The Des Moines Council of St. Vincent de Paul Society is seeking disaster volunteers from the local conferences to work as caseworkers for disaster victims of the Colorado floods in the Boulder area. SVdP is currently on “standby” to perform this mission.
Barbara Slaven, National VP for the Midwest Region (from Omaha) received the call from Ken Merlin, National Disaster Committee Representative, Midwest Region. She said, “According to Mr. Merlin, ‘Volunteers will be trained in casework management by a SVdP team from the South Central Region (SCR) who served during Hurricane Sandy (NJ/NY), the OKC tornadoes, and a fertilizer plant explosion in Texas – prior to assigning the Omaha volunteers to a FEMA Disaster Recovery Center (DAC). We are responding to a special request from Catholic Charities USA to provide the casework because of the excellent work provided by the St. Vincent de Paul Society in recent disasters.’”
The DAC is a secure site located outside the disaster zone.
Volunteers are encouraged to carpool to and from the Denver area, and will be assigned to the same work site, if possible. Commercial air is authorized.
Anyone in the Des Moines area wishing to volunteer may contact Fern Klemm, Des Moines Council Social Services Director, at (515) 282-8328 or socialservices@svdpdsm.org with your name, phone, email, availability after Oct. 1 , and any experience/classes in disaster work. Minimum availability for this assignment is one week.