SBP

Happy Thanksgiving from SBP! During this season of gratitude, we’re especially thankful for YOU. Your generous support of SBP does more than help disaster survivors rebuild their homes—you also empower entire communities to become stronger and more resilient.

After Hurricane Idalia, SBP helped Lisa win her FEMA appeal so she could finally move forward with repairing her home. But just 14 months later, Hurricane Helene struck, leaving her home severely damaged again. Now an SBP client once more, Lisa refuses to give up. She’s become a passionate advocate, sharing her story to inspire others to seek help. ? “…they need to know they’re not alone. They need to know what SBP has to offer,” she says. Read the full story: https://lnkd.in/gw7A-EfA

Last month was eventful for SBP’s Prepare team! Convening at our New Orleans headquarters, the team assembled disaster supplies kits with supplies and buckets generously donated by the Metairie Park Country Day School in support of Preparedness Month. This disaster supplies donation drive followed a presentation led by SBP NOLA in September to Metairie Park Country Day School upperclassmen, many of whom also later volunteered at SBP’s rebuild sites. The disaster supplies kits were either raffled off at SBP’s St. Peters Preparedness Night, distributed through our Volunteer program, or set aside for incoming rebuild clients. Meanwhile, donated hygiene items were sent to Grace at the Greenlight and the St. Peters community center for immediate community distribution and use. Additionally, the Prepare team’s AmeriCorps Preparedness Coordinators Alexis and Zoe led a successful “Renters Preparedness” event at St. Peters for 20 residents and a preparedness training for Tulane University students in a class on “nonprofits in disasters”. The team also took time to volunteer at one of our rebuild sites!

I am looking forward to representing SBP in joining the "Let's Get A Pulse Check: Community Preparedness and Resilience" panel with LaKendra M., Samuel Capasso, and Gregg Woodruff. Better land use and development practices are critical as we seek to improve community level resilience! Learn more about Pace University's 2024 Land Use and Sustainable Development Conference below.

Today is Family Volunteer Day! To celebrate, we’re highlighting the story of one of our longest-standing volunteers and her family. Lolo Pendergrast, a teacher from Charlotte, N.C., has been giving back to communities in need through volunteer work with SBP for nearly two decades. Lolo started volunteering after Hurricane Katrina and has since made it a family tradition, often bringing along her son. Now retired, Lolo dedicates even more time to volunteering with SBP. Her motivation? A deep sense of purpose. “Volunteering isn’t just something to do to stay busy,” she explains. “You need a reason, a purpose. I always feel gratified that everything I've done has worked towards getting somebody in their home.” Discover Lolo’s SBP story: https://lnkd.in/gT_n_Qwh #FamilyVolunteerDay #VolunteerTogether

A note from AmeriCorps CEO Michael D. Smith: The latest data from our Volunteering and Civic Life in America research found that 75.7 million Americans formally volunteered through an organization between September 2022 and September 2023. A whopping 28.3% of the U.S. population served an estimated 4.99 billion hours, showing that volunteering and community engagement is rebounding post-pandemic.? ? I’m grateful to our partners, U.S. Census Bureau, for collaborating with us to track this renewal of service across the country, while considering new frontiers of service like virtual volunteering.? Learn more about the latest data in this article by Laura Hanson Schlachter and Tim Marshall: #VolunteeringInAmerica #Volunteering #NationalService #CivicEngagement

SBP’s Disaster Corps team?continues to support?survivors of Hurricanes Helene and Milton. Joining a larger A-DRT (AmeriCorps Disaster Response Team) effort, the team?has recently been helping?two families: an elderly couple?and a local law enforcement officer who has recently undergone shoulder surgery and is not yet fully mobile. ? Thanks to the support of Travelers, SBP rebuilds homes stronger using IBHS FORTIFIED standards. In fact, many of the homes we previously built to these standards suffered no damage?during?these storms. We are incredibly grateful for Travelers?and its longstanding commitment?to building community resilience.

SBP’s Disaster Corps has been supporting the first ever AmeriCorps Disaster Response Team (A-DRT) in Western North Carolina, serving alongside 67 other folks from other organizations. The primary A-DRT mission has been to assist with critical warehouse distribution operations at 3 major state-run facilities. However, muck and gut, mold suppression, and debris removal services were added to the mission assignment because of SBP's expertise and ability to support. For 19 days, SBP Disaster Corps members have led the field operations as the resident muck and gut experts, teaching the other corps how to muck and gut homes and empathetically connect with survivors. The team will continue to work through Thanksgiving, supporting the A-DRT Mission as it transitions to Wave 2 and more volunteers join. SBP wants to thank our friends at Howler Brothers ??, who have gone above and beyond to support our Hurricanes Helene and Milton response in Florida and North Carolina. In the weeks following the disasters, Howler Brothers ?? held a one-day fundraising event for SBP, in total raising over $20,000. We are incredibly grateful for their support and thank everyone who made a purchase in support of hurricane relief!

Join us tomorrow at 10am CST for the first in a two-part webinar series between AARP Tennessee and SBP on Identifying Older Adult Communication Needs in Disasters. Attendees will have the opportunity to learn about evolving disaster risks for older adults, key strategies for identifying older adult populations, and best practices for communication among senior organizations. Register: https://lnkd.in/g8dmaJzk

Today, SBP and a coalition of U.S. nonprofit organizations sent a joint letter to the leaders of the U.S. House of Representatives, urging them to pass the Disaster Assistance Simplification Act before the end of Congress. The bill, which was passed by the U.S. Senate in July 2023 with unanimous consent, would consolidate federal grant applications for disaster relief into one centralized, universal application. If signed into law, this bill would relieve disaster survivors of the burden of submitting multiple, duplicative applications and help them get assistance faster. Read the joint letter to the U.S. House: https://lnkd.in/gC36pDV5