It is often said, “Disasters begin and end locally.” After the major news media, national nongovernmental organizations, and large funders go home, it is the local community that will be coordinating the years of recovery still to come.
One tool used for this work is the often ignored but desperately needed long-term recovery group (LTRG). Typically pulling from the local Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters membership, LTRGs usually describe themselves as a “recovery coalition,” “unmet needs committee” or “community roundtable.” Whatever they are named, their focus is always similar: LTRGs provide coordinated service to enable everyone in the community – especially marginalized households – to recover stronger than before the disaster.
The Center for Disaster Philanthropy is hosting a webinar to explore how philanthropy can build connections between potential partners and boost the capacity of LTRGs after a disaster. We’ll hear from the Disaster Leadership Team, a past CDP grantee partner focusing on helping communities start LTRGs.
While aimed at funders, this webinar may also be helpful for community organizations, government staff, and political and faith leaders looking for practical information on setting up and supporting LTRGs including, how they function, funding needs, and how to sponsor and sustain them.
Automatic closed captioning will be available via Zoom during the webinar. The webinar will be recorded and the link to the fully captioned recording will be emailed to everyone who registered.
*Please note: After registering for this webinar, you may receive email updates from CDP about future webinars. You can opt out at any time.
Speakers
Cari started her career as a Children’s Pastor in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and in 2010 moved to Sierra Leone, West Africa to serve as the In-Country Program Director for a small NGO serving orphans. She got her start in disaster work as Camp Noah’s Senior Program Manager for Camp Development. There she worked with communities affected by disaster to assist them in understanding and meeting the emotional and spiritual needs of children post-disaster. Cari has worked with a wide variety of communities and populations. She is focused on understanding and addressing the unique needs of communities and individuals in disaster recovery, and fostering the assets and strengths of the community and individuals to build capacity and strengthen resilience.
Cari resides in Fargo, North Dakota. She has a Master of Arts in Christian Education from Bethel Seminary in St. Paul, Minnesota, and bachelor’s degrees in Cross-Cultural Studies and Bible from the University of Northwestern, St. Paul. When she is not working, Cari is reading, traveling for fun, and solidifying her position as the favorite aunt of seven of the best little people on the planet.
Prior to CDP, Tanya worked as the Associate Director of Programs and Planning at Foundation for Louisiana (FFL). Her duties included helping FFL strengthen its capacity to manage various programmatic initiatives while also building an effective evaluation practice. She led FFL’s Equitable Disaster Resilience Framework and associated Strategic Response Fund, as well as the foundation’s LGBTQ Fund.
Tanya has lived and worked for most of her life in and around Toronto, Canada. Her most recent work includes serving as the Research Coordinator for the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness/Homeless Hub (COH) based at York University. The COH works to mobilize research results so that they have a greater impact on the elimination of homelessness in Canada.
After graduating university in 1991, Tanya made a commitment to only work in social justice-related work and has focused on poverty, homelessness, LGBTQ rights, community development, and marginalization of vulnerable communities. She taught three different undergrad courses in Toronto including “Homelessness in Canadian Society”, “Environmental Disasters” and a field course in community development that brought Toronto-area students to New Orleans to assist in rebuilding post-Katrina. She teaches a self-created course “Disasters and Social Justice” at Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy.
She also has worked as a freelance writer and editor for a number of years and served on the board of directors of the Professional Writers Association of Canada for eight years, including three as president.
Tanya is ABD in the Faculty of Environmental Studies at York University with a special interest in community resiliency and recovery after catastrophic disasters. Her research work was based in St. Bernard Parish.
Tanya has a Bachelor’s in Sociology from Glendon College, York University (which was completed bilingually in English and French) and a Masters of Environmental Studies from York University (for which she developed North America’s first risk-based heat registry to protect low income and marginally housed communities from extreme heat).
Tanya currently lives in the Broadmoor neighborhood of New Orleans. In her spare time, she is an active volunteer with the American Red Cross serving as a lead responder for local disasters, the Government Liaison Lead for the state, liaison to the state Emergency Operations Center and a disaster instructor. She has responded to several major disasters across the United States and in her adopted state of Louisiana.
It seems almost fated that Sally had moved back to Houston just as Harvey formed. Though her home and family survived, she was a firsthand witness to the devastation Harvey brought to many communities up and down the Texas Gulf Coast.
Sally is familiar with the long-term effects a disaster like Harvey can have on a community after working with disaster response and recovery organizations throughout Oklahoma. While with the Oklahoma City Community Foundation, Sally helped organizations address the significant mental health needs of children and families following the Moore tornado and other devastating storms. Her efforts on behalf of survivors made her keenly aware of how long it often takes communities to recover from disasters. Through her prior work as the regional chief development officer for the American Red Cross of Central and Western Oklahoma, she developed a deep awareness of those who struggle to return to “normal” or a “new normal” after a disaster.
Sally’s nonprofit career began in Houston in the early nineties when she worked in communications and alumni services at South Texas College of Law. Moving to Oklahoma in 1999, Sally continued her career in higher education at Oklahoma City University but soon found her true calling in social services as the vice president of financial development at the YMCA of Greater Oklahoma City. She moved to the Y in Arlington, Texas in 2008, then moved back to Oklahoma to work with the Red Cross in 2011, before joining the Oklahoma City Community Foundation in 2014.
Sally now brings her years of supporting community recovery from disaster to her work overseeing grantmaking for the CDP COVID-19 Response Fund.
Sally lives and works remotely in Cypress, Texas with her husband, Bill, and her 9-year-old Weimaraner, Boone. She and Bill have two adult sons, Michael and Steven. She is an avid sports fan and has a particular passion for the Houston Astros, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and all the athletic teams of Oklahoma State University, her alma mater.