How Local United Ways Disaster Services Program is Supporting Communities After Hurricanes, Wildfires, Pandemics, and Other Events
What we’re talking about
The United Way has a dedicated Disaster Services division to support local chapters and the communities they serve in preparing and recovering from disasters. This support includes preparing the chapters and their staff to be prepared for events in their community, in addition to positioning their resources to support the recovery of the entire community from events. We’ll hear from the Director of Disaster Services, Tinika Fails, on how her division is supporting the 1,100 chapters in all 50 states and U.S. territories.
Key Takeaways
- The United Way Worldwide operation supports communities and local United Way chapters in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from disasters. Local chapters help to provide information to the public after a disaster through utilizing their 211 Network.
- This year has been very challenging for communities as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The United Way has been working in partnership with local emergency management to support the needs of the community and to help with local disaster recovery efforts.
- The United Way is a member of the National Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) which coordinates with other non-profits to help communities prepare for and respond to disasters.
Additional Information
- Learn more about the United Way.
Transcript
(0:00 – 3:16)
2020 has been the year of disasters with a world pandemic, a historic hurricane season, and unprecedented wildfires on the U.S. West Coast. In this episode, we learn more on how these disasters are impacting one of the largest non-profits in the U.S. This is the Disaster Recovery Roundtable, a platform to explore, engage, and educate the emergency management community. Our topics are timely and relevant, intended to promote the exchange of ideas and best practices.
And thank you, Steve Henderson. As part of our special coverage of non-profits supporting disasters, we continue with our in-depth discussion with the United Way. You can find local chapters in just about every community across the U.S. in all 50 states and several U.S. territories.
And when it comes to disasters, the United Way Worldwide has a dedicated disaster services program. Tanika Fells leads that operation for the non-profit. In her role, she assists over 1,100 local United Ways as they prepare, respond, and recover from all types of disasters, both natural and man-made, including, of course, the pandemic COVID-19.
Prior to coming to the United Way, Tanika worked for the American Red Cross for over 10 years, serving in a variety of disaster response roles. Tanika, welcome to Disaster Recovery Roundtable. Thank you so much.
Thank you for having me today. Let’s talk a little bit about what the United Way does in regards to disasters. We heard from your president, Suzanne, earlier this month in our one of our earlier episodes, as she shared with us, you know, the mission as a whole from the United States perspective.
But when it comes into disasters, that’s such a strong component of the United Way’s mission. Tell us a little bit more about what you guys have been doing, what you do, and how you help those that are in need. Sure.
So in my role in particular, I am responsible for giving tools, guidance, and resources to all 1,100 United Ways that might find themselves in the midst of disaster, either that being natural disaster, man-made, or it could be civil unrest. It could also be mass shootings and things like that. So generally, what I do is to help that United Way that is responding to a disaster, making sure they really have everything that they need, that they have their, you know, business continuity in place, that they understand their role within their community, and then how they are going to respond.
And that could range from immediate response, or it could be working in long-term recovery, which is generally where a lot of our United Ways find themselves, working in long-term recovery, kind of being the organization that kind of sits in the middle of everyone and kind of directs how long-term recovery is going to be. And that is because United Ways usually have their pulse on other organizations and what they are doing in the community. So they usually take a lead role in being the convener for long-term recovery.
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Have you had any sleep in 2020? I mean, I just can’t imagine how busy it must be right now for not only you, but United Way chapters around the country. Yes, it has been a very trying season because, you know, we have wildfire season, then we have hurricane season, we have tornado season, and then on top of all of that, you layer COVID on top of there. And what it has really done was it has really shifted how we respond to disaster because in a COVID environment, because things that a United Way might normally do, because of COVID, they’re not able to offer or be at the ready to offer certain assistance.
(4:09 – 20:39)
And so that has been a thing that all United Ways this year has had to really navigate, and it has really been stressful because we can’t get there to offer support right away because we often don’t have the resources because of COVID. I also understand that United Way is helping to fill the gap of so many other local nonprofits that may typically support a community. One thing that comes to mind is all the need for feeding people who just have lost their job due to COVID and that impact, and that you guys are helping to come to the plate, so to speak, to help serve those in need.
But then you also mentioned a civil unrest, and that’s another so-called event or disaster we’ve had this year with what’s been going on in the climate of the country. What areas have you guys been doing when it comes specifically to COVID as far as helping with communities in need there as far as, just continuing to deal with this epidemic now? We’re going in almost a year now. And where do you see United Way continuing to help communities with COVID as we go into 2021? Sure.
So United Ways play varying roles, and we raised a significant amount of money to help communities respond to COVID, whether it was to be helping with a local food bank, helping them to restock and replenish, because most local food banks didn’t have the capacity for the amount of people that were coming forward that needed help. So United Ways would help them to regain and rebuild and restock pantry shelves, and then just, again, being a convener, to be able to say, this is where the resources are. United Ways are often there to help emergency managers, even health officials, figure out where they’re underserved, underrepresented populations that haven’t gotten things that they need.
And so United Ways come on the scene to be able to help that. As we move into this next phase with COVID, I see United Ways really helping, especially our United Ways that also have 211s, with getting resources about where possible vaccinations could be, and what does that look like, and helping get information out about the vaccine and vaccinations and other things that people might need in the long term. Again, still with feeding and recovering, what things will kids need if we have to extend staying home to do schoolwork and all those kinds of things.
So I see United Ways really stepping in and doing that. I understand United Way is also a member of the National VOAD System, Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters. Are you like the representative that kind of goes and participates with that group on the national level? No, I am not the representative for worldwide.
We have Mae Cobb, who is in our volunteer management, and because they do more volunteer work, Mae actually sits on the board and is there for the National VOAD, but I’m there to assist whenever, and then I work with some United Ways with their local VOADs and their state VOADs, if they need me to sit on calls or to be there to help them figure out how to get volunteers out and where locations volunteers are needed, I’m there to assist them with that as well. Can you share with our listeners maybe what a local United Way might do in a big disaster? Let’s use Hurricane Laura, for example, down there in Lake Charles region of Louisiana. Unfortunately, that’s taken apart this year from all the hurricanes.
What are local United Ways doing down there to help those residents recover from that storm? Yeah, Lake Charles, you know, is very, you know, they’re very close to my heart. They got hit several times this hurricane season. You know, even some of our staff at that local United Way was impacted, the office building, and so we really just, you know, began to help, you know, kind of boots on the ground, whether that’s helping the mayor get the word out of where to come and get food and water, where to get tarps, helping the emergency manager with road closures, you know, telling people how to get there, and then also assisting once people come back from evacuation, you know, United Way is there to kind of help them figure out what the next steps are, you know, and what they need to do.
And so I am very proud of the work that local United Way is doing to help their community recover, even when they’re part of the community and themselves are recovering at the same time, but they have not missed a beat in continuing to give service to their residents and community. And that’s what the 2-1-1 is used for a lot of times is just to provide that information to the public in time of a disaster. Yes, yes, and you can, 2-1-1, you know, you can either call it or they have a text platform.
You enter in your zip code and they could tell you all the resources that are available. They can help you with the evacuation route. They can help you, tell you where a near shelter is, or if you need information about hospitals and things like that, they can give you that as well.
So 2-1-1 is a great resource. I know Suzanne also talked about the work that you’ve done with disasters in Puerto Rico, although not a state, it’s a territory. And we ourselves, our company, Tidal Basin Group, has a lot of work in Puerto Rico too, still helping there with the recovery from the hurricanes of 2017.
What have you all been doing specifically? Do you know some of the programs down there and what the needs may still be of the community there on the island? Yeah, the island has gone through so many variations of disaster, you know, from hurricane, then they had earthquakes, then another hurricane. And so right now, some of the big things they’re trying to do is really help residents establish, you know, home again. I know they’re working on one park that they are trying to restore that’s in the middle of a community.
And while that seems like, you know, something that isn’t a big deal, but when you’re recovering from disaster, a lot of the community has PTSD, and you want to bring back some resemblance of what your community looked like prior to disaster. So, you know, I know Puerto Rico is working on that, also helping with rebuilding homes and really helping kids to recover from disaster because it’s very hard, especially if your home is affected and your school, you know, that’s really where you go and you feel safe. So really helping students continue on with their work and then also giving them the mental health services that they need.
As you look back at 2020 and we look ahead to 2021, what are some lessons learned for you as far as the management of the Disaster Services Program with the United Way? Is there going to be anything different? Have you looked at maybe adjusting how you guys respond to disasters as we go into the next year? Yeah, actually, I am in the midst of kind of rewriting and updating our disaster protocols. With COVID, it was such a wide, more widespread, and almost every United Way was impacted. And so we had to switch up, you know, how we responded and what we did.
And so I’m working on that. And I think now, you know, it used to be a thing where, you know, we don’t live in a disaster prone area, so we don’t have to think about disaster. And now a lot of our United Ways are like, oh, wow, we really need to start preparing.
So I do want to begin to do more of a series of, you know, how to prepare, how to prepare ourselves as an organization, but also how to prepare our staff members and how to prepare our community. Because what we find out is those people who are prepared individuals and families, they are really the ones that really help recovery go quicker, if they themselves are prepared. So I definitely want to spend a lot of my time in 2021, making sure that our United Ways have more preparedness materials, and that they are ready to respond to their community, and that is themselves being prepared.
So we’ll definitely work on that and make sure that our United Ways are not only prepared in, you know, the literal sense, but that they are fiscally healthy and being able to have the money that they need to be able to respond in time. So those are some things I think we will work on and definitely some lessons learned. We learned from, you know, not only COVID, but all of the other subsequent disasters that happened this year.
Stay with us. When we come back, we’ll hear more on how the United Way supports local emergency management. We’ll be right back.
You’re listening to Disaster Recovery Roundtable, available on your favorite podcast provider and on our website at titlebasinggroup.com. Here’s a preview of the next episode of Disaster Recovery Roundtable. Join us as we launch our special coverage on the latest with the COVID-19 pandemic. With FDA approval just days away for the first COVID vaccines, we’ll be joined by Title Basin CEO Daniel Craig to learn more on the issues surrounding the massive vaccine distribution effort.
I understand you’ve been meeting with several governors around the country. What are some of their concerns as they start to look at how this whole process is going to work in their own states? They have a couple of concerns. Number one is when will they receive it and what quantities will they receive it? From what we currently know, there’s enough vaccines to inoculate 20 million folks around the United States.
Now, first of all, we know that’s going to go to first responders and frontline health care. Two, when are they going to receive it? You know, in what quantity? And then ultimately, how are they going to pay for it? You know, is it going to be run through their hospital system, CVS, Walmart? Who’s paying for the doctors and nurses and other folks that may be giving the vaccine itself? And who is making sure those right citizens are showing up at the right time? So who is ultimately paying for this? The federal government? Are they paying the whole thing? Is the money being run through FEMA or HHS or some other entity? And that ultimately is a concern because of the situation we’ve been in since February. A lot of tax rolls are down.
A lot of states are in a deficit situation and paying for something that is a nationwide vaccine, a worldwide vaccine is going to be very expensive. For this and other episodes of Disaster Recovery Roundtable, visit tidalbasinggroup.com. And now back to your host, Greg Paget. And welcome back.
We are chatting with Tanika Fails, Director of Disaster Services for the United Way Worldwide, as part of our series on nonprofits supporting disasters. Tanika, many of our listeners are emergency managers. What’s your advice to your local chapters in working with the local emergency management folks in their community? Yeah, I tell all my United Ways that that’s the first thing I always tell them, get to know your emergency manager in your county and in your community, because they are the ones that really map out the plan on how the community will respond.
And working with United Way is a very good jumping off point for most emergency managers, because like I said, most United Ways are so embedded in their communities, and they have very good working knowledge of not only what they are doing, but what all of their local partners are doing. You know, who’s doing really good work at mental health services, who is really doing good work in mass care and, you know, feeding and sheltering. And they usually often have a very good working relationship with their local Red Cross as well.
So that is one of the things that I always tell my United Ways is that really that partnership with the local emergency manager and their mayor’s office really puts them in a good position to be able to create cohesiveness in a time where, you know, your spirits are running high, you know, everybody’s kind of on high alert, you know. And if you have those things in place prior to, you don’t have to worry about getting to know someone, you know. So I always say it’s kind of, you know, know us before you need us, you know, kind of thing.
And so I employ all of my United Ways to definitely work with their emergency management teams in their area. Probably in 2020, they’ve got to meet a lot of their local emergency managers, unfortunately, with this being the year of disasters. Absolutely.
Tanika, thank you so much for being part of the Disaster Recovery Roundtable podcast and for sharing your insights on what happens with the United Way and its disaster program and how you guys support communities at the local level. Well, thanks for having me. I genuinely love what I do.
Our United Ways are really super embedded in the community and they want to work with everyone to make sure that our communities recover and that they’re in the event that another disaster happens, that they’re able to respond and recover even better than they did before. So thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
You’re welcome. That’s Tanika Fales. She’s Director of Disaster Services with United Way Worldwide on the U.S. Network.
And if you missed our previous episodes on the United Way, parts one and two, you can find those on our website or on your favorite podcast provider. It’s episodes 14, How the United Way Worldwide is Responding to COVID-19 and the Challenges They Have Faced in 2020. Our guest was President of United Way Worldwide, Susie McCormick.
And in episode 15, our guests were from the United Way of the Mohawk Valley in Utica, New York, who shared how they’ve supported communities during the COVID-19 pandemic and other past disasters. And don’t forget our next episode as we are launching our special coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic as the U.S. unfortunately continues to break daily rates of new positive cases and related deaths to the virus. We’ll be joined by Tidal Basin CEO, Daniel Craig.
You’ve been listening to Disaster Recovery Roundtable, a platform to explore, engage, and educate. For more information on this episode, visit our podcast page at tidalbasingroup.com. You can download previous podcasts, learn more about the programs we discussed, and suggest a topic for a future episode. You can also find us on your favorite podcast provider.
This has been a Tidal Basin production. Thanks for listening.