May 29 Update

I'm running out of gas, so this week's update will be short. Cleanup is slowing down in a number of areas, though there will be work in some areas for a few more weeks. North Nashville, Cheatham Co. and Carthage area (Smith and neighboring counties) are some of the larger pockets. We have a dozen teams from inside or outside the conference scheduled over the next 6 weeks and are begining to get fall reservations.

June will be a transitional month as cleanup finishes and rebuilding begins. Many of the traditional rebuilds we've helped with, like the Gulf Coast, won't be starting in earnest until July and August. While there may be opportunities to match volunteers with persons who can afford the materials, many of the projects that will require donated materials and volunteers will take longer to be available. Those projects must work in coordination with local communities coming together to develop the process for case management, volunteer management, project management, fund-raising, etc. before we can start sending large numbers of teams. We wish it didn't take so long, but this is the only way forward to best allocate very limited funding and volunteers to achieve the greatest level of recovery. This situation makes it difficult to schedule teams and make specific promises about work and location during this period. I promise we're doing the best we can!

We now have a good registration process for registering teams from inside the conference or outside the conference. We ask that if you want to help, please contact us before contacting a local church. Often they become overwhelmed by calls and may not be ready to coordinate groups or work. We can get teams on the calendar for a certain date and then as we move closer to that date connect teams with churches that are available to host and communities that have case, volunteer, and project management in place and a project suited to your team. Please send an initial inquiry about scheduling a team to DisasterResponse@tnumc.com.

For 4 or 5 communities that have already got their long term recovery process well on the way, we are providing our first UMCOR Case Management class this coming Thursday and Friday. We'll be planning at least one more this month and several more over the summer as more and more Long Term Recovery Organizations are ready. If you live in or near an affected area and might be interested in Case Management, check out the the information at our website http://www.tnumc.org/DISASTER_RESPONSE_AND_RECOVERY/Case_Management_Training--June_3-4/. We'll try to get more advance notice of future trainings.

A number of clergy, lay persons, and conference disaster reps have been working to move the Long Term Recovery process along in nearly a dozen geographic areas (including the counties of Perry, Humphreys, Hickman, Williamson, various parts of Davidson, Sumner, Smith, Cannon, Cheatham, Montgomery, and more). For areas that may not develop a formal Long Term Recovery Organization, we will be working with each affected district on how the Conference and District can work with other partners to address needs.

Ok, so it wasn't short, but there is so much to say!