, to prepare in that way before an event happens. So, you know, we want to dedicate all these new found resources to those who truly, truly need them. And I’ll let the Reverend jump in on the other part. Rolando Gonzalez: Yes. What we’ve created was the - first, we’ve identified the churches as we invite them through the Department of Children & Family which is where the normal need is on the 365 days a year. And we call that the Level 1 for the 16-hour preparedness because of the type of need that those families have like a mother that had a child that drowned. You know, a pastor needs to be prepared how to go and speak to that particular mother. So what we’ve tried to do is give them through the 16-hour training spiritual assessment of emergency, how to deal with dumb, psychological listening, different types of the courses of the 16 hours -- is the need of the community. And then we go to Level 2 which we right now have about 200 people under 110 churches that are being trained in Dade County for Level 2, which Level 2 kicks off for us. And that is when we start training them for the emergency system. So the pastors and the churches and the community are already engaged through the locals. So now they want to continue to make sure that their church is a mass communication or mass-feeding per Zip code. We’ve done it through a Zip code because we know that some of those families might never have a vehicle. So our emergency system is being prepared through a Zip code so that we can reach or that family can go to that local church. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Good - some good information there as well. We have some questions on the line. But before I go to the questions, I just want to clarify one thing. Earlier I talked about Natasha and the Crazy Russian Girls. The Crazy Russian Girls is the name of the bakery. (It’s not that) Natasha is crazy. That is the name of the bakery. With that, I’d like to go to... ((Crosstalk)) Man: ...she’s still baking crazy. Richard Serino: ...- yes. Well, we didn’t - I’m not saying that. But, operator, if we have a question on the phone? Coordinator: Kelley Adams from the Texas Department of Health, you may ask your question. Kelley Adams: Yes, hi. This is Kelley Adams. I work for the Texas Department of State Health Services. And I’m the State Medical Reserve Corps Coordinator. And I know that this topic has been covered on some of the other calls. But I think it’s worth mentioning again. If you’ve never heard of medical reserve corps, I was wondering if in Vermont during your flood response, did you all engage the medical reserve corps units in your area? And were they engaged? Richard Serino: I’m going to ask- go ahead. Peter Coffey: Yes, this is Peter Coffey from Emergency Management. We - at the time of the flooding, we only had one very active medical reserve corp. And that’s actually in the Bennington area where we sit right now. And I don’t believe that they really engage much for the hospital. And we have several springing up around the state now. But that’s been an area where we haven’t been real strong. Richard Serino: Yes. I know that they’ve used the medical reserve corps in Massachusetts during - I’m not sure which one of the storms could... Woman: (Unintelligible). Richard Serino: Tornado. Woman: (Unintelligible). Richard Serino: (Unintelligible) and tornadoes. I know that they use the medical reserve corps in Massachusetts. And if you need connections to them, I can connect you with those people as well. Kelley Adams: Okay. ((Crosstalk)) Richard Serino: ...literally was over the line from here, so... Kelley Adams: And so as - just to throw back up a little bit in relation to the comment that the (gentleman) made about the issues relating t the heat and the senior citizens, those kind of things are really public health issues. And most medical reserve corps are located in their local health departments. So - and when you’re talking about partnerships, you’re creating those partnerships ahead of time with them. If you don’t have a medical reserve corp with your local health department, it would be very, very important in order to get an assistance for those people. And, you know, also there’s, you know, your Department of MHRM and your state, Department of State Health Services, they provide all kinds of assistance during disasters. And I just don’t to underestimate the - you know, and I realize that, you know, just like in some areas, some VOADs are more active than others. In some areas, some medical reserve corps units are more active than others. But I just wanted to just throw that out there as a resource for other states who find themselves in a situation where they need things like psychological first aid and triage. They now just work with hospitals. And the mission of medical reserve corps is much broader than just that. So I just wanted to make sure that I’ve got that set and out there. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you for that. Just understand again in Vermont, we don’t have any county governor. We have one health department. It’s the State Health Department. And the medical reserve corps does fall under the auspices of (mental). Okay, great. Thanks, Kelley. Operator, the next call please? Coordinator: Kristine Green from Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department, you may ask your question. Kristine Green: Hi. Just - I should say Kristine Green from Mid-Ohio Valley Health Department out of Parkersburg, West Virginia. And we’re a regional health department. During our research storm in June 29th of the Derecho, we had our... ((Crosstalk)) Kristine Green: ...Mid-Ohio Valley Regional CERT, Community Emergency Response Team, out there helping. We were going door-to-door on Monday, handing out flyers that the mayor has had (unintelligible) made up, that we’re telling people of where cooling stations were, where they could get ice, water... ((Crosstalk)) Kristine Green: ...and that the pools, the local pools are going to be open free of charge to anybody that was still without power. And we also helped in a couple of different shelters. So if you have a local CERT team in your area, that’s another good voluntary base that you can get some help and relieve some of your other responders. Richard Serino: Okay, great. Thank you. Kristine Green: You’re welcome. Richard Serino: Operator, do we have another call? Coordinator: Rosalind McKelvey from the Southeastern Functional Needs Committee, you may ask your question. Rosalind McKelvey: Yes. Richard Serino: Go ahead, Rosalind. Rosalind McKelvey: I had a question about the pay and the coverage for interpreters. I’m with Germantown Deaf Ministries Fellowship. And when there’s an emergency, we have (religious) interpreters who are either volunteer or paid through the churches and the different faith-based organizations. That’s either volunteer or covered. But in an emergency, only certified interpreters can be used in the deaf who are not only English-speaking; they speak Mandarin, Russian, Spanish. So how do you handle in the emergency situation the coverage for the interpreters that are needed to facilitate and to distribute the medication and other needs? Richard Serino: Okay. I think the point on interpreters - and I think the question in there was - there’s a lot of availability for interpreters and looking to see how they can be paid. Was that the question? Rosalind McKelvey: How was the coverage between NIMS and the faith-based going to work out? Does the Red Cross or FEMA bring in the interpreters or do we facilitate and collaborate on the available local interpreters? But the question we’ve had in emergencies is who will pay us or are they volunteer? Volunteer sometimes is substandard. Richard Serino: Okay. Did you... Peter Coffey: I don’t have a good answer. This is Peter Coffey from Emergency Management. Our interpreters, as they’ve been utilized here in Vermont, are local and volunteer. We don’t have any on payroll interpreters, if you will. We do utilize the colleges and universities in the state that have good language programs to assist us in those kinds of things. And quite honestly, I did not hear or look at the locals. But at the state level, I did not hear of any issues that we had with that. Richard Serino: Okay. Rosalind McKelvey: Yes. Here, locally, we’re working with our community college. And our Southeastern Pennsylvania Functional Needs Committee has a screening panel of deaf professionals that are going to work with us to screen and gather hundreds of interpreters. So that in cases of emergency, they have the skills and the training to work in that situation with the (unintelligible) what they need to work with. I was just curious if that did come up in Vermont on how they handle the interpreting for the different languages. Peter Coffey: No. We’ve had discussions about that. But it’s not - it hasn’t been an issue. And it wasn’t an issue during post-Irene for us. Rosalind McKelvey: Oh. All right. Richard Serino: Okay. Thank you. ((Crosstalk)) Richard Serino: And as a couple of people on Twitter noted, the crickets are back. And, operator, do we have any other calls on the phone right now? If not, I’m going to go to Ken. Ken Curtin: Oh thanks. Ken Curtin. I kept thinking that was a low-battery in a smoke alarm, right, the crickets? They sounded a lot alike. You know, having just finished the 14 years as a FEMA voluntary agency liaison, having had decades before in disaster work with voluntary and fait-based organizations, the big thing I come away with is the difficulty we have in finally really recognizing or appreciating the enormous proportion of the disaster household relief and recovery that is done by voluntary faith-based and community organization. I wouldn’t try to put a percentage on it. But it really is enormous. And in a way we shouldn’t be surprised by that up until 40 or 50 years ago. That was the only relief and recovery done in the United States. Government’s role was miniscule. And so we’ve been through a big change there. If we look at the question, what can emergency managers and faith-based and community organizations - what steps can you take, it’s the realization that there’s enormous community that’s available to you right next door, and then somewhere else in your state and in your region, and across the country at National VOAD, there’re always over 50 national agencies that want to come and help you after disaster. And you can’t have most of them unless you know what they can do and what you want and you invite them. That takes planning. That takes knowledge on your part and preparedness. There are other state VOADs which are local. And there are other long-term recovery groups. What have they learned that you should not have to invent in your preparedness? They’re out there and willing to tell you about it. I would take away two rules from my experience. One is that voluntary faith-based and community organizations separately are weak. They’re almost irrelevant. Together, they do almost the whole - they do an enormous proportion of job. It’s organizing. It’s being powerful together. It’s being finding a way to coordinate with one another. The simple protocols like constant conference calls, like you mentioned, changed the chemistry of the whole business. Preparedness is the second rule. Preparedness prevents pain -- the pain of having to build this plain, Sandy, like you had to do while you’re flying it. If you had been read, if you’ve had your structures in place, lie you will have if son of Irene comes around next week on the anniversary, you’ll be able to intervene and prevent a lot more pain. Disaster caused suffering and distress and loss than you were before. Another thing I’d like to send a message to answer this question is let’s focus on preparing to recover. The demands of response and emergency response are so real. Protecting life and property, the physical work, we know it. And it’s got to be done. It’s not to take anything away from it. But recovery is in fact bigger, more expensive, it lasts longer, it’s harder, it’s more complicated, and it’s more dependent on faith voluntary and community organizations. So - and it’s a little less easy to turn to your local emergency manager and get expertise on household recovery. Their emergency managers, you know, they’re involved in recovery. But they don’t call the recovery managers. Their focus and expertise tend to be, you know, on the emergency and response side. So you want to turn to one another. You know, I think of this - one of the 15 national members of VOAD is UMCOR, United Methodist Committee on Relief. It itself - I think United Methodist just, used to at last, have a church in every country in the United States of America. And there is one very pervasive example. And they have a great recovery program and capability. And now not every National VOAD member is that pervasive and extensive. But this is a lot of solutions for you at your fingertips. Preparing means - I don’t refer the household preparedness when say preparedness. I mean your ability to work together as faith-based voluntary and community organization. What is it that you will have to do? Leaving aside what agencies can do and what their programs are for a minute, just for a minute, what are the functions you have to do on an interagency basis? You found those out. You have to raise money to get it. You have to collaborate on a donation’s warehouse. You have to collaborate like the caller said on interpretation in dealing with special programs, problems of immigrants and people with limited English. You want to collaborate on a multi-agency service center or updated - constantly updated and accurate assistance guide. You want to be able to coordinate construction volunteers, the coordinative factors. You can have 1,000 volunteers who want to do (mud out) and cut down trees that are damaged. But unless there’s a capability - an interagency capability to coordinate those volunteers, they’re not going to be able to apply - be applied to the problem. You’re going to have a problem and a solution and no capability to mesh the two. So these and more are the functions you can learn from that National VOAD manual on long-term recovery. But it is complicated. It’s daunting really to understand all the different parts. But there is hope, you know. UMCOR can do so many things, United Methodist Community, on relief including training and disaster case management. (Unintelligible) come and train you and in coordination of construction volunteers. Catholic charities can be a big resource in helping to carry out disaster case management. Church World Service will train you in the very business of forming local household coalitions for household recovery. The (unintelligible) will come and take the mud out of your basements. I’d ask - to a question that was asked before, New York Disaster Interface Services, NYDIS -- N-Y-D-I-S -- .org is a great resource for guidance for congregations on how congregations can prepare first to protect their own plans, their own physical viability as an organization, and then how to help their members be prepared and then how to help their members when there is a disaster -- NYDIS.org. So it’s daunting. I would suggest focus on recovery and all the different functions of it and then all of the different expertise that’s grown up over the many decades to capture, to teach you how to do it and to do it beforehand. It’s very easy to say; (unintelligible) you know it’s very hard to do. I would say to the question of is it better to have long-term recovery groups in place before disasters or not? Well, that’s rhetorical. But in Puerto Rico, every municipio, 68 out of 69 every municipios now have pre-disaster long-term recovery groups in place. Their capabilities of course vary. They haven’t been tested by a big disaster since they were organized. But - and it shows that framework can be put in place. Man: Ken, are there any examples (unintelligible) once or twice use of long-term recovery? Ken Curtin: Oh yes. Binghamton is really good at it, Binghamton, New York. They’re blessed with recurrent severe floods. So it’s gotten to the point where the next flood - they just go to their battle stations. And the coordinative aspect of both government foundation, business and faith and other voluntary agencies, having worked together and worked out what their various roles are going to be, it’s all in place. I would go to Binghamton, New York then and now. They get - practice is the thing. Not that I hope you’ll get it. But... Richard Serino: On that point, I just want to - I think we have a couple of calls before we run out of time. Operator, do we have a call? Coordinator: (Priscilla Ascos) from National Association of Jewish Chaplains, your line is open. (Priscilla Ascos): Thank you. I’m back. (Unintelligible) as I said I’d come back with a suggestion. First, I really want to commend all of the wonderful work in Dade County and the various organization, you know, around the country, you know, the faith-based organizations. I do agree that coordination and pre-preparedness, you know, certainly all of the, you know, all of the ingredients that have to be (unintelligible). My suggestion is that on a national level and also on a state-by-state level that there should be a point person or a disaster spiritual care, a professional seat in the same way that there are, in all of our states, there are, you know, agencies and offices for, you know, disaster to have on that team a professional spiritual care, a chaplain, who would A - that would be the point person. That would be the telephone number. That would be the place that you people will go. We also know that people do two things. At least we saw that here in New Jersey where I live at 9/11. People do two things. Number 1, they go through their local blood bank because they actually want to give something physical. And they feel they’re giving part of themselves if they donate blood. And secondly, they then go to their local faith-based community, their churches, their, you know, the community centers, the fait-based community centers. So that person would be the point person, one, you know, one telephone number, a central number. And the training - and to have a professional spiritual care, director or a chaplain on this team could be very symbolic I think to people when a disaster does hit; that we’re looking to take care of the total human being, their physical needs and their spiritual needs as well, while keeping in mind that the local state leaders are not only responders, but they are victims themselves. If you live in the community, then you’re a victim like everybody else. Our hopes - and that person would be part of the team and come in, you know, as the first responder, a second responder immediately even to give out water bottles, to be this or that as the first responder. Hopefully, there are no disasters. So the question then comes up, what dose this person do in between disasters when we hope there will not be? Hopefully that person will then go to local communities in his or her state and nationally, and train the local state leaders in professional, spiritual care disaster techniques, all of the training that we’ve just, you know, heard about. I know that we at the end of our national conference have a day of training either through Disaster Health Services or through the American Red Cross. That kind of is my, you know, my suggestion. And I think that would build up credibility, trust. It’s a powerful symbol to have a chaplain, a professional chaplain as part of the team when the team is put together through the state. That’s kind of my suggestion, both nationally, depending (unintelligible) listening from that or certainly state-wide that should be in every - on the agenda of every state. Richard Serino: Great. Thank you very much. I appreciate that. And, (Ann)? (Ann Cooper): (Ann Cooper) from (unintelligible) Vermont. In terms of best practices, Rich, thinking of what the chaplain just said, one of the things that’s really important is self-care towards caregivers and providing - one of the things that the spiritual director or a pastor can do or chaplain is to run care sessions, caring for the caregiver sessions, which are really important because it’s so easy to burn out. We all know that. And it’s something that isn’t presented often enough and isn’t thought about often enough. But it’s a component of how you keep the people going. Richard Serino: Right. Thank you. I think that’s a great point. And what happens all the time on all these think tanks is we run out of time. We have, you know, still a lot of good conversation to go. Unfortunately, we are pretty tight on - when we have to end. So I just want to - you know, some notes I took throughout, just some few different things. And I think want to, you know, first thank not only all the presenters and the people in the room, as well as Curt Summerhoff and Chaplain Gonzalez in Florida; really some good helpful hints and, you know, also some good things not to do. And I think some of the takeaways that I heard throughout the day was really that - to include the faith-based community in some of the tabletop, the functional, the drills early on. Get people involved early on as well. Go to them. Develop the relationships. Continue to obviously get to know the people. Continue the training. And as Chaplain Gonzalez said, this is not just when the disasters strike. I think it goes to what a lot of people are saying. This is a 365-day a year, going out, learning, keep getting the word out. We need to do that. Build strong relationships for the needs of the survivors. Be prepared ahead of time. And one thing that somebody mentioned is listening. And that’s government listening as well as everybody else; but government listening to the community in the faith-based community. And, you know, a lot of the tweets, a lot of the conversation that, as we continue to move forward, I think one of the things that I heard loud and clear - and this is part of a tweet. But it’s also I think sort of summarizes that I think the feelings of a lot of people here and certainly for myself, is we could not succeed without the faith-based partners. Very simply put, we couldn’t. It’s not just our theme, but the communities as a whole. And I think as we wind up today, again, I’d like to thank everybody. The conversation does not end here. The conversation will continue. We have another call next month. We don’t have the exact date yet because of, you know - we’re looking up. But we’re looking at doing this. It will be preparedness ones. And we’re looking at youth preparedness as part of that for next month as well. So again, please take the time to, you know, call in next month. But also continue online at fema.gov/femathinktank. And continue the conversation online as well. Again, thank you, everybody, for your time, and more importantly, (unintelligible). Thank you for everything that you do because you have made the difference in people’s lives. And you’ve given lots and lots of people hope. So thank you, everybody, here. We had over 360 callers. We have just hundreds of tweets, as you’ve seen. So thank you very much. Coordinator: This concludes your conference call. You may now disconnect.