In Case Of Emergency, Read Blog

I wanted to mention that the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD) is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. The organization was launched in July of 1970 and, as its website says, is a “voice for the nonprofit organizations and volunteers that work in all phases of disaster preparedness, response, relief, recovery, and mitigation.”

FEMA head Craig Fugate just tweeted that NVOAD was saluted on the White House blog earlier this week. David Myers, Director for the Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives at the Department of Homeland Security, wrote about the group and its annual conference held last week in Orlando:

….You might be asking yourself, what is a VOAD? The first thing I can tell you is that National VOAD is a key partner of FEMA and the DHS Faith/Community Center. National VOAD is a nonprofit membership organization whose members are national nonprofit organizations whose mission includes programs in disaster preparedness, response and/or recovery. Since its founding, state and local equivalents of VOAD have emerged to foster cooperation, communication, coordination and collaboration at the state and local level–the heart of any disaster response. This conference is one of the only times during the year that these groups come together in non-disaster events…

Highlights of the conference included presentations by Joshua DuBois, Executive Director of the Office of White House Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships, and FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. DuBois said, “You make wonders happen.” He described the work of disaster volunteers and staff gathered at the conference: “With the government’s partnership and your works of faith and service, people made hungry and homeless from disaster are fed and housed.”

In the wake of recent tornadoes, floods and storms, DuBois emphasized the point that federal government cannot help everyone alone. “You [volunteer] not because you have been assigned to do it. No one has conscripted anyone into service. You are there, voluntarily, because you cannot do otherwise.”

At the conference, NVOAD showed a 40th anniversary video (below) recounting its history and thanking those non-profits and volunteers for their work over the past four decades.

NVOAD’s 40th anniversary video