Jacobs' Ladder:
A Project of the Union for Reform Judaism -
$125,000
The need for food and other daily
necessities is overwhelming. And so, as Reform Jews, we have no choice but to
respond and help. Jacobs' Ladder: A Relief Project of the
Union for Reform Judaism is a vital new part of our
response. Reform Jews across North America are collecting food and supplies and
shipping them to the Union’s Henry S. Jacobs Camp in
Utica,
MS.
Working in partnership
with the town of Utica, the Union and Jacobs Camp are operating a staging and
distribution center for relief supplies from a warehouse provided by the city.
The center is collecting supplies and distributing them through a number of
local and regional ministries and relief centers that serve the greater
Jackson
community, the population of which has doubled with displaced families since the
storm.
Enterprise Corporation of
the Delta (www.ecd.org) - $60,000 The Shefa
Fund introduced the Union to the exceptional work of the Enterprise
Corporation of the Delta which has now received two grants from the Union
totaling $60,000..The Enterprise Corporation of the Delta is a not-for-profit
community development financial institution that builds assets, strengthens
lives and improves the quality of life in distressed Mid South communities.
Through the ECD Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund, Enterprise Corporation of the
Delta/ Hope Community Credit Union (ECD/HOPE) is participating in the immediate
and the long-term storm recovery efforts in Louisiana and Mississippi.Initially,
donated funds will be routed to community partners who are providing food,
clothing and shelter for those in Louisiana and Mississippi who were displaced
by the storm. As these basic needs lessen, funds will support payment deferrals,
provide down payment assistance, establish loss reserves, and otherwise extend a
bridge to those recovering from this tragedy. In this role, ECD/HOPE will build
on twelve years of experience in strengthening distressed areas to help
residents rebuild their lives, homes, businesses and communities.
Tthe organization shifted focus on
a moment's notice to respond to FEMA’s decision to stop distributing cash debit
cards and instead direct deposit funds into affected peoples’ bank
accounts. Because so few of the poorest residents of the area had a bank
account to be able to take advantage of the new relief funds, the ECD set up
mobile branches in shelters to open credit union accounts so that all affected
people could receive FEMA funds.
Shefa
Fund/Jewish Fund for Justice Hurricane Katrina Recovery and
Redevelopment Fund - $60,000 The Hurricane Katrina Recovery and
Redevelopment Fund’s goal is to focus resources on the long-term redevelopment
needs of the disaster's most neglected victims. Its commitment to the
region will extend over at least the next three years. Shefa/JFJ will make
strategic grants for both community development and community organizing focused
on the Gulf Coast’s low-income communities, which have been disproportionately
affected by Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath.
The Fund will direct grants and
deposits to community development organizations working with low-income
residents to repair and rebuild neighborhoods, businesses and family finances
affected by Hurricane Katrina.
Based on Shefa Fund’s advice, URJ
has already supported the Jackson, MS-based Enterprise Corporation of the Delta
(ECD), a local community development financial institution (CDFI), and its New
Orleans-based Hope Community Credit Union (HOPE). Shefa intends to invest
in ECD/HOPE and other CDFIs over the long-term to support payment deferrals,
provide down payment assistance, establish loss reserves, and otherwise extend a
bridge to those recovering from this tragedy.
Shefa is working with the National
Federation of Community Development Credit Unions to identify, reach and support
the entire cluster of about a dozen community development credit unions that dot
the entire Delta area. Their work with individuals, families, small businesses
and entire communities in the region has been -- and will now even more urgently
be -- a core element of the effort to restore and rebuild homes, social services
and economic networks in several dozen impoverished communities.
The Working Interfaith
Network of Baton Rouge - $60,000 While in Baton Rouge, Jacob Fain
met with the Working Interfaith Network (WIN), a PICO faith based community
organizing network that is part of the state wide LIFT (Louisiana Interfaith
Together) network. This coalition of more than 30 churches in Baton Rouge
has a tremendously important role in coordinating the relief to reconstruction
transition for that city. Many of the churches are providing direct relief
services, and WIN is helping them do that. WIN/LIFT staff are engaged in a
massive effort to work in both large official shelters and smaller community-run
shelters to listen to the needs of families, help them access services and
provide a way for them to act together to protect their interests. They
have expressed a need to add staff to teach and coach displaced families in
obtaining the short and long-term assistance and building the organization they
need to rebuild their lives.
ACORN - www.acorn.org - $50,000 ACORN, the
Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest
community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together
for social justice and stronger communities. Since 1970, ACORN has grown
to more than 175,000 member families, organized in 850 neighborhood chapters in
75 cities across the U.S. and abroad; including a regional headquarters in New
Orleans.
ACORN is working to unite community
members to face the challenges at hand by locating and assisting displaced
members with food, shelter, and medical assistance, and servicing the housing
and credit needs of those in need. Even as it works to meet these
immediate needs, ACORN will organize those affected by the Hurricane to ensure
that low income neighborhoods and families get the help they need and a voice in
decisions about rebuilding. To that end, ACORN is establishing temporary
office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and Houston, Texas to serve affected
populations.
Houston Habitat for Humanity
- $50,000
Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic
Violence (LCADV) - $50,000 Louisiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence (LCADV) is working to protect
survivors of domestic violence and child abuse who have been displaced by
Hurricane Katrina. Because of the hurricane, all direct services for survivors
of domestic violence in the gulf coast region have been suspended. Several
women’s shelters have been completely destroyed; others were forced to evacuate.
The thousands of women and children who were in those shelters require urgent
assistance.
Compounding the situation is the fact that domestic violence rates increase
significantly in the wake of disaster, as abusers react to their own trauma with
violence and a vain attempt to reassert control in the face of chaos and loss
(which we have seen and responded to in Sri Lanka through our Tsunami relief
efforts).
The LCADV reports that many women are afraid to register with the Red Cross
for fear that their batterers will use the registry to find them. And the LCADV
has received reports that women are being battered by their partners in the
emergency shelters set up since the hurricane. LCADV is accepting donations that
are earmarked to assist battered hurricane survivors and their children. Funds
will be used to:
Relocate domestic violence survivors displaced by the hurricane.
Purchase basic necessities, such as baby formula, food, diapers, and
clothing.
Pay for medical treatment and prescription medications.
Pay for car repairs, gas, and public transportation to bring women and their
children to safe housing in other communities.
Children’s Health Fund
- $50,000 The Children’s
Health Fund is an 18-year old organization that has been providing comprehensive
health care to medically underserved children and families in communities
throughout the U.S., including Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, and Texas. They
deliver primary health care with the help of mobile medical facilities that
bring state of the art medical equipment to areas without adequate permanent
health clinics. Each mobile unit is staffed with a team of medical
professions, consisting of at least a doctor, a nurse, and a mental health
professional.
The Children’s Health Fund has responded to the Hurricane by dispatching the
mobile health facilities that had been serving urban and rural communities in
Mississippi, Arkansas and Florida to the affected region to provide immediate
relief. They are currently raising funds to purchase three additional
mobile clinics so that they can continue to provide relief services in the Gulf
and at the same time restore service to the areas they had been serving.
As the process moves from relief to reconstruction, Children’s Health Fund plans
to establish permanent health services in the affected region and is currently
building partnerships with local health providers. Each mobile clinic
costs approximately $300,000.
AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth
& Families - $30,000 More than 8,000 HIV+ people were displaced
by the hurricane in Louisiana alone. The AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth
& Families and its local affiliate HIV/AIDS programs that serve women,
children, youth, and families have been profoundly affected by the hurricane.
More than a dozen member clinics were in the area hit hardest by Katrina, and
scores more are providing support for evacuees. The funds will be used to
support the emergency needs of families and young people living with HIV/AIDS
and will be disbursed directly through existing local program
infrastructure.
American Friends Service
Committee- $30,000 The American
Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of
various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian
service. It has already allocated $1 million towards hurricane relief efforts
and has activated its emergency response team to assess critical needs in the
region and to determine the most effective and efficient methods of service
delivery. Staff in the southeastern region will coordinate with Friends
organizations and other groups in the area.AFSC has extensive experience in
disaster relief efforts, including aid to immigrant farm and nursery workers,
and decent housing for low-income residents in South Florida after Hurricane
Andrew, and Long-term recovery and development projects for flood disaster
victims and rural farmers in Iowa. Last year, the URJ has supported AFSC relief
efforts in Haiti following Hurricane Jeanne last
September.
America's Second Harvest) - $30,000
America's Second
Harvest—The Nation’s Food Bank Network is the largest domestic hunger-relief
organization in the United States. Today, the national Network secures and
distributes nearly two billion pounds of food and grocery products to more than
200 regional food banks and food-rescue organizations in all 50 states. As of
noon on Monday, September 5, America’s Second Harvest had already dispatched
nearly 200 Semi truckloads carrying disaster relief food and grocery products. A
total of 6.4 million Pounds of food and grocery have been delivered, the
equivalent of more than 5 million meals.
International Medical
Corps - $30,000 IMC is a global humanitarian nonprofit
organization dedicated to saving lives and relieving suffering through health
care training and medical relief programs. Last week, IMC sent a team of public
health experts with experience in responding to international emergency and
disaster situations to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is currently preparing to
provide counseling and psycho-social services to those affected by the hurricane
– an area in which it has extensive experience. IMC is also partnering with
organizations like America’s Second Harvest to integrate its programs into
existing shelter and feeding efforts.International Medical Corps is also a URJ
partner in Tsunami Relief and Sudan Relief.
Direct Relief
International - $30,000 Direct
Relief International is a non-profit, non-sectarian humanitarian assistance that
for 56 years has provided medical material assistance in the form of
pharmaceuticals, supplies, and new and refurbished medical equipment to over
3,000 charitable health facilities worldwide and within the United States. In
2004, the organization provided more than $122 million (wholesale value) in
medicines, supplies and equipment to health projects in 54 countries, enough
provisions to keep hundreds of local health professionals and clinics
productively engaged and provide full courses of medical treatment for over 20
million people.
Direct Relief International is partnering with community
and free clinics in the hurricane affected areas to provide medical assistance
with an initial $250,000 in cash, and access to medical inventories valued at
nearly $35 million (wholesale). The Union has also supported Direct Relief
International’s Tsunami relief efforts.
Mercy Corps (www.mercycorps.org) - $30,000 Mercy Corps is a non-sectarian
development organization dedicated to alleviating suffering, poverty, and
oppression by helping people build secure, productive, and just communities. In
the coming weeks and months, Mercy Corps will focus on four strategic program
areas:
Emergency Relief: Mercy
Corps will provide critical financial, technical and material aid support to
survivors of the disaster. This includes provision of shelter, food, water,
sanitation and health care to displaced populations. Emergency relief will be
provided in coordination with the efforts of other relief organizations.
Community Mobilization:
Participation of local communities in their own recovery and rebuilding
process is critical for the long term success and sustainability of a program.
This is also critical in overcoming psychosocial trauma and beginning to rebuild
the bonds of community. Mercy Corps will work with local groups to support their
own rebuilding and recovery process in geographic areas where this is possible.
Psychosocial Programs: The
effect of a disaster like Hurricane Katrina can have a lasting traumatic impact
on the survivors, especially children. Children in particular are vulnerable to
trauma, as it is more difficult for them to make sense of what happened. Mercy
Corps will support psychosocial programs that help the survivors overcome their
trauma, with a special emphasis on children. We will work with schools, daycare
centers, children’s service agencies and other local groups to provide
appropriate psychosocial support to children. We will focus on activities that
restore healthy activities and routines for children, as well as ways to engage
the children themselves in the planning and implementation of programs.
Economic Recovery: Mercy
Corps will work with local groups to help poor families rebuild their
livelihoods. These programs will include helping people rebuild their
businesses, create employment and earn income. The quicker families can get back
on their feet economically and become independent, the quicker their communities
will get back to normal.
Mercy Corps is also a URJ partner in
Tsunami Relief and Sudan Relief.
Oxfam America (www.oxfamamerica.org) - $30,000 Oxfam America is a development and relief
agency that works with local partners to help people escape poverty. Oxfam
America’s domestic work focuses on the rural poor, especially African Americans,
Native Americans, women, and immigrants.Oxfam is concerned that some of the
region’s poorest residents, particularly those in rural areas of Louisiana and
Mississippi, may be bypassed by much of the relief and recovery effort. Katrina
has devastated many people in rural communities—especially African-American
farmers, migrant farm workers, and immigrant dock workers. These are communities
with some of the most profound and entrenched poverty in the nation. The
hurricane ripped roofs off houses, knocked out power, blocked roads, and
flattened farmers’ fields, leaving already-marginalized people homeless and with
no means to support themselves. These communities’ vulnerability to Katrina’s
destructive effects—reflected in the location and construction of their homes,
their inability to escape from the storm’s path, and their limited
resources—puts them similarly at risk of being ignored or disenfranchised during
the recovery phase. Many are now without potable water, or diesel fuel to run
their farm equipment. In some cases, the markets where they sold their produce
have been obliterated.
For 15 years, Oxfam America has worked on economic and community
development in coastal Mississippi and Louisiana and the Mississippi Delta
through the partner organizations we are now supporting with these emergency
grants. Over the weekend, Oxfam distributed food, supplies, and electric
generators to two congregations in east Biloxi, Mississippi, that are providing
up to 1,000 meals a day and sheltering up to 200 people a night. A $30,000 grant
to Voices of Hope, a local housing organization, will enable homeowners to
obtain $200 vouchers to buy materials needed to make their homes watertight
before another storm passes through.
Baton Rouge Area Foundation -
$20,000 For over 40 years, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation has united
human and financial resources to enhance the quality of life in Louisiana’s
capital region. The Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund will benefit
those individuals evacuated to Baton Rouge from the hurricane impacted areas in
Greater New Orleans, who are now unable to return for what maybe an extended
period. Support from the Hurricane Katrina Displaced Residents Fund will be
disbursed directly to non-profit organizations with the assessed capability to
affect the greatest need among evacuees in our area, and allows the Baton Rouge
Area Foundation the flexibility to act quickly and decisively.
House of Hope/Casa de
Esperanza de los Ni?os (www.casahope.org) -
$20,000 Casa de Esperanza is a safe place
for children in crisis due to abuse, neglect or the effects of the HIV virus.
Casa de Esperanza provides residential, medical and psychological care according
to the needs of each child. Counseling is also available to the parents in
appropriate situations.
Casa de Esperanza is providing
comprehensive services to families affected by the hurricane, including locating
housing, providing medical care, job placement, and children’s services.
In the immediate aftermath of the evacuation, few of those displaced by the
Hurricane have shared compounding challenges they face, such as being HIV
positive. Social service providers anticipate that these issues will begin
to surface once the evacuees feel that their immediate needs such as food and
shelter have been met. Casa is also well known in Houston for their work
with HIV positive children, and will likely be responsible for much of the work
with that community of evacuees in Houston. (Note: We are recommending a smaller
amount to this organization because it is smaller than the others and serves a
smaller population.)
Equality Mississippi -
$10,000 In the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, Equality
Mississippi, Mississippi’s state-wide GLBT organization, responded by providing
emergency relief for its members and general community members. Equality
Mississippi, and their partner Camp Sister Spirit in Ovett, MS (a camp committed
to ending all forms of discrimination) were critical resources for many GLBT
evacuees, providing thousands of dollars in relief supplies to this population.
Their particular outreach was critical, given that much of the relief effort has
been led by churches, and because many churches publicly supported an amendment
to the state constitution barring same-sex marriage, many GLBT evacuees did not
feel safe going to churches for relief services. Jacobs’ Ladder has been
providing supplies to Camp Sister Spirit for nearly three weeks now, and those
that have visited the camp cannot speak highly enough about their work. We
recommend providing $10,000 to help them continue their relief
efforts.
Jewish Federation of
Baton Rouge -
Katrina Relief Fund - $10,000 The small Jewish community in
Baton Rouge has nearly doubled in size, along
with the rest of Baton
Rouge. Reaching out to nearly 1,000 Jewish evacuees from
New Orleans, the
community has welcomed these newcomers into their homes and community. They have
sent rescue missions into New
Orleans to save individuals as well as sacred scrolls and
other ritual items.
During Hurricane Rita, Greene Family
Camp (GFC) opened its doors to provide shelter to members of the Jewish
community, residents of a special needs facility and evacuated travelers stuck
on the roads after local shelters were filled. GFC has been offered a challenge
grant in the amount of $10,000 to cover expenses from running “CampRita,” as it was dubbed by the local
media. The camp has already raised $3,500 in donations and is seeking an
additional $6500 to obtain the full matching grant to cover the camp's expenses
in housing evacuees during Rita.
Fourth District
Baptist Association - $5,000 Fourth District Missionary Baptist
Association had been named an official relief distribution center. The
association, a group of 200-plus churches with predominantly black
congregations, has been leading communal efforts to assist the thousands of
evacuees from New Orleans that have relocated to
Baton
Rouge.
Reform Congregation mini-grants:
$9,000
Beth Israel Congregation, Jackson, MS - $10,000
TempleBeth El, San
Antonio, TX -
$10,000
Congregation B'nai Israel, Baton Rouge, LA -$10,000
Beth Shalom Synagogue, Baton Rouge, LA - $10,000
Gemiluth Chassodim, Alexandria, LA - $5,000
Touro Synagogue, New Orleans -
$10,000
Gates of Prayer, Metarie, LA -
$10,000
Northshore Jewish Congregation,
Mandeville, LA - $10,000
Sinai Temple, New Orleans, LA -
$10,000
Temple Emanuel, Beaumont, TX -
$10,000
The Union’s Disaster Relief Fund (see
http://urj.org/relief) is activated in response to disasters that
occur both here and abroad, Thal said. In the past, it has been used to provide
relief to victims of floods in Europe, earthquakes in South America, Black
churches that were burned
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