April 12, 2013

From the Rev. Stephen Harding

Diocesan Disaster Response Coordinator
mail4harding@gmail.com

My Sisters and Brothers -

 

Yesterday was the six month anniversary of Sandy's landfall. As I read and respond to the emails from Dioceses and congregations from across the country, wanting to come help this summer, I continue to be moved by the breadth of the response to devastation in our region. Groups from California, Florida, Virginia, Colorado, Massachusetts all want to join us in working to restore homes, help provide meals in communities, and do whatever they can to make another person's life a little better.

 

The scope of devastation is hard to grasp: 21,000 homes in Staten Island were damaged; 250,000 homes were damaged in New Jersey, for a total of 271,000 homes, with more in Brooklyn, Queens, and Long Island. While we have much to do in Staten Island, our neighbors have much more.

 

We still need your help. If you can send a team this summer or fall, there is plenty of work. For more information, please go to any of the below:

 

Over the past six months, the following have been put in place and are operational:

• A central Volunteer website portal, relief.episcopalny.org is up and  running. It contains
  • information about the scope of work done in the Dioceses of Easton, New Jersey, Newark, and New York
  • downloadable volunteer registration forms
• regvolcoord@episcopalny.org is the email address for the Regional Volunteer Coordinator, who schedules and assigns Volunteers to the affected Dioceses, based on skill levels and need
•  sicoord@episcopalny.org is the email address for Darrell Hayes, our Staten Island Coordinator, who is in charge of all of our recovery operations on Staten Island.

 

In place and coming online:

• The Vestry of St Paul's Church, Staten Island, has approved the use of their lower Guildhall as long-term housing for Volunteers.With the support of a $12,000 grant from the Staten Island Inter Parish Council, work is being done to prepare for their arrival.
• With support from Episcopal Relief & Development and Episcopal Charities, there will be at least three Episcopal Service Corps Interns working on Staten Island through the New York Intern Program, beginning in September.
• The Vestry of St Paul's Church, Staten Island, has approved the use of their Rectory to house the Interns. Work is in the planning stages to prepare the Rectory for their arrival.

 

Funding:

• As a deepening of the partnership between the Diocese and Episcopal Relief & Development, we are very pleased to announce that Episcopal Relief & Development is supporting our long term recovery efforts on Staten Island and lower Manhattan with an extremely generous grant of $250,000 to the Diocese.

• This grant will be used primarily to support our work on Staten Island as part of the recovery effort there. It will provide for building materials, our Staten Island Coordinator, Interns, various tools and materials, and support of the Soup in the Hood feeding program. The grant will enable us, as a Diocese, to continue to be a part of the coordinated recovery effort on Staten Island, and we are deeply grateful to Episcopal Relief & Development for their support of our work. In particular, we would like to thank Katie Mears, Director, US Disaster Programs, for her ongoing and constant support, care, and unfailing good cheer when asked for help. We could not be more pleased to partner with Episcopal Relief & Development in this endeavor.

• Episcopal Charities has very generously underwritten the first three months salary and initial expenses for our Staten Island Coordinator and has followed that up with a grant of $48,000 toward direct support of the Interns on Staten Island for the next year. We are grateful to Episcopal Charities for their steadfast support and help from the moment Sandy arrived.

• On behalf of those affected by Sandy, we are very grateful to the many congregations and individuals have contributed directly to the Diocese's Sandy Relief fund, to the Staten Island Inter Parish Council, to local congregations, Episcopal Relief & Development, or to Episcopal Charities. Thank you so much.

 

New York Intern Program at St Paul's

• As mentioned above, through the participation of many parties, there will be a new site for the Episcopal Service Corps program on Staten Island, beginning in September. The Interns are recent college graduates who are spending a year of service to help a community in need. This program will focus on disaster ministry and the Interns will function as on-site supervisors working with Darrell Hayes. Additionally, a disaster response curriculum will be included in their year so that, at the end of their time on Staten Island, the wider Church will have more people trained and experienced in disaster response.

 

There is more that has been done - volunteers are booked solidly through June - but, six months after Sandy hit us, this is where we are.

 

I invite you to come back to Staten Island this summer - and maybe take in a ball game after your day's work. Thank you all for all that you are doing, and God bless you.

 

Stephen+