Gulf Coast Recovery Project
As I write about these disaster ministries, it is ironic that Hurricanes Laura and Delta have just devastated the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and the eastern part of Texas. We have experienced so much loss of lives and property from devastating hurricanes, fires, floods, and tornatetors over the past few years across the country. I cannot even explain how I feel. This has been one of the most active hurricane seasons.
God has put on my heart to help with the recovery of the Gulf Coast from Hurricanes, Laura and Delta, two major hurricanes back to back. The devastation is heartbreaking. God reminded me, that what I learned about recovery during my five years of working on recovery from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans could be helpful to the families and churches in the affected areas. The model we developed working in New Orleans could quickly be put to work in across the Gulf Coast. But I need your help to do it.
Rebuilding Churches – King Cyrus – Ezra Chapter 1
In Ezra Chapter 1, King Cyrus of Persia said “1:2 . . . He (God) has commanded me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. 3) Who is among you of all His people? May his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel (He is God), which is in Jerusalem. 4) And whoever is left in any place where he dwells, let the men of his place help him with silver and gold, with goods and livestock, besides the freewill offerings for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.”
Will you pray? Will you physically come and help? If you can’t come, will you do as King Cyrus asked to send finances to help?
Rebuilding Homes and Community – Nehemiah
King Cyrus was called to rebuild God’s house but Nehemiah was called to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem. In Nehemiah 2:12, Nehemiah said, . . . “I told no man what God had put in my heart to do at Jerusalem”… . God put in Nehemiah’s heart to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem which remove the reproach of the city and strengthened the community. As homes, businesses and churches are rebuilt in Lake Charles the reproach will be removed and community restored and strengthened. With your help, we can rebuild build the churches, homes, and community. Will you help?
This is big. It is much bigger than me. Admittedly it is big enough to scare me, but I am not scared because I trust my God. It is not bigger than my God. This is His ministry, not mine. I am just crazy enough to say “Yes, Lord”. Will you join me? Will you partner with me? Will you say, “Yes, Lord” to whatever He puts on your heart to do to help with the recovery of these communities. I invite you to join me. I need your help. I need your prayers. Pray that God will give our team the wisdom of how to customize the use of the model to meet the specific needs of each community. Pray that He gives us favor with those that need help and those who can help by physically showing up, by praying, by sending finances, or all three. Pray about what God would have you do personally. We need to help rebuild these churches and we need to help those who need help rebuilding their homes. Many times homeowners and churches learn that they are underinsured at the time disaster. They fall short of the finances needed to complete their repairs or rebuild and they need help to rebuild.
To Learn More / To join forces / To become a part of Contact:
KINGDOM WORKS, INC.
HOW DID WE BECOME INVOLVED
HURRICANE KATRINA
Kingdom Works Ministries was founded in response to the vast number of persons displaced and the massive destruction of homes, churches and infrastructure on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina.
September 2005, is such a long time ago, when I put my personal ministry aside to dedicate my life to leading The LASER Movement (TLM) as its CEO. TLM was a new disaster response ministry founded by my pastor along with pastors of congregations in San Bernardino and Los Angeles County.
It was the first Sunday in September 2005. I was sitting on the front row in service at my church (Loveland Church of Fontana, CA). My pastor, Chuck Singleton, began to talk about the overwhelming destruction and loss of lives Hurricane Katrina had caused in the Gulf states, a few days before. He said, “We have to do something about it. Baton Rouge’s population has gone from 400,000 to 800,000 plus overnight and Houston is extremely overcrowded. We have to invite people to come out of the overcrowding to California.” He looked over at me and said, “I need your help. I need you to come back and help me”. I had served as Executive Pastor on the church staff for five years. I had left 2 ½ years ago to start a full-time church consulting ministry. My good friend, Pastor Willie Dixon, and I had met the night before, at his home, to work on a budget to house Katrina survivors in a building on the Air Force base. Since Pastor Chuck had a plan, we decided to help him work his plan. Within a few days, we began a journey I thought would last a few months but lasted five years.
Disaster Response and Relief (Case Management and Resettlement) (September 2005 – February 2006)
Over the next several weeks, we relocated 200 Katrina survivors to California. Our volunteer force cared for them and assisted them with their resettlement. We provided counseling, case management, transportation, financial assistance, and advocacy with FEMA, Red Cross and other agencies. We located housing and furnishings for them.
New Orleans: Working on Recovery with Churches and Community Organizations
January 2006, my pastor asked me to go to New Orleans to meet with pastors to see how we could help. That led to 2 ½ years of monthly commutes to New Orleans. February 2008, the nation’s economic downturn, impacted our funding causing us to cease our work in New Orleans. June 2008, I relocated to New Orleans to work full-time alongside the pastors and community leaders as an independent missionary, for almost 2 years. From September 2005 to April 2010, nearly 5 years, my life was dedicate to working on the response and recovery from Katrina.
My first visit to New Orleans after Katrina hit was in October, 2005. Our team met with the Mayor’s staff to share our plan to help with the recovery. We toured the area to survey the damage. The devastation was great. The military dressed in full fatigue (battledress) and long rifles guarded the entrance to the Lower 9th Ward at both bridges. It was other world like a war zone. Houses had become piles of stick. Many times the only evidence that a house had been there was a concrete step. Building were torn apart. Many of the high rise buildings downtown, including City Hall, were still standing strong but the insides were destroyed because windows had been blown out by the strong winds of the storm. It was evident the journey to recovery would be long.
After the resettlement of our survivors in California, I returned to New Orleans the first weekend in January 2006. On Saturday, my Field Director and I met with Apostle Leonard Lucas of Light City Church and Pastor Raynard Casimier of Love Outreach Church in Algiers. On 1st Sunday, we attended service with Apostle Leonard Lucas and Greater St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church with Bishop Paul Martin. The services were beautiful. It was amazing to see people praising and worshipping God with such passion in the midst of all the devastation. We met a number of pastors and local leaders at event at the Ashe Cultural Center including Pastor Dwight Webster, senior pastor of Christian Unity Baptist Church and the local leader of a new group called Churches Supporting Churches. We joined with Churches Supporting Churches because its mission and vision was the same as ours to help rebuild churches and began the work.
As an independent missionary, I used my consulting, facilitation and grant writing skills to help with recovery planning for the churches and neighborhood groups.
For months, I prayed that God would give me a name for the ministry. Finally, November, 2008, He gave me the name “Kingdom Works.” I immediately incorporated Kingdom Works, Inc. as a Louisiana nonprofit.
To Learn More / To join forces / To become a part of Contact:
OUR PROGRAMS AND SERVICES
TRAINING AND SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES
Disaster Preparedness, Response and Recovery Ministries
Because of my experience with Hurricane Katrina and the fires in the mountains of San Bernardino, God placed heavy on my heart the need to:
- Mobilize churches to become active in teaching Disaster Preparedness and raise up Emergency Response Teams from your congregation and community
- Building an army of volunteers to help with gutting out and rebuilding homes and churches
- Training clergy and leaders to minister to the spiritual, emotional and psychological needs during crisis.
- Provide assistant to home owners and churches on inventorying personal property and advocacy with insurance companies to ensure they are not taken advantage of by their insurance company.
Develop donor to give financially, supplies and building materials for rebuilding
During my work in this area, I was exposed to a variety of wonderful disaster preparedness, response and recovery programs (you will see below). I feel responsible to share with others these training programs. We will provide Train-the-Trainer training to leaders from your congregations to train them to teach preparedness to individual and families for the type of disaster most common to your geographic areas. We will assist you in setting-up Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training conducted by your local Fire Departments at your church for members of your congregation and community. We will provide training to you (the pastors, clergy and Christian leaders) to prepare you to provide Spiritual Care and Comfort to your members, friends, and neighbors when disaster hits.
(Before Disaster)
(From Immediately After Disaster to 8 to 16 Weeks)
(Long-term Recovery)
(Before Disaster)
Communities need to be engaged in getting these trainings before disasters.
The need for disaster preparedness and community emergency response training became very apparent seeing the horrific situation in the Super Dome and other facilities and the many loss of so many lives. The recent hurricanes, wildfires in California, earthquakes, tornadoes and floods all around the country and the world has reaffirmed the urgent need for preparedness.
To meet this need Kingdom Works is working to develop a comprehensive program of disaster preparedness, relief, response and recovery. We will work collaboratively with FEMA, Red Cross, churches, other agencies and businesses to increase participation in certified Disaster Preparedness classes, Community Emergency Response Training and support programs to help individuals, families, churches and other organizations in the following areas:
· Hurricanes
· Wildfires
· Earthquakes
· Floods
· Tornado
· Landslide and Debris Flow (Mudslide)
DISASTER AWARENESS COURSE
Disaster Preparedness programs are designed to teach participants how to build an emergency supply kit: items to keep in their homes, cars and at work and the quantity needed per person. It teaches how to do preparedness and evacuation drills with your family, staff of co-workers. It also teaches basic search and rescue and disaster medical operations. Everyone should take this short course.
This 3 1/2 hour training course provides an overview of basic Disaster Preparedness and serve as an introduction to the comprehensive, 17 1/2 Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) Training. The course consists of the following:
1. Introduction to disasters and the types of disasters that the community may be susceptible to, including weapons of mass destruction (WMD) incidents.
2. Review smaller emergencies—specifically describing the benefits of evacuation plans and emergency supply kits.
3. Mitigation and prevention of emergencies – specifically describing the benefits of evacuation plan and emergency supply kits.
4. Overview of basic search and rescue techniques and education on when such rescues are appropriate.
5. Overview of basic disaster medical operations.
COMMUNITY EMERGENCY RESPONSE TEAM TRAINING (CERT)
This course prepares you to become a part of a team of trained volunteers in your neighborhood to take care of your family and your neighbors until help arrives. CERT members receive 17 1/2 hours (one day a week for seven weeks) of initial training. The 7 -week course is followed by full-day biannual refresher drills, and an opportunity to assist the Fire Department at local incidents. Check with your local government to find CERT training in your community.
The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program educates volunteers about disaster preparedness for the hazards that may impact their area and trains them in basic disaster response skills, such as fire safety, light search and rescue, team organization, and disaster medical operations. CERT offers a consistent, nationwide approach to volunteer training and organization that professional responders can rely on during disaster situations, allowing them to focus on more complex tasks.
To learn more: https://www.ready.gov/cert
Click here to find your local CERT Training: https://community.fema.gov/PreparednessCommunity/s/cert-find-a-program
CERT Training Manual: https://www.ready.gov/sites/default/files/2019.CERT_.Basic_.PM_FINAL_508c.pdf
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I.D. A HOUSE CATASPHROPE SERVICES, INC.
Disaster Membership Program
I.D. A House Catastrophe Services through their disaster preparedness programs offers you access to their state of the art personal property inventory program through membership. The program includes
A complete professional inventory list of your personal property room by room, item by item with the average cost of each item.
Emergency preparedness program: ID cards, ID tags, a brass whistle and 24 hour a day hotline.
Ongoing annual support.
Monthly newsletters with valuable disaster information on how to prepare for different perils, information on insurance coverage, and how to handle your own claim.
There is a membership fee for the program. For a free 15 minute consultation click the link below:
(From Immediately After Disaster to 8 to 16 Weeks)
II. EMERGENCY RESPONSE SERVICES & TRAINING
These programs & services are needed Immediately after Disaster
Emergency Response is what you do during the disaster and immediately after the disaster. We need more people trained to help your family, neighbors, co-workers or whoever you are with when a disaster hits. The 7 week CERT class can make the difference in life or death for those you love and care about as you attend to them, until the First Responder Emergency personnel show up. Critical Incident Stress Management prepares you to provide emotional support during and immediately after the crisis. It is a secular program and does not deal with the faith of the person.
KWM will conduct outreaches to encourage churches to become engaged in emergency disaster response. First, we ask that every church have a team of volunteers trained. Second, we ask that churches will encourage their members
to get training to start a CERT team in their neighborhood. Jesus said that we are salt and light. This can be a very important ministry led by Christians in their church, community and on their job. You can host a training at your church or we can help your team attend a training off-site.
SPIRITUAL, EMOTIONAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL SUPPORT DURING CRISIS
Both “His Presence in Crisis” and “Light Our Way” will provide training to make you competent to provide Spiritual and Emotional Care to those in crisis. Light Our Way is published by National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD). It is an Inter-faith faith based program which includes training to minister to those of other faiths.
“His Presence in Crisis” is a Christian based program developed by Jonathan Olford, Psy.D., president and founder of Crisis and Consultation Services International (CCSI). Billy Graham Rapid Response Team provides this training which includes an evangelism component.
KWM strongly recommend this training. All clergy should attend this training. This short, one day training, is the only crisis response training we found that offers hope through Jesus Christ. During a time of crisis, it helps Christians connect with their faith and offers Christ to those who don’t know him. The Billy Graham RRT is a ministry of crisis trained volunteer chaplains who deploy in the aftermath of a disaster to respond to the emotional and spiritual needs of people in crisis. I took this training, in Southern California shortly before relocating to New Orleans. It would have been most helpful when I was ministering to Hurricane Katrina Survivors as they arrived in California immediately after the storm.
The Sharing Hope in Crisis online course will prepare you to provide emotional and spiritual care to your neighbors, co-workers, and friends during the everyday tragedies of life. Learn how to share God’s love and comfort with those suffering. You’ll be equipped with practical skills such as understanding trauma, being a good listener, and knowing what—or what not—to say to someone who is grieving. The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association Sharing Hope in Crisis training costs $75. Click below to sign up and submit payment. Please note that you have 90 days from the date of purchase to finish this training. If you are giving this as a gift, the recipient also has 90 days from your date of purchase to complete it.
https://billygrahamonlinetraining.org/sharing-hope-in-crisis/
About HIS PRESENCE IN CRISIS
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (RRT) was developed to deploy trained chaplains and ministry volunteers who offer God’s hope and comfort to those affected by a man-made or natural disaster. If your church is interested in this chaplain ministry or in training opportunities offered by the RRT on how to appropriately share God’s hope and comfort in times of crisis, grief and trauma ministry, or disaster preparedness, they invite you to visit their website at: https://rrt.billygraham.org/become-a-chaplain/
The Rapid Response Team trains Christian men and women in how to effectively meet the emotional and spiritual needs of those suffering. You may choose to volunteer as a member of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team to be deployed to disasters around the county and the world; or to be prepared to respond to disaster in your community or region.
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LIGHT OUR WAY:
A Guide for Spiritual Care in Times of Disaster for Disaster Response Volunteers, First Responders and Disaster Planners
(Inter-faith)
This program is one of the two spiritual programs we have found designed for the faith community. It guides disaster relief workers as they assist victims and recover from difficult response efforts themselves. It covers basic concepts and types of spiritual care, long-term recovery, collaboration with mental and emotional health personnel, self-care for providers, and community resiliency and preparedness training. It also offers strategies such as listening to a disaster victim tell their story, providing a religious ritual or vigil, offering food and shelter to relief workers, supplying “spontaneous generosity,” and more. Topics include:
· Basic Concepts of Spiritual Care
· Disaster Spiritual Care “Do’s”
· Disaster Spiritual Care “Don’ts:
· Emotional Care and its’ Relationship to Spiritual Care
· Caring for people from different cultures and faith traditions
For a copy of the book: https://3hb3e83lj75i1iikjx1wkj2o-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/light_our_way_2018_final-published-copy.pdf
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CRITICAL INCIDENT STRESS MANAGEMENT TRAINING
Crisis Intervention is NOT psychotherapy, rather it is a specialized acute emergency mental health intervention which requires specialized training, as first-aid is to surgery, crisis intervention is to psychotherapy. Thus, crisis intervention is sometimes called “emotional first-aid.” Crisis interventions are typically done individually (one-on-one) or in groups. This program is designed to teach participants the fundamentals of, and a specific protocol for, individual intervention. The audience for this class includes both emergency services, military, and business/industrial peer support personnel without formal training in mental health, as well as mental health professionals, who desire to increase their knowledge of individual (one-on-one) crisis intervention techniques. (13 contact hours)
This training in provide by the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, Inc. Because of COVID-19, training is being offered online. There are two core classes: Assisting Individuals in Crisis and Group Crisis Intervention. After completing those classes you may test for certification through UMBC‘s Department of Emergency Health Services
CISM Classes: https://icisf.org/sections/education-training/course-descriptions/
Testing for Certification: https://ccism-cert.org/prerequisites/
Billy Graham’s Ministries also offers the training: http://revolutionresource.center/professional/
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PHYSICAL SUPPORT IMMEDIATELY AFTER CRISIS
REBUILDING HOMES AND BUSINESS STRUCTURES
Many policyholders need help creating inventories of their personal property to meet the requirements of their insurance company and not to leave a lot of money on the table that could be used to replace their personal property and in some cases help them with the shortfall they have for repairing or rebuilding their homes or businesses. I.D. A House Catastrophe Services, Inc. can help. It is a nonprofit disaster response and recovery service provider, founded by Leon Seabrooks. I met Leon many years ago during my work on the recovery of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I was amazed with the work he was doing. For 27 years, on behalf major insurance companies he has worked as an “All Line Adjuster” following disasters around the country evaluating losses, recommending how much policyholders should be paid for their losses, and settling claims. God has called him to use the knowledge he learned while working for insurance companies to help policyholder get all they are entitled to under their policy. He has helped many families and businesses get what they deserve from their insurance companies by teaching some of them how to do their own inventories and providing the tools to use a professional format. Others, he has done the inventories for them. He provides the policyholder 3 vetted contractors by verifying their contractor with the State Board of Contractors and verifying their general liability insurance and worker’s compensation. He also provides policyholders with three references for each of the contractors have repaired or rebuilt homes or businesses for. He takes the frustration out of dealing with your insurance company and the contractors.
Our main mission is to help homeowners and business owners, recovery after a disasters by giving them the information and tools needed to maximize their claims, choosing the right mitigation companies, general contractors and help them with inventorying their personal and business personal property.
Now I would like to share with you what I. D. A House Catastrophe Services program does after disasters to assist policyholders. We offer the following services.
- We explain what our program does for Home, business and church leader in order to recover what they are entitled to under the provision of their policy.
- We explain their policy limits once they provide a copy of their declaration page of their policy.
- We help policyholders identify competent general contractors. We check their credentials through the state board of contractors, we verify their workers compensation and general liability insurance. And we ask for three references from property owners who they have either repairs or built their homes or businesses.
- We assist policyholders with their putting together a professional personal property inventory list, that is require by the insurance company if they file a personal property claim.
- We guide policyholders through the claims process that they may know what is happening with each aspect of their recovery.
- We help prepare policyholders for any future disasters they may face.
- We enroll up to 4 people in policyholders’ household into our emergency preparedness program.
- We provide each member with emergency photo ID cards
- We provide each member with emergency ID tags (Military ID)
- We enroll each member into our 24 hours a day emergency notification hotline. Each member provides us with 3 people from their support group who they want us to notify if they are ever in an emergency and can’t speak for themselves. If they are every faced with an emergency and they can’t talk, the first responders will call us once the see the ID on them. We will verify the situation and contact their support group anyplace in the world.
Visit Website: https://idahouse4u.com/
About HIS PRESENCE IN CRISIS
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team (RRT) was developed to deploy trained chaplains and ministry volunteers who offer God’s hope and comfort to those affected by a man-made or natural disaster. If your church is interested in this chaplain ministry or in training opportunities offered by the RRT on how to appropriately share God’s hope and comfort in times of crisis, grief and trauma ministry, or disaster preparedness, they invite you to visit their website at: https://rrt.billygraham.org/become-a-chaplain/
The Rapid Response Team trains Christian men and women in how to effectively meet the emotional and spiritual needs of those suffering. You may choose to volunteer as a member of the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team to be deployed to disasters around the county and the world; or to be prepared to respond to disaster in your community or region.
(Long-term Recovery)
III. DISASTER RECOVERY – Long-term Recovery
These Disaster Recovery Programs must be done when the community is ready not immediately after disaster.
Every disaster will be different. What I learned in New Orleans was that many organization showed up to help immediately after the disaster but the community was not physically and/or emotionally ready for their services. Recovery is a process and the community must be given time to work through it and provide services at the appropriate time.
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FACILITATIVE DISASTER & CRISIS INTERVENTION (DCI)
BUILDING COMMUNITY RESILIENCE & SELF-RELIANCE WORKSHOP
This is another excellent program. I had the opportunity to attend the training in New Orleans with members of the community from churches and other organizations. It was very helpful months after the disaster. A community is not usually ready immediately after the disaster. The community and its members are still pre-occupied with meeting the urgent physical and emotional needs.
ABOUT GFSC
Global Facilitators Servicing Communities (GFSC) provides mentoring, methods and materials for communities to strengthen their resilience in times of crisis and change. Once the survival needs of people impacted by a disaster are addressed, the important work of rebuilding individual lives and the collective social network in the community can begin. The GFSC Facilitative Disaster and Crisis Intervention (DCI) workshop shares tools and techniques to help individuals, groups and communities build their resilience and self-reliance.
Grief Cycle
Resilience
Caring for Caregivers
Moving Beyond Survival
Creates New Beginnings
To learn more visit the website: https://globalfacilitators.org/
STRATEGIES FOR TRAUMA AWARENESS AND RESILIENCE (STAR)
(MULTI-FAITH)
This an excellent program to prepare Clergy and Community Leaders to help deal with their personal issues of Post-Traumatic Stress while learning to help others after disaster. I experienced STAR in a 3 1/2 day retreat with Pastors from New Orleans and their Spouses about 9 months after Hurricane Katrina. The retreat was facilitated by 3 STAR facilitators from Eastern Mennonite University. It was an awesome time of healing for the pastors and their spouses and equipping and empowering them with skills to return home to help their members and community. I highly recommend the training.
ABOUT STAR
STAR assisted thousands of New Yorkers after the traumatic events of 9/11 and worked with community members, social workers, school personnel, and religious leaders in the region affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Internationally, STAR workshops have brought trauma healing and resilience strategies to Kenya, Liberia, Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia, Croatia, Palestine, and numerous other countries. The curriculum is developed by internationally-renowned faculty and training staff of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. Licensed counseling professionals (U.S.) can earn continuing education hours for their training.
To learn more about STAR: https://emu.edu/cjp/star/
POST-TRAMATIC STRESS RETREAT FOR NEW ORLEANS PASTORS AND SPOUSES
The STAR staff from Eastern Mennonite University conducted the training at a Christian retreat center in Alexandria, LA.
About STAR
STAR assisted thousands of New Yorkers after the traumatic events of 9/11 and worked with community members, social workers, school personnel, and religious leaders in the region affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
Internationally, STAR workshops have brought trauma healing and resilience strategies to Kenya, Liberia, Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, Nicaragua, Mexico, Colombia, Croatia, Palestine, and numerous other countries.
The curriculum is developed by internationally-renowned faculty and training staff of the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding at Eastern Mennonite University. Licensed counseling professionals (U.S.) can earn continuing education hours for their training.
What you will explore in STAR
By attending one of our five-day seminars, you’ll join more than 5,000 participants from 62 countries who have been equipped with strategies for handling post-traumatic stress and leading others beyond traumatic events, informed by the latest trauma healing research from the fields of neurobiology, psychology, restorative justice, conflict transformation, peacebuilding, and religion/spirituality.
· Common responses to trauma: emotional, cognitive, physical, spiritual, behavioral
· Transforming trauma: breaking the cycles of victimhood & violence
· Trauma intervention for individuals, communities, and societies
· Self-care for leaders and caregivers
· Restorative justice as a response to trauma—reconciling victims and offenders
Violence leads to trauma; unhealed trauma leads to recurring violence against self and others. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Individuals and communities can learn skills for addressing trauma, healing relationships, and building resilience which improves the well-being of all.
Multidisciplinary Approach to Trauma Healing
STAR combines the latest in trauma research, personal self-care and innovative strategies for ending the cycles of victimhood and violence within our local, national and global communities. Participants have found that STAR equips them with tools to address a range of situations that are caused or influenced by traumatic events.
STAR is an evidence-based trauma awareness and resilience training program. STAR brings together theory and practices from neurobiology, conflict transformation, human security, spirituality, and restorative justice to address the needs of trauma-impacted individuals and communities.
STAR is for individuals and organizations whose work brings them in contact with populations dealing with current or historic trauma: mental health, medical and legal professionals, clergy, educators, peacebuilders, humanitarian, human rights and development workers — all those who need to be trauma-informed in order to do trauma-sensitive programming.
STAR training options: CEU and CE credits are available
- STARLevel I: This five-day training is the foundation to STAR and introduces the theory, processes and tools for addressing trauma, breaking cycles of violence and building resilience. STAR Lvl 1 Registration
- STARLevel II: This five-day training is for participants who wish to deepen their knowledge and skills of STAR frameworks and processes and equipped to present STAR presentations or workshops. The training also provides materials and information on applying STAR to particular audiences such as youth, those who have suffered historical harms, returning veterans, etc. STAR Lvl 2 Registration
- STARLevel III, Certification Track: This training prepares participants to lead full-length Level I trainings in their home area or with STAR at EMU. It also qualifies them to apply for Certified STAR Site status under the auspices of an existing organization/NGO in their community.
- To learn more about STAR click here.
PHYSICAL SUPPORT IMMEDIATELY AFTER CRISIS
REBUILDING HOMES AND BUSINESS STRUCTURES
Many policyholders need help creating inventories of their personal property to meet the requirements of their insurance company and not to leave a lot of money on the table that could be used to replace their personal property and in some cases help them with the shortfall they have for repairing or rebuilding their homes or businesses. I.D. A House Catastrophe Services, Inc. can help. It is a nonprofit disaster response and recovery service provider, founded by Leon Seabrooks. I met Leon many years ago during my work on the recovery of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans. I was amazed with the work he was doing. For 27 years, on behalf major insurance companies he has worked as an “All Line Adjuster” following disasters around the country evaluating losses, recommending how much policyholders should be paid for their losses, and settling claims. God has called him to use the knowledge he learned while working for insurance companies to help policyholder get all they are entitled to under their policy. He has helped many families and businesses get what they deserve from their insurance companies by teaching some of them how to do their own inventories and providing the tools to use a professional format. Others, he has done the inventories for them. He provides the policyholder 3 vetted contractors by verifying their contractor with the State Board of Contractors and verifying their general liability insurance and worker’s compensation. He also provides policyholders with three references for each of the contractors have repaired or rebuilt homes or businesses for. He takes the frustration out of dealing with your insurance company and the contractors.
Our main mission is to help homeowners and business owners, recovery after a disasters by giving them the information and tools needed to maximize their claims, choosing the right mitigation companies, general contractors and help them with inventorying their personal and business personal property.
Now I would like to share with you what I. D. A House Catastrophe Services program does after disasters to assist policyholders.
We offer the following services.
- We explain what our program does for Home, business and church leader in order to recover what they are entitled to under the provision of their policy.
- We explain their policy limits once they provide a copy of their declaration page of their policy.
- We help policyholders identify competent general contractors. We check their credentials through the state board of contractors, we verify their workers compensation and general liability insurance. And we ask for three references from property owners who they have either repairs or built their homes or businesses.
- We assist policyholders with their putting together a professional personal property inventory list, that is require by the insurance company if they file a personal property claim.
- We guide policyholders through the claims process that they may know what is happening with each aspect of their recovery.
- We help prepare policyholders for any future disasters they may face.
- We enroll up to 4 people in policyholders’ household into our emergency preparedness program.
- We provide each member with emergency photo ID cards
- We provide each member with emergency ID tags (Military ID)
- We enroll each member into our 24 hours a day emergency notification hotline. Each member provides us with 3 people from their support group who they want us to notify if they are ever in an emergency and can’t speak for themselves. If they are every faced with an emergency and they can’t talk, the first responders will call us once the see the ID on them. We will verify the situation and contact their support group anyplace in the world.
Visit Website: https://idahouse4u.com/