Co-operation…working together

It would be an understatement to say that Hurricane Sandy took Staten Island by surprise. No one doubted that the storm would be serious, but not many expected it to do the damage that it did, in places that it did.

More than two months after Sandy touched ground, the borough is still searching for normality, with the non-profit community at the head of that effort. The Red Cross, churches, and religious and civic groups performed the immediate crisis work, providing food and clothing distribution, and mobilizing volunteers to affected areas. But now that much of the initial clean up is done, nonprofits are taking on new roles outside their normal core competencies.

“The overall thing we’re seeing is a shift from direct, on-the-ground crisis help to longer-term services that people will need for, frankly, a long time,” said Vin Lenza, executive director of the Staten Island NFP Association.

To respond to the needs of the affected, Lenza said nonprofits are expanding their roles in the community. There are agencies and organizations that provide counseling services to children and families that have seen a dramatic increase in the number of people they are serving. There are nonprofits that are still conducting mobile medical assistance, driving around impacted areas of the borough and performing door-to-door check-ups. In some cases, nonprofits are handling case management work, helping people navigate the complicated world of government interaction.

Staten Island’s non-profit community is a tight knit group, Lenza said, but following the storm, there was some difficulty communicating among the groups. There was no central communication hub, no way to share information to better serve those who were in need, so if a church group that serves food to residents in Midland Beach were told that someone lacked prescription medicine, there was no protocol for passing the information along to an appropriate group.

“I don’t think there was a comprehensive idea of how to handle these other things that no one anticipated,” Lenza said. “That’s the conversation we’re having now.”

In some instances, the only reason one non-profit group knew about the needs of residents is because volunteers showed up on site; there was no communication process in place to refer these people to help. So the idea, then, is to establish an information sharing system for the 150 or so groups in the Staten Island non-profit community, creating a process for not only how that information is shared, but also how it is used.

“What we suspect, and what we’re going to try, is that there is a way to create an infrastructure of groups, and almost create the process rather than create the solution,” Lenza said. “It’s setting the groundwork first, so that when you need it, you’re not trying to build from nothing. You have that foundation in place already.

“All of our groups really understand what they can bring to the table and what their expertise is. They want to have a way that they can all be adding their piece and utilizing each other’s resources.”

From a financial standpoint, The Staten Island Foundation has stepped up in a big way, launching The Staten Island Non-Profit Recovery Fund and matching the first $500,000 donated from other philanthropic sources. The SINP Recovery Fund was designed to make grants to local nonprofits to help them meet the long-term challenges created by the storm. It will also provide grants to aid in preparedness planning for future emergencies, provide funding for unreimbursed repairs to nonprofit facilities and grounds, support organizations whose fund-raising efforts have been undermined and aid collaborative efforts to help Staten Islanders in need.

“We’re trying to do something that hasn’t really been done before,” said Betsy Dubovsky, executive director of The Staten Island Foundation. “Collaboration and coordination are something that we’ll be willing to fund. There’s really an interest among the not-for-profits in terms of learning disaster preparedness and what can be learned from communities that have experienced disasters and emergencies.”

To date, $325,000 has already been given to the SINP Recovery Fund — all from private foundations, Dubovsky said.

In early November, about 30 nonprofits met to discuss not only establishing the fund but also about the complete lack of coordination in response to the disaster. This continues to be a concern, Dubovsky said, and The Staten Island Foundation and the Staten Island NFP Association are working together to solve it.

The Foundation’s board of directors will approve the grants out of the SINP Recovery Fund from among qualified applicants. Nonprofits can begin the process by sending a letter of intent about their needs.

“We have to see what FEMA is covering, what private insurance is covering,” Dubovsky said. “We have to really get down to what are the needs and where are the gaps in reimbursement and coverages.

“It’s a whole new territory for us, but what I’m learning is that this is going to be a long haul, and there are going to be needs for a few years down the line.”

What’s essential is that they create a process of how people can come together as one group, and what their roles are going to be in that group, Lenza said. No one really knew what their role would be in this coordination effort following Hurricane Sandy, and that’s something that needs to be worked out for the future.

“We think that, as terrible as this situation is, it really is a very strong reminder of the role not-for-profits play in our community,” Lenza said. “I think it’s fair to say that, along with government, the not-for-profit sector is what everyone turns to when they need help.”