VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITY – Crisis Clean UP Phone Volunteers

Crisis Cleanup invites Maryland VOAD members and partners to recruit Phone Center Volunteers.

Crisis Cleanup (www.crisiscleanup.org) is a website tool and hotline used throughout the US. It connects disaster survivors who need property cleanup assistance with volunteers who can help. The hotline is staffed by volunteers like you who work from home as they have time.

Download the full description to share with those interested to serve.

Email Gina Newby at gina@crisiscleanup.org for more information.

SAVE THE DATE! March 30 – April 1, 2025

Location: Cacapon State Park, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

Theme: Beyond Band-Aids: Dismantling Systemic Inequities that Fuel Disaster Vulnerability

The Planning Committee is pleased to invite you, your corporation, business, or organization to become a Conference Sponsor. Your sponsorship can be financial and/or support in planning and delivering the conference. Review the 2025 Mid-Atlantic VOADs Regional Conference Sponsorship Opportunities Fact Sheet for additional information.

Conference sponsorship opportunities include an overall corporate Conference sponsor, sponsors for specific events such as breaks, breakfasts, lunches, or possibly dinner on the first night. Non-financial support can include assistance in producing conference materials and staffing support during the conference.

If you have any questions or wish to discuss potential sponsorship, contact Clifford Oliver, Ph.D., CEM, CBCP, member of the Conference Planning Committee and Sponsorship Chair at coliver@nanticokeglobal.com or (302) 470-0535.

For additional information, go to: Regional Conference

Maryland VOAD Members, Partners & Friends,

I wanted to thank you for the support of Maryland VOAD. We have served the community well this year. Here is a short list of our accomplishments in 2024:

Tool Trailer -Your contributions have put us well underway toward meeting our goal of $40,000 to equip the trailer. We are approaching the half-way mark.

Following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse we supported the seafarers trapped on ships in the harbor and have assisted longshoreman and other dock workers who lost significant income following the event.

In Somerset and Dorchester Counties, this summer, with the support of Maryland VOAD, the Eastern Shore Long-Term Recovery Committee launched Phase 2 in our response to October 2021 Tidal Flooding, an ambitious effort to elevate and repair an additional 100 homes in the next few years. It is the first time, as far as we know, that a Long-Term Recovery response has integrated a significant mitigation component.

The committee created a “Blue Ribbon Mitigation Task Force” with a goal of raising $6.5 million for the project. Organizations serving on the task force include Maryland Department of Emergency Management (MDEM), Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, FEMA Region 3, The Nature Conservancy, University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center, Institute for Sustainable Development, many national faith-based communities (LDR, MDS, BDM, UCC, Disciples), Somerset County Commissioners, Dorchester County Council and the City of Crisfield.

The 64 homes that were either elevated, or built new after Hurricane Sandy, did not see any damage or water intrusion during the 2021 tidal flood event. We know that if we build and elevate homes to this standard (the 100 year flood plain base elevation + 2 board feet) we can create resilient homes.

As climate change leads to more severe and frequent coastal flooding, MD VOAD is focused on helping communities build back better and become more resilient. In recognition of this effort, at its Annual Conference, National VOAD gave the Innovative Program of the Year Award to Maryland VOAD and the ESLTRC.

Phase 2 has the focused goals of:

1. Being good stewards of funding entrusted to the ESLTRC;
2. Preventing repetitive loss; and most importantly,
3. Significantly improving the quality of life for the survivor families.

Many thanks once again for all your support,

In Christ,
Pastor Phil

National VOAD Innovative Program of the Year

National VOAD awards recognize organizational and individual excellence and contributions that reflect “the best of the best” in service and support within the entire VOAD movement.

The Innovation Award is given to one local, regional, state or territory VOAD or a VOAD member organization in good standing, nominated by their peers, for exceptional innovation or ingenuity through the development and implementation of a program or project that has: provided a long‐term solution to a specific community’s problem utilizing one of the core four C’s of National VOAD; or created a unique project or program that filled a gap or unmet need in a community in preparing for, responding to, and/or recovering from disasters that positively impacted the lives of victims and could be replicated as a model for other communities.

As reported in May, Maryland VOAD and the Eastern Shore Long Term Recovery Committee received National VOAD’s Innovative Program of the Year Award. Pictured here is Pastor Phil receiving the award on behalf of Maryland VOAD and the ESLTRC with April Wood (President and CEO of National VOAD, and Elizabeth Disco-Shearer (Chair, NVOAD Board of Directors).

The Innovative Program of the Year Award is award to an organization within National VOAD “for exceptional innovation or ingenuity through the development and implementation of a program or project that has provided a long‐term solution to a specific community’s problem.” The innovations sited for reception of this award include:

• Combining a mitigation component to the long-term recovery response—not just repairing homes but elevating them two feet above the 100-year flood plain anticipated levels.
• Forming a Blue Ribbon Mitigation Task Group of over 50 people from environmental groups, universities, state, county, municipal and federal agencies and National VOAD member groups to provide support and to assist in the raising the $6 million needed to complete the project.
• Using VOAD member volunteers to assist with the elevation of the homes. (Previously, the entire elevation process was contracted out.) Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is partnering with us by taking the lead in the construction process. In elevating the first two homes with volunteer labor, we have seen a cost savings of $35,000 for each home.
• Partnering with coastal universities to do a research project alongside of the elevation project to demonstrate its worth to other coastal communities, allow them to understand the components for doing such a project and offering this as an alternative to other strategies used within coastal communities.

In his remarks while receiving the award, Pastor Phil said, “With the increased number and intensity of storms, and the proclivity for significant levels of tidal flooding in the communities of Somerset and Dorchester counties, it was imperative that ESLTRC, with the support of Maryland VOAD, draw different conclusions, and chose a different path forward in the long-term recovery process.”

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