http://www.religionandsocialpolicy.org/news/article.cfm?id=5605
Churches recruited to help in disasters; CDC director asks faith community to practice readiness.
Publisher: News Leader (Arkansas)
By: Kathleen O'Dell
First published: November 28, 2006
The nation's top health official implored leaders of Greene County's churches and other faith-based organizations to develop disaster plans, knowing they may be called upon to help the government provide shelter, food or long-term care for the public during a flu pandemic or terrorist attack.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told about 60 people that the government will rely on new partnerships with government, health, education and especially faith-based communities to deliver relief and keep communities going when a disaster strikes.
They may be asked to form work groups to clear debris in the community, provide food or housing for displaced families, provide day care or to partner with health care to house some of the overflow sick, she said.
"In the spirit of caretaking and giving, there is a lot of service the faith-based community can do," Gerberding told the group at University Plaza. She told them later, "Faith-based organizations are united by compassion, and the ability to have a big tent" and accept all who come. "That's unique."
The CDC leader was the guest speaker at a daylong workshop to teach church leaders why and how they should plan for emergencies. Churches and other faith-based groups represent a large network of people who could provide many helping hands in the event of a disaster. The numbers show it: More than 135,000 Greene County residents, or 56 percent of the total population in the 2000 census, reported a religious affiliation with a faith-based organization, said Molly Holtmann, pandemic health planner for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
Emergency response agencies will likely have limited resources, so churches will play a vital role in making sure their families and communities are cared for, Holtmann told the group.
Gerberding encouraged pastors and church business administrators to make sure their own congregations are prepared. Develop a disaster response plan that spells out who calls whom, who does what and where church members would go if a disaster were to strike the building, she advised the leaders of about 45 different congregations.
Most important: Practice that plan, role-play a mock disaster and do it regularly to make disaster response part of the culture, Gerberding said.
Health officials credited Schweitzer United Methodist Church on East Sunshine Street for being poised within 15 minutes of a call to house families displaced by a recent fire at the nearby Columns IV apartment building.
Faith-based community leaders will also be reminded to create a plan or practice their existing one every year, beginning March 11, designated "Ready Sunday" by Greene County Emergency Management.
The Rev. Tom Demers, one of the pastors at High Street Baptist Church in Springfield, said the county health department has already asked his church to provide space for displaced families in the event of a disaster.
He attended the Monday workshop to learn how to develop a plan for his own 1,000-member congregation, so it would be ready in the event of bigger demands from the county.
"If we got a phone call, I know we wouldn't be ready for it," Demers said. "And we want to be ready for it."
Wesley United Methodist Church has a partial disaster response plan but has a ways to go, said business administrator Paul Heigl.
The church campus houses the Summit School - a private preparatory school; a parents' cooperative preschool and the Wesley Kids Program, also a preschool. So the church's disaster plan includes designated sites in hallways to shelter all the children regularly on campus, he said.
"If you have to move 500 people, where do you put them?" he asked. It's possible, with a well-practiced plan, Heigl added.
During his previous assignment at Central Assembly, staff moved 800 people to safety when a tornado was reported heading through Springfield.
Gerberding outlined a "perfect storm" of emerging world threats that could come to roost in any community and any church doorstep: extreme poverty; new and re-emerging infectious diseases; extreme climates in the form of hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes; and extremism in religious and cultural beliefs, which has led to terrorist acts worldwide.
"Global extremes create global health threats," she said. The CDC tries to address all of those emerging issues but relies on partnerships at the most local levels to educate and deliver services, she added.
The biggest threat to having a prepared congregation, community or nation is complacency, Gerberding said.
On that note, she encouraged the faith community leaders: "You can do so many things because you have credibility."
Churches recruited to help in disasters; CDC director asks faith community to practice readiness.
Publisher: News Leader (Arkansas)
By: Kathleen O'Dell
First published: November 28, 2006
The nation's top health official implored leaders of Greene County's churches and other faith-based organizations to develop disaster plans, knowing they may be called upon to help the government provide shelter, food or long-term care for the public during a flu pandemic or terrorist attack.
Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told about 60 people that the government will rely on new partnerships with government, health, education and especially faith-based communities to deliver relief and keep communities going when a disaster strikes.
They may be asked to form work groups to clear debris in the community, provide food or housing for displaced families, provide day care or to partner with health care to house some of the overflow sick, she said.
"In the spirit of caretaking and giving, there is a lot of service the faith-based community can do," Gerberding told the group at University Plaza. She told them later, "Faith-based organizations are united by compassion, and the ability to have a big tent" and accept all who come. "That's unique."
The CDC leader was the guest speaker at a daylong workshop to teach church leaders why and how they should plan for emergencies. Churches and other faith-based groups represent a large network of people who could provide many helping hands in the event of a disaster. The numbers show it: More than 135,000 Greene County residents, or 56 percent of the total population in the 2000 census, reported a religious affiliation with a faith-based organization, said Molly Holtmann, pandemic health planner for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.
Emergency response agencies will likely have limited resources, so churches will play a vital role in making sure their families and communities are cared for, Holtmann told the group.
Gerberding encouraged pastors and church business administrators to make sure their own congregations are prepared. Develop a disaster response plan that spells out who calls whom, who does what and where church members would go if a disaster were to strike the building, she advised the leaders of about 45 different congregations.
Most important: Practice that plan, role-play a mock disaster and do it regularly to make disaster response part of the culture, Gerberding said.
Health officials credited Schweitzer United Methodist Church on East Sunshine Street for being poised within 15 minutes of a call to house families displaced by a recent fire at the nearby Columns IV apartment building.
Faith-based community leaders will also be reminded to create a plan or practice their existing one every year, beginning March 11, designated "Ready Sunday" by Greene County Emergency Management.
The Rev. Tom Demers, one of the pastors at High Street Baptist Church in Springfield, said the county health department has already asked his church to provide space for displaced families in the event of a disaster.
He attended the Monday workshop to learn how to develop a plan for his own 1,000-member congregation, so it would be ready in the event of bigger demands from the county.
"If we got a phone call, I know we wouldn't be ready for it," Demers said. "And we want to be ready for it."
Wesley United Methodist Church has a partial disaster response plan but has a ways to go, said business administrator Paul Heigl.
The church campus houses the Summit School - a private preparatory school; a parents' cooperative preschool and the Wesley Kids Program, also a preschool. So the church's disaster plan includes designated sites in hallways to shelter all the children regularly on campus, he said.
"If you have to move 500 people, where do you put them?" he asked. It's possible, with a well-practiced plan, Heigl added.
During his previous assignment at Central Assembly, staff moved 800 people to safety when a tornado was reported heading through Springfield.
Gerberding outlined a "perfect storm" of emerging world threats that could come to roost in any community and any church doorstep: extreme poverty; new and re-emerging infectious diseases; extreme climates in the form of hurricanes, tsunamis, earthquakes, tornadoes; and extremism in religious and cultural beliefs, which has led to terrorist acts worldwide.
"Global extremes create global health threats," she said. The CDC tries to address all of those emerging issues but relies on partnerships at the most local levels to educate and deliver services, she added.
The biggest threat to having a prepared congregation, community or nation is complacency, Gerberding said.
On that note, she encouraged the faith community leaders: "You can do so many things because you have credibility."