Page 145 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

114 Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilence

To address this and recruit grassroots agencies that could do com-
prehensive case management, the first “training” for the unmet needs
table was held in April 2002. A staff person was selected from Lutheran
Social Services, funded through Lutheran Disaster Response, to manage
the table, train participants, and facilitate meetings. That staff person’s
role developed from chair of the 9/11 Roundtable, to moderator between
agency donor and case manager discussions, to becoming a function of the
director of Disaster Recovery and Advocacy for the yet to-be-formed New
York Disaster Interfaith Services. In the process of creating the first train-
ing, the FEMA voluntary liaison connected the new Lutheran staff per-
son to an unmet needs table expert working for the American Red Cross
in Arizona, leading to weeks of nightly 3-hour-long calls about unmet
needs tables and the potential role of the faith communities to address the
emerging needs of 9/11 survivors.
The process of creating the training led to development of a mission
statement for the 9/11 Roundtable through discussion with the initial
committee members. The 3-hour presentation served as an introduc-
tion of the concepts underlying unmet needs tables, disaster long-term
recovery and the way each agency representative could work to attain
assistance for their clients. The first training was held at Lutheran Social
Services of New York in lower Manhattan. Attendance was great, includ-
ing representatives from the mayor’s Office of Emergency Management,
Lutheran Disaster Response, the Puerto Rican Defense and Education
Fund, Brooklyn Bureau of Community Services, Safe Horizon, and the
Salvation Army (both member agencies of the USG), with approximately
50 people in attendance.
Change happened quickly in the 9/11 human services community. After
the initial training, enthusiasm for the potential of the unmet needs table
grew. Within weeks, the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund
had one, then two, full-time caseworkers bringing an average of six new
cases to the twice-weekly meetings of the 9/11 Roundtable. The leader of
Lutheran Disaster Response of New York had a functional meeting with
good case presentations to invite faith-based donor partners to for obser-
vation. Within weeks, UMCOR chose to participate. Observers from the
Council of Churches of Greater New York, Presbytery of New York, and
Episcopal Church attended meetings and came together to become donors
at the 9/11 Roundtable.
In May 2002, the chair of the 9/11 Roundtable was invited to a meet-
ing at the Disaster Assistance Service Center, at that time managed by
Safe Horizon, to answer questions about the unmet needs table. At the