03/10/10

Next Meeting:

Tues., Apr 6, 7-8:30 PM, Classroom 18/19

Welcome to the St. Augustine Church's Emergency Shelter Operation

Short Term Stewardship Opportunity in March - Experience a Red Cross Shelter Exercise

Participate with the St. Augustine Shelter team during the annual Red Cross disaster exercise Saturday, March 13, 2010 at Bon Air Baptist Church, 8644 Forest Hill Avenue, Richmond. The whole family is welcome.

Please complete this reservation form and return it to Paul Bedard.   If you have trouble filling out the Word document and emailing it, try these alternate instructions to submit the reservation form:  (1) copy the form contents, (2) open link to my email, (3) paste form to the email (4) complete the form, (5) send email to me.

Objective: provide area shelter teams and volunteers experience in operating a large emergency shelter supporting 200 residents, using two shifts of shelter team members. Employ local support agencies to prepare and provide meals. Exercise the Red Cross staff and volunteers in their oversight and support of the shelter.

The Red Cross needs 200 people to serve as evacuees and 70 shelter team members (2 shifts of 35 members) to operate the emergency shelter. Snacks and lunch will be provided.

Shift 1: 8:00 AM-12:00 PM.

• Shelter team set up at 8:00 AM
• Evacuee participants 9:00 AM-12:00 PM
• Lunch and shift debrief at 12:00 PM

Shift 2: 11:00 AM-3:00 PM.

• Shelter team in-brief at 10:30 AM
• Evacuee participants 11:00 AM-3:00 PM
• Lunch at 12:00 PM
• Close shelter and shift debrief at 3:00 PM

Directions from St. Augustine Church to Bon Air Baptist Church:

• Take Hopkins Road north to Chippenham Parkway (Rte 150);
• Left at light to Chippenham Parkway (north);
• Take Chippenham Parkway north; pass Powhite Parkway (Rte 76 toll);
• Take next exit (Forest Hill Ave); go under the bridge for Forest Hill Avenue (West).
• Follow Forest Hill Avenue (1.5 miles). When it narrows from 4 to 2 lanes, look on the left for the very large parking lot of Bon Air Baptist Church (1.5 miles).

For more information, contact Paul Bedard at 751-0007 or via email at paulbedard42@verizon.net, or call Katharine Anderson in the Parish Office at 275-7962.
 

Shelter Planning Notes

2009 Good Neighbor Award
The Red Cross presented its 2009 Good Neighbor Award to St. Augustine Parish and its Emergency Shelter Team at their annual awards ceremony on April 22, 2009.  Here is the citation from the award:

This award recognizes an individual, organization or business outside the American Red Cross that has made a significant humanitarian contribution to the local community in support of the Red Cross. The recipient has demonstrated exceptional initiative in identifying and meeting one or more community needs through actions that resulted in provisions of more effective services to people.

The St. Augustine’s Catholic Church shelter team began working with the Greater Richmond Chapter in 2003 and currently serves as one of the chapter’s primary “go-to” teams when a quick response is necessary.  The members have created their own shelter team manual, organized their response team into specific job tasks and requirements, hold regular meetings to further organize themselves, and participate in exercises and training activities in order to maintain their readiness level.  They have shown their support to our sheltering efforts by recruiting additional members to their team and have trained more than 60 congregation members.

Shelter Task Area Leads 
If we are to effectively organize our planning group to accomplish the necessary planning and to lead the effort when called upon by the Red Cross, we need to have leaders in each of the major shelter task areas. We made the following designations for shelter task area leads (March 2008):

Meeting Notes & Documentation (2008 & later)

Upcoming Shelter Team Meetings

• Tuesday, Apr 6, 7-8:30 PM: Shelter Team Meeting Classroom 18/19
• Wednesday, Apr 14, 6:00-10 PM: Red Cross Shelter Operations Class: Hall and Classroom 18/19
• Tuesday, May 11, 7-8:30 PM: Shelter Team Meeting Classroom 18/19 

Archived Meeting Notes & Documentation (2007 & earlier)