Emergency Self-Care Plan Focus of Gulf Coast Organizations April 6 in Mobile

April 3, 2010 - PRLog -- Grand Bay, AL.    Social service provider executives too often negate themselves in the midst of a disaster.  Creating a self-care plan for oneself and one’s family is an important part of being able to manage and provide emergency services to others in time of disasters.

To ensure that community and faith-based leaders across the Gulf Coast region be able to continue to work within their community, Project Connection Roundtable Discussion meeting on self-care planning will be Tuesday, April 6, at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 6100 Cottage Hill Road, Mobile, AL 36618 from 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Over fifty key stakeholders representing Gulf Coast region community-based and faith-based organizations, state and local governmental agencies will meet to develop a self-care plan of action.

Other topics will include the integration of high priorities identified from an earlier meeting including 1) Keeping critical and medial services operational; 2) Shelter/housing before, during and after disasters; 3) Evacuation of people with special needs; 4) Accessibility to basic financial services; and 5) Organizational networking to enable greater access to resources.

Topics for this meeting will focus on the plan of action that should be in place to minimize the threat and risk of infection to an organization’s work force, identification of three areas of concern (including health related) that might be a challenge to the community in which an agency serves, the pros and cons within a community that would impede delivery of needed services, and identification of proactive mechanisms that would need to be developed to ensure continued recovery services during a disaster.

Hosted by Tri-Coastal Community Outreach, Inc., of Grand Bay, AL, the interactive meeting will facilitate in-depth discussions to guide the dialogue to create solutions for the organizations, their volunteers and their consumers.  

“The overall goal of Project Connection is to develop a web-based mapping process model and plan that can be implemented to address health care needs of the chronically ill in response to future natural and manmade disasters - to “connect” providers to each other to support disaster victims, especially from vulnerable populations, with the ongoing health care resources they need  “after the first 100 hours,” said Carolyn Thompson, executive director.

Project Connection is the outcome of a December 2009 meeting (Project Reconnect) funded by Baylor University, Houston, TX.  Project Reconnect began in January 2006 after the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when 180,000 people relocated to the Houston area.  With funding from the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health, Project Reconnect conducted a series of meetings throughout the Gulf Coast region for community-based organizations who were located in the five target states – Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas – who were actively involved in working at the grassroots level within their community.   

The overall plan requires assessment of regional strengths and challenges of each community, and provide training and technical assistance for community-based organizations (CBOs) and faith-based organizations (FBOs) from the five Gulf Coast states, including Alabama, and Mississippi, to work with local health departments and agencies, along with other organizations in dealing with emergency preparedness and disaster management. Project Reconnect also participates in a consortium of five other health care institutions funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and to address emergency preparedness and disaster management along the Gulf Coast.

Tri-Coastal Community Outreach, Inc., is a 501(c)(3)  non-profit, grassroots community-based organization that provides short-term and long-term outreach assistance to over 10,000 families in Mobile County and the Gulf Coast community, located at 10520 Highway 188 in Grand Bay, Alabama.

Local and regional faith-based and non-profit organizations that are interested in becoming part of this regional ‘connection’ are invited to attend.  To make a reservation, contact Carolyn Thompson, Tri-Coastal executive director, (228) 623-0017 or email carolyn@tricoastalcommunity.org.

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