Thursday, September 08, 2005
CONTACT: Sandy Scott
Phone: 202-606-6724
Email: sscott@cns.gov
- At the request of the Alabama State Office, the National Alliance of Vietnamese American Social Agencies, a Next Generation Grantee, is providing translation services to support response to Bayou LaBatre, a severely-impacted fishing community near Mobile with a large Vietnamese population.
- Florida RSVP will serve as a clearinghouse for senior volunteers wishing to be placed in disaster areas.
- The Director of the Jewish Community Center/RSVP in Houston has been designated by the Jewish Community Federation to serve as coordinator of disaster response by Jewish volunteers nationally.
- The Mississippi State Office is helping recruit volunteers to support the Emergency Call Center, which is being managed by the Mississippi Commission.
- Through the Quad Area Community Action Agency/FGP in Denham Springs, La. (just east of Baton Rouge), 25 Foster Grandparents are helping displaced children in local “Katrina” shelters, including helping them succeed in school. They also serve in two shelters in Livingston Parish, Louisiana, and will soon begin helping in Tangipahoa Parish. (Hammond, Louisiana).
- Mercy Medical Airlifts, the recently extended Special Volunteer Program, established “Angel Flight Command Centers” and has already flown more than 200 missions of relief, including flying five dialysis patients from Baton Rouge to Dallas, where they have received life-saving treatment.
- The Ohio Community Computing Network, a VISTA project, is setting up community technology centers to help new arrivals from New Orleans link to their families and to access services, schools, jobs, etc.
- Through the American Radio Relay League, a Special Volunteer Program that received a supplemental grant after Katrina hit, “ham radio” operators in New Orleans, Oregon, and Utah teamed up to alert emergency personnel about 15 people stuck on their roofs in New Orleans; all 15 have been rescued and transported to shelter.
- VISTA members working with the Phoenix and Tucson Volunteer Center are coordinating Medical Reserve Corps, CERT volunteers, and other local volunteers to assist evacuees as they arrive in Arizona. The State Office and State Commission are coordinating efforts to support the local shelters.
- The Executive Director of the Minnesota Commission and the Director of the Corporation’s State Office are working together to prepare for up to 3,500 evacuees who are expected to arrive this week.
For the latest news, information, and updates on hurricane relief and recovery efforts from the Corporation for National and Community Service, please visit http://www.nationalservice.gov/katrina.
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