Coordinate relief efforts across our region of 30+ counties in SE Texas working primarily with our constituent churches in the PC(USA).
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Our mission is to provide comfort and encouragement through animal-assisted support to individuals affected by crises and disasters.
Team Rubicon is a veteran-led humanitarian organization that serves global communities before, during, and after disasters and crises.
Mission: To Make Disciples. To lead Christ-centered, Outwardly-focused, and Faith-growing communities for the sake of the world.
(We coordinate our member churches in this area for training, volunteering, food or supply distribution, donation, etc.)
| Houston Community ToolBank is a nonprofit tool lending program that empowers fellow nonprofits to tackle community-based projects throughout our region. ToolBank borrowers are not only mainstream nonprofits, but also schools, faith-based organizations, neighborhood associations, and many others. Whether a project has ten volunteers or three hundred, access to ToolBank inventory relieves the burden of purchasing, storing, maintaining, and repairing the items essential to projects and events. When we put high-quality tools in the hands of volunteers, our members are able to do more for our community – whether through home repair, days of service, or charitable events. Since operations began, the Houston ToolBank has lent $26 million worth of tools that have equipped more than 284,000 volunteers to complete more than 23,400 projects. In a sector that consistently faces constraints of time, personnel, and budget, our inventory allows organizations to achieve their visions for a thriving community at a significantly reduced monetary cost. In the event of a disaster, the ToolBank’s Neighborhood Tool Hubs (retrofitted shipping containers at four remote locations: Conroe, Texas City, City Centre, and Fort Bend) serve as remote pickup points for critical response resources. Three-to-five days before landfall, the Hubs are stocked with generators, muck & gut supplies, debris removal supplies, and PPE. When agencies responding to the disaster reach out to the ToolBank, they are referred to the Hub closest to their location for immediate access to resources. Utilizing the Hubs makes resources available across the Greater Houston Area, which minimizes the time it takes for members to access resources and ensure accessibility in the event the ToolBank, staff homes, and/or one or more of the Hubs are inaccessible. The disaster preparedness program is intended for member agencies whose disaster response plans include extensive community clean-up and recovery support. Before hurricane season, these agencies can place a pre-order with the ToolBank for the response tools they anticipate needing for their response activities. In the event of a major hurricane, ToolBank will pull the order 3-5 days before landfall so participating members can pre-stage the resources and be ready to respond with no delay. This program decreases the time for participating members to access needed resources and helps level the ToolBank workload by moving some orders before landfall. HTB works with participating members to ensure the pre-order quantities align with their disaster response plans and don’t overstretch the ToolBank inventory. |
Mission
Region 6/5 South is one of eleven Public Health Regions of the Department of State Health Services, the state governmental agency responsible for bringing integrated health services to the citizens of Texas. State, Regional and Local public health partners work together to assure the provision of essential public health services to an estimated five million Texans in the 16-county area of southeast Texas. Working together, regional staff assesses and assures the health of the diverse communities in the Southeast.
The DSHS PHR6/5S Preparedness and Response team is responsible for preparing our 7 counties for public health threats, as outlined in The CDC 15 Public Health Preparedness Capabilities, as well as coordinating information sharing and collaboration with local health departments across our region.
The team provides Emergency Support Function 8 regional coordination and response support during public health emergencies. Threats to the public’s health may come from a variety of sources, including pandemics, natural and man-made disasters, infectious disease outbreaks, biological terrorism and radiological events. We ensure critical response efforts are coordinated and standardized via networking and centralizing resources, as well as planning with local jurisdictions and the state’s public and private-sector health care systems across the state.
Sewa International’s mission is to serve humanity in distress, aid local communities, run developmental projects for the underserved, and assist people in transformational change through the power of innovation by mobilizing partners, donors, and volunteers.
We accomplish this mission by focusing our efforts towards:
- Disaster response & recovery
- Family and child welfare and
- Promoting volunteerism
Over the past two years, in collaboration with FEMA and local & state agencies, over 800 Sewa volunteers from 17 chapters nationwide helped support vaccinations for half a million Americans. Sewa volunteers have been doing mega food drives to support the underserved communities and pop-up vaccination drives across America to help vaccinate about 2000 individuals, taking the vaccine to the communities.
We have also actively supported efforts to help those affected by the wildfires in Colorado and the tornadoes in Kentucky. Many of our chapters nationwide are providing ongoing, active support for incoming refugees from Afghanistan and are ready to support refugees from Ukraine.
We have continued to support the nationwide COVID relief efforts with extensive vaccine outreach and education on vaccine hesitancy. Finally, in order to further grow our Disaster Case Management to multiple states across America, we are expanding our Disaster Response team to include more skilled volunteers in IT and healthcare.
Hurricane Katrina – 2005
A young, Sewa International with less than two years in existence, dedicated 90 volunteers who worked for over 9 months serving the refugee population from Hurricane Katrina that flowed into Houston, TX, by serving food, providing supplies and medical assistance. In addition, Sewa donated $10,000 to Louisiana Gov. Katherine Blanco for the Governor’s Hurricane fund.
Superstorm Sandy – 2012
When Hurricane Sandy struck in Oct 2012, destroying Northeast US, Sewa International volunteers came with a quick action plan to cater to the victims. In addition to releasing of $5,000 grant for immediate relief activities to the Community Food Bank in Hillside, New Jersey, Sewa International volunteers spent weekends helping with sorting and packing large boxes of food and groceries. Many youthful Sewa volunteers took it upon themselves to deliver hot food packets and supplies to seniors and the disabled who were stuck in the 12th floor and beyond due to extensive weeks long power failure.
Hurricane Harvey – 2017
With extensive knowledge and experience in handling disasters and natural calamities in the US and around the world, Sewa International began planning and preparing for help and relief from Hurricane Harvey even before it made a landfall. A team of core coordinators was constituted with experienced personnel. The team determined the areas of support that can be offered and were diligently monitoring the situation from time to time , actively procuring appropriate resources and contacts for when needed. Around 30 volunteers were dedicated to handle calls via our helpline number and through social media like Whatsapp and Facebook. 40+ volunteers were involved in streamlining requests and connecting them to the right sources.
Popular for its response to rescue , relief and rehabilitation during a disaster, Sewa Houston was one of the few first responders to engage in rescue efforts when Hurricane Harvey made a landfall and started impacting the Greater Houston and its vicinity.With help from Indian Community and local boat owners, volunteers were able to reach areas affected and rescue over 700+ people out of flooded homes and life threatening situations in areas like Friendswood, Pearland, League City, Sienna Plantation, Riverstone, Katy etc. Around 100 volunteers were involved in rescue operations via rented boats and help from the Navy and Armed Forces. Volunteers also supplied food to the first responders engaged in rescue. International students from University of Houston were also rescued and provided safe shelter and food supplies during this operation.
Sewa Houston partnered up with shelters and Churches to provide volunteer support and requirement specific supplies as and when needed.The total value of supplies thus provided accounted for more than $20000. Over 400 volunteers were sent to various shelters to assist with activities ranging from supply disbursement to filing claims with FEMA
Mission
Volunteer Houston connects individuals, groups, and companies with nonprofit agencies to transform the Greater Houston community for good through volunteerism.
TO COMMUNITY LEADERS:
Volunteer Houston has an agreement with Harris County OHSEM to operate a Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) when it’s activated by county authorities in response to a disaster. A Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) is both a short and long-term solution for disaster volunteer management. It serves to connect primarily spontaneous, unaffiliated volunteers with urgent volunteer needs in response to a disaster, but it is open to all organizations and all volunteers in the Gulf Coast Region (13 counties).
However, we will always activate a virtual VRC first, whether or not it’s activated by Harris County. Volunteer Houston is the ONLY web-based volunteer portal serving the Texas Gulf Coast Region. So, why should we promote a virtual VRC? Why just one virtual VRC for the entire Houston metro area? You are probably familiar with the saying “a rising tide lifts all boats”? In this case, each of your organizations is the tide! The more we work together, the more likely we will collectively meet the needs of all those boats – i.e the disaster survivors. Consider these 3 goals:
GOAL #1 | More volunteer responses for participating agencies.
GOAL #2 | Faster and more complete response to survivors.
GOAL #3 | Less confusion and frustration for all!
Ultimately, our wish for the greater Houston area is that organizations that are open to spontaneous volunteers after a disaster use a central portal to promote their volunteer opportunities which would – in turn – justify a request to local media stations to promote a single portal for disaster volunteer opportunities for all local disasters. Every year, every disaster, same volunteer portal – www.volunteerhou.org/vrc.
This level of consistency – organizations posting their disaster volunteer needs in a single location COMBINED WITH local media stations promoting the same volunteer portal every year for every disaster – will eventually, over time, result in more organized/streamlined spontaneous volunteer management for the entire community, for local nonprofits, and for the disaster survivors.
OUR WORK
As a lead organization in both the Harris County Long-Term Recovery Committee and the Texas Gulf Coast Region VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Assisting in Disaster) Volunteer Houston has been tasked (2022) with coordinating change management for the collective use of the Crisis Cleanup (CC) platform among our fellow disaster response organizations. We are enlisting the creator of the Crisis Cleanup platform to educate us about the many necessary improvements they have made to the platform, hosting a Listening Tour with local organizations to understand their needs, concerns, and questions about the platform, and will coordinate organizations’ commitments to utilize the platform as it’s intended as our community responds to the next disaster. If the Crisis Cleanup platform is activated in Houston, Volunteer Houston takes the lead on recruiting, vetting, training and scheduling remote phone bank volunteers for the hotline.
Volunteer Houston has an agreement with Harris County OHSEM to operate a Volunteer Reception Center (VRC) when it’s activated by county authorities in response to a disaster.
We will always activate a virtual VRC first, whether or not it’s activated by the county, which serves all 13 counties in our service area. We have recruited and trained volunteers from the HC LTRC Volunteer Management workgroup to staff a physical VRC location, and we have 7 extra-extra large heavy duty storage bins filled with necessary supplies to stand a physical VRC up – office supplies, signage, communications gear, etc.
After Winter Storm Uri 2021 VH recruited, vetted, trained, and scheduled remote volunteers to staff the Crisis Cleanup hotline. Afterward, we utilized those same 50 volunteers to support Connective in following up with survivors via phone call to assist them in completing their online housing assistance application.