Message from Our Executive Director
We’ve arrived at the end of the grant period for Katrina Aid Today. Over the past years, we have used this space to keep you informed and to encourage you in your work. Now it is time to send you a heartfelt “Thank you!” for the compassionate work you did for this program.
We have met the end with mixed emotions. We have much to celebrate with our accomplishments with regards to the national response to Katrina. However, we know that our friends in the Gulf will continue to recover in the years to come. It will take the support of our community to insure those still recovering complete their final recovery plans.
You were part of an unprecedented coalition between the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and your own agency. We learned and refined case management to meet the needs of the survivors. We embraced the CAN system to record data and track our progress. We met with our clients and often cried with them. Some of you are survivors yourselves.
Thank you for your compassion, your courage, your persistence. You have helped show that disaster recovery works best when we work together. While we certainly don’t wish for a disaster to occur, when one does, we will be better prepared as a nation and as the social service community because of your commitment to Katrina Aid Today.
Thank you and God bless.
Yours truly,
Jim Cox
Executive Director, Katrina Aid Today
BPSOS Biloxi Emphasizes Commitment to Community
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Khuyen Nguyen (right) pauses for a chat with his case manager Angel Truong in front of the BPSOS office in Biloxi, Miss.
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Boat People SOS Branch Manager Thao Vu had a straightforward assessment for her case management staff who find working with Katrina survivors challenging and difficult. “If you can do social work post-Katrina, you can do social work anywhere,” she affirmed.
Vu, a former business owner who is relatively new to disaster response work, is also emphatic about her personal commitment to the Biloxi community. “We have suffered a great loss,” she exclaimed. “Outsiders just don’t know what was lost like people who lived here.
“We have lost our community, our sense of connection,” she continued. “It was sudden and devastating.”
A large percentage of the clients served by BPSOS in Biloxi are Vietnamese. Many were fishermen and women who lost homes and livelihoods to the hurricane. Case managers help clients to secure living arrangements and find grants to repair boats so that they can return to work.
“The climate here is like home to the Vietnamese,” Vu explained. “Many were shrimpers in Vietnam.”
Vu also explained why many of the community did not evacuate during the storm. “Most of the community moved to Biloxi after Camille (1969) and so were not familiar with the possible effects,” she said.
Additional considerations included the language barrier, illness, and unfamiliarity with resources outside the area. “In the US, individuality is prized,” she continued. “Because of this focus on ‘self’ and the lack of immediate family in the area, no one really checked on them.”
Vu is emphatic that recovery on the Gulf Coast will take dedication and long term commitment. “Non-profits will play a critical role,” she said. “We need to realize that this work is long term.”
Boat People SOS along with other Katrina Aid Today partners will continue to assist survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
Recovery Continues for Survivors and Agencies
As the Katrina Aid Today grant comes to a close, the nine national partners and local grassroots affiliates are evaluating their participation in the grant process and assessing their future involvement with Katrina survivors in their communities.
“Being a part of Katrina Aid Today has allowed us to participate in a groundbreaking program where agencies who are usually independent must find ways to work together,” said Ruqayya Gibson, Executive Director of ACTION, Accepting Challenges to Improve Our Nation, one of 16 local grassroots affiliates that assisted survivors across the country with Katrina Aid Today. “It made us realize how effective we can be if we work together.”
As many have realized, the story of recovery is not over. “Katrina survivors in Houston still need support,” she continued. “ACTION will continue to help survivors in the way of emotional and motivational support as they continue to learn how to navigate Houston. It has been a blessing to serve the survivors and assist them in becoming stable.”
Additional summary information about the work of the nine national partners and local consortium members of Katrina Aid Today are available on the web site, www.KatrinaAidToday.org.
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Homeowner Hang
Tran meets with
case manager Kiet
Nguyen at the
BPSOS office in
Biloxi
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National Partners
- Boat People SOS (BPSOS)
- Catholic Charities USA
- Episcopal Relief and Development
- Lutheran Disaster Response
- National Disability Rights Network
- Odyssey House of Louisiana
- The Salvation Army
- Society of St. Vincent De Paul
- Volunteers of America
Grassroots Alliances
- Accepting Challenges to Improve Our Nation (ACTION), Houston, TX
- Asian Social Services Center, Philadelphia, PA
- Autauga County Family Support Center, Prattville, AL
- Hope Community Services Inc., Orange County, CA
- Interchurch Ministries of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
- Mennonite Central Committee and El Comité de Récuperacion, Houston, TX
- Metropolitan Tulsa Urban League, Tulsa, OK
- National Spinal Cord Injury Association, (NSCIA) Bethesda, MD
- New Concept Staff Development Center, Inc., Milwaukee, WI
- Sabathani Community Center, Minneapolis, MN
- Sts. Joachim and Ann Care Services, St. Charles, MO
- Texas Interagency-Interfaith Disaster Response, Austin, TX
- United Way of Central Iowa, Des Moines, IA
- UNITY of Greater New Orleans, New Orleans, LA
- Workforce Essentials Inc., Clarksville, TN
- Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle, Seattle, WA
Visit www.katrinaaidtoday.org to learn more and view final reports.
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