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Dear National Service Colleague:
Yesterday marked the six-month anniversary of Katrina making landfall in the United States. Our work is just beginning, and the national service network should be extremely proud of how much we’ve already helped those affected by this unprecedented disaster.
The White House has issued an extensive fact sheet on the progress made in the last six months in the hurricane relief, recovery, and rebuilding effort. I encourage you to read over this report, which can be found in the news section of www.nationalservice.gov, and draw your attention in particular to the final section summarizing national service and volunteer activities.
The numbers represented in this fact sheet are impressive. But, we also know they underestimate our contributions. We know this because many national service grantees that have responded to the hurricanes – either in the Gulf or assisting evacuees elsewhere in the United States -- have not yet entered their information into our Disaster Response Database.
We are writing today to ask all grantees who’ve participated in hurricane response to please make it a priority to enter your response activities into this database. This will only take a few minutes and we urgently need timely, reliable, and comprehensive information to better tell our story to Congress and the public. This information is particularly important now to:
- Make as strong a case as possible for funding levels for our programs in upcoming appropriations hearings in Congress;
- Help the White House, OMB, FEMA, and other agencies understand the totality of our efforts as they make mission assignments and allocate funding;
- Garner media coverage of the role of national service in recovery and rebuilding efforts;
- Help us tell our story to the public through our website and other vehicles.
The Disaster Response Database was designed to be very easy to use, and it is. To get to the database, go to http://www.nationalservice.gov/relief/tbl_response/AddTbl_responsePage.aspx. The form is there, along with instructions and an FAQ. If you find you need further assistance, please ask your Program Officer.
As program directors – especially those who are currently deployed in the Gulf – we know you are extremely busy. We also know that you are proud of what your members and volunteers are doing. We ask that you take a few minutes to share this data with us as soon as possible. Starting in mid-March, we will post information from this database on our public website. In order to have your data included, we’d greatly appreciate your response by March 13.
Thank you in advance for your cooperation, and for your extraordinary work helping people recover from this tragedy. We know we have much work ahead of us, and are proud to be doing it with you.
Sincerely,
David Eisner, CEO
Liz Seale, COO
Corporation for National and Community Service
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