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Texas Conference of Churches Announces A $477,984 Americorps*VISTA Grant for TCC's Disaster Recovery Program
Austin, Texas Sep 19, 2006 The Texas Conference of Churches, located in Austin, has been awarded an Americorps*VISTA grant for its Disaster Recovery Program. Twenty VISTA members and a VISTA leader are being placed around the state responding the long-term recovery needs of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina survivors. The grant was awarded by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) members will be working with long-term recovery committees that have been formed in 18 counties in Texas. Long- term recovery committees (LTRCs) are community groups that develop after disaster to deal with unmet needs of survivors whose FEMA and other benefits have been exhausted. Long-term recovery for Katrina and Rita could last as much as ten years or longer. Without these community groups, many disaster survivors would never reach their former standard of living.
The VISTA members will be working with the LTRCs to help them build capacity to best serve the disaster survivors in their area. They will serve as Executive Directors, Volunteer Coordinators, Funds Developers and Casework Managers. They will focus on both the present organizational capacity and on building the organization’s ability to respond to future disasters.
The VISTA members will be serving with the following disaster-recovery groups:
- Angelina County Recovery Action Committee
- Bell County VOAD
- Cambers County LTR Committee
- Citizens Organized for Rita Restoration (Jasper/Newton)
- Greater San Antonio Interfaith Disaster Recovery Alliance (Bexar)
- Montgomery County Disaster Recovery Task Force
- Nacogdoches Disaster Relief Council
- Polk County Disaster Recovery Team
- Sabine/San Augustine HELP
- Shelby County Disaster Recovery
- Southeast Texas Interfaith Organization for Disaster (Jefferson/Orange)
- Texas Interfaith/Interagency Disaster Response TIDR (Travis)
- Tyler County Long-Term Recovery Committee
- Unmet Needs Committees of Walker and Trinity Counties
The VISTA members will be led by Bonnie Mallott, Co- Director Disaster Recovery. She and Tary Snyder have developed the Disaster Recovery Program within the Texas Conference of Churches, and have worked with long-term recovery committees since November 2005. Mallott is the former Executive Director of West Virginia Ministry of Advocacy and Workcamps, Charleston, WV, where she led a state-wide disaster- recovery organization bringing volunteer groups to work in flood-ravaged areas of West Virginia.
The Texas Conference of Churches is an ecumenical agency consisting of twenty Christian denominations representing Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches from across Texas . The relief effort is an extension of a loving hand of comfort to those devastated by the storms of last year.
For questions concerning this project or being a VISTA member, call the Texas Conference of Churches, 512 451 0991.
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