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Episcopal Relief and Development expands plans to help the Gulf Coast

Episcopal Relief and Development’s Board of Directors endorsed plans for Phases II and III of the four phase, long-term Hurricane Katrina Response Plan.

The board approved $4.7 million in proposals from the Dioceses of Mississippi and Louisiana to meet  the unmet needs of people most impacted by the hurricane.

Mississippi

In Mississippi, ERD and the Lutheran Episcopal Disaster Response (LEDR) will provide food, shelter and medical assistance through LEDR’s seven relief and recovery staging areas in key cities including Long Beach, Ocean Springs and Diamondhead.

The assistance will support clean-up crews and medical teams and will provide training in psychosocial and case management services.

During the next year, ERD and LEDR will focus on volunteer management with training, case management, education and children’s services, relocation assistance, and housing and business renewal, targeting an estimated 34,000 beneficiaries.

ERD’s psychosocial services will be linked to other support for direct beneficiaries, families and their caregivers.

Louisiana

Working with the Diocese of Louisiana’s Office of Disaster Response, ERD continues to build the local capacity of the diocese to respond to marginalized populations disproportionately affected by the disaster in communities including New Orleans, Slidell, Theriot/Bayou du Large, Houma, Baton Rouge and Bogalusa. ERD is expecting to reach 55,000 people in Louisiana.

Currently, Christ Church Cathedral in New Orleans serves as a distribution center for supplies. A water unit at the cathedral is one of the only sites providing clean, purified drinking water for the surrounding neighborhood.

The cathedral is also a rest area for recovery workers, supplying them with food and potable water.

Three additional parishes in New Orleans — St. Andrew’s Church, Holy Comforter Church and Trinity Church — will offer additional supplies and psychosocial care. These churches will also provide medical services in partnership with local university medical centers, as four hospitals remain closed.

ERD also will help with spiritual counseling for clergy in affected areas.

ERD’s partnership also will assist the diocese in funding the purchase of the Glimmer Inn. With more than 70 percent of housing in New Orleans destroyed by the hurricane, the inn will be a vital outlet serving people returning to the city as well as volunteers working to clean up devastated areas. The former bed and breakfast, located adjacent to the cathedral, will become an urban ministry center.

As in Mississippi, ERD will provide medical services and training in psychosocial services and will build links with community services in Louisiana. To expand the work, ERD also will establish partnerships with at least three African Methodist Episcopal and Baptist churches.