Hey everybody!  Welcome to this video. I'm
Amber Melanie Smith and I just wanted to
take a moment - because we are getting
into hurricane season and a hurricane is
already wreaking havoc on the United
States coast - to talk a little bit about
disaster relief. Specifically some
special insights about how you can plan
for disasters and how you can help
before during and after disasters to
help those affected. And these insights
are coming from nonprofits who are on
the ground, who are in the field helping
out, and have helped with these
situations in the past. These are some
special things that they wish the public
knew. So I'm here to share them with you
today. I hope this helps. So real quick, a
little bit about me - I have worked in the
nonprofit field for over 10 years. I've
worked with many different organizations
who've played a number of different
roles in disaster relief and I
personally have helped organize
volunteers on a very small scale for
some disasters and have participated in
volunteer service in disaster relief as
well. I make different videos every week
about how everyday folks can help change
the world, how they can help other people,
how they can participate in service, or
starting a non-profit, and so helping out
in a disaster relief situation is really
in line with that. I hope you get a
chance to check out the rest of my
channel, and if you like what you see,
hopefully subscribe and give this video
a like too. Through my day-to-day work I work
with hundreds of different nonprofits in
my local community and sometimes I'm in
contact with organizations a whole
around the whole country as well. I know
that disasters look different from the
perspective of those who are on the
ground working these organizations and
so I thought it would be helpful to get
their insight so their tips and their
strategies things that they wish people
out there in the community knew when it
comes to disasters and disaster relief
because they're on the ground they're
helping they're doing it so what are
they seeing that the general public
doesn't get to see and how does that
translate to ways that you guys can help
out these causes in a disaster relief
situation so I polled many nonprofit
staff people and leaders across the
country and asked them what are some
things that you wish people in the
community knew about disaster relief and
as I was looking through the answer
several common themes emerged so I'm
going to share those with you in the
hopes that it will help you out in
helping others I just want to take a
moment to thank those nonprofits who
weighed in on this and who offered some
insights thank you for your time and for
contributing your feedback so the first
common theme that emerged from the
feedback nonprofits shared with me is
stuff related to how people can plan
more widely shared information includes
things like evacuation routes where to
find shelters etc but there were two
things that I thought were really
interesting that nonprofits brought up
they wished people planned better for so
they are number one planning for your
pets knowing which shelters in your area
can take pets and also which hotels in
the area are pet friendly the feedback I
got was that pets are sometimes an
afterthought but they're members of your
family so you want to make sure that you
are thinking of them within your plan
too the second insight about how to plan
that emerged the thought was very
interesting was knowing your neighbors
obviously you know you're going to be
counting on people around you and
they're going to be counting on you in a
disaster situation so it's really smart
to know who is in your community who's
on your block if they need help if they
can help you so knowing who's around you
knowing your community and forming
relationships in advance and over the
long term is just a smart thing to do
the majority of the insights that
nonprofits I talked to shared were
related to how people in the community
can help before during and after a
disaster situation one thing I've heard
a lot from the nonprofit's that I've had
the privilege of working with and from
other organizations across the country
is that disaster recovery is a long-term
effort you know there's a lot of media
when a hurricane or some other disaster
is coming is on the way but once that
fades away people tend to forget that
the needs are still there my state north
carolina had hurricane Florence
year of just about a year ago actually
and we are still recovering from that
hurricane just as another hurricane and
probably others behind it are on their
way right now so in order to make
disaster recovery and relief more
effective there are things that
everybody can be doing before and after
a disaster to help out people who have
been affected there are two big things
that people can do before a disaster so
technically around the year that can
help us be able to more effectively
manage a disaster when it does happen
the first is that if disaster relief
work is of interest to you of something
you're passionate about get trained get
trained in shelter management in first
aid and disaster relief services because
that way there will be many more
opportunities for you to help in urgent
situations right after a disaster
strikes
that you know you have the training for
so you can help in that higher-level way
I'll share in the description below some
links to ways you might get trained some
free certifications out there if
disaster relief is something you're
interested in there are a lot of
opportunities for you to get that
training and join a pool of volunteers
who will be called upon in the event of
a disaster the second thing we can all
do as a community and as individuals to
help with effective disaster relief and
recovery over the long term is to think
of and plan for under-resourced
communities when a state calls for
evacuation you know many people have
cars and the resources to be able to
leave but many people don't so when we
are making disaster relief plans we
should think about those who might not
have access to transportation or might
not have the means to leave in advance
so that we can help them properly and in
a timely fashion when a disaster does
hit there are also several ways that you
can help out during and immediately
after a disaster you might have heard
commonly said that nonprofits in a
disaster relief situation really need
cash more than things so I want to take
a moment to address that and explain why
that's the case because I think that
there's a lot of
mistrust between community members and
organizations who are on the ground
doing this disaster relief work about
this and I think I can help sort of
explain why it's a problem so that we
can all get on the same page and help
each other out in disaster relief work
and in nonprofits in general there's a
concern from the general public that
money might be mismanaged or misused but
I know from working with people in the
nonprofit sector that generally we're
all just doing the best we can and
trying to make the most impact with the
very very limited resources that we have
not to say that one person or one
organization could mess it up for the
rest of us nonprofits by having some
kind of scandal or a situation where
they are mismanaging funds but in
general that is the exception and not
the norm so that's where I think there's
an inclination to want to give items and
donations of things instead of cash but
to help you understand why a non-profit
might need cash instead of things I like
to use a metaphor of asking your friends
to help you move in okay so imagine you
are moving into a new home and you would
love your friends to help you move out
of your old home and into the new one so
you put out a call for help to your
friends and on the day you are set to
move in for some reason you just have
this enormous response and like 50
people are showing up at your house and
they all want to help and you're really
like excited and you feel very grateful
but you're also super overwhelmed
because now you have 50 people at your
house all with great intentions but you
just do not know what to do with 50
people you do not have the space for 50
people you don't know how to organize 50
people you don't have enough stuff for
50 people to do you don't know if the 50
people have the right skills in order to
help you effectively move into the new
home and you're on a time line so you
have to complete this whole moving
process in just an hour or two and
figure out how to manage all of these
people at once
now add to that and pretend that all 50
people brought a huge truck full of
boxes you only need it
boxes but now they brought you five
hundred boxes so now on top of moving
and organizing all of these people you
have to figure out what to do with 500
boxes and you have to stop and figure
out how you're going to recycle the
boxes or use the boxes when you don't
actually need all those boxes in the
midst of trying to finish your move-in
task on a very short timeline so you can
kind of see where I'm going with this
obviously in this situation moving in is
disaster relief work right after a
disaster trained professionals who are
doing this work have to deal with some
very urgent needs medical needs
evacuation needs and they would love the
help of people who have that training
that they can manage effectively but if
they have a lot of people show up or a
lot of items coming in that presents an
extra challenge to them that they are
just not prepared to deal with while
they're trying to evacuate people or
make sure that they're not going to
starve or drown or have other some sort
of urgent situation I have heard so many
horror stories from the nonprofit's I
worked with of having a mountain pile of
donations that they just didn't have
room for that were blocking access to
shelters one nonprofit I talked to
mentioned that people were trying to
donate prom dresses after a hurricane
and that just wasn't what they needed at
the time
so you know it's it's wonderful to want
to generously donate your items but you
have to think about what's going to be
the right fit and if you are interested
in donating something like a prom dress
or other items there are many nonprofits
who could use those things and be able
to handle them and manage them and get
them into the hands of people who need
them that are not in the middle of
dealing with a disaster crisis so going
back to the whole thing about donating
cash versus donating items give cash if
you can if you're still uncomfortable
giving cash the nonprofit's that I
talked to said that gift cards are just
equally as good so gas gift cards food
gift cards these things will help them
be able to quickly and efficiently get
the people they are serving urgently the
items that they need if you don't have
the cash to give there are many other
ways that you can support design
relief efforts by giving other things
like your blood or your time if you
don't have disaster relief training
there are so many ways you can volunteer
your time in a recovery situation
immediately after a disaster during that
first part of recovery several
nonprofits that I talked to said that
getting flooded homes is a very urgent
volunteer knee in the midst of a
disaster helping take care of the people
affected is also really important so
we're talking about helping with
translation skills helping do laundry
helping watch children meal delivery
driving people to medical appointments
all of these things are really critical
needs that shelters and other
organizations have that don't
necessarily require disaster relief
training in advance as the urgent
disaster relief needs start to die down
one nonprofit mentioned that helping
people effective file insurance claims
would be a very very helpful service to
them so if you're great with paperwork
and know your way around a form that
could be a great way for you to lend
your services the final big thing that
I've heard so many times that nonprofits
really reinforced when I talked to them
recently about this was that disaster
relief in recovery again as I said
before it takes a long time so just
because you're not seeing in the news
that week it doesn't mean it's not
happening please keep people in mind and
volunteering and donating throughout the
year in mind because it takes a long
time to recover from these big disasters
and we might be seeing more of them if
you're helping with disaster relief or
have other ideas on how people can help
please leave those in the comments below
let's have a conversation let's see who
can help today if making an impact is
something that's really important to you
that gives you a sense of purpose don't
forget to check out my Facebook group
change the world or bust I have
conversations going with amazing people
from across the country and in other
countries as well about changing the
world making an impact nonprofit work
social enterprise you name it I hope
this video is helpful in helping you
think through some ways you might be
able
to be of service and help people around
you during the upcoming hurricanes that
are already affecting our country I hope
that if you liked this video you'll give
it a thumbs up and check out the rest of
my channel for more ways that you can
help make any difference in the world
and be a change maker
