TGCR VOAD Meeting Notes

Monday, November 2, 2009

Attendees:

• Salvation Army’s Christmas Registration is over.
• American Red Cross says Fire Season has started. Warns of safety issues with heaters.
• VOAD Registration for the New Year is due in January. The cost is $25.
• United Way’s 211 is getting many calls regarding Thanksgiving and Christmas. They are currently checking on resources.
• UMCOR just closed their Rita office in Beaumont. They have 2 Ike Recovery offices open and are running 200 volunteers a week. They are not doing any case management.
• Texas Baptist Men have had a quite year. They are expanding in Dallas and their tractor trailer response units will be housed there.
• Chaplaincy Care is training chaplains.
• Houston Volunteer Lawyers provides legal help for the lower income population.
• Lone Star Legal Aid is waiting on SSBG money. Their largest area of help is related to Family Law.
• Houston Food Bank is shipping disaster boxes to disaster agencies over the next few weeks. The items were for a disaster and must now be emptied from their warehouse. They will begin collecting food items again for disaster in January. They are also doing Share the Holidays where they gather food for the holidays for the needy. They will be moving to the old Sysco building on I10 in February.
• The Episcopalians are still doing relief work in Galveston.
• Houston Galveston Institute has a grant from SSBG and will give free help to Ike clients, and will connect people to other services.
• NCI is providing case management to Ike Victims. They are finalizing SSBG contracts with HGAC.
• High Tract /Stay Connected put the case manager’s through MHMR training and can see a difference in them since the training happened.
• Housing Resource Center
• Public Information Center is running a homeowner program.
• Volunteer Houston is in general relief now. They are also doing a Visit from St. Nicholas by which they will acquire a goal of 10,000 backpacks of toys.
• Save the Children is working with schools to provide friendly spaces for children during disaster.
• Adventist Services is working on donations for Ike Relief.
• LINC Houston is doing case management and home repair for Ike Clients. They are also looking for toys.
• CERT has the Rodeo in Feb.
• Shining Light does mediation
• December meeting will be a Holiday Brunch party, a roast Jennifer Posten, and thank you to outgoing committee members of VOAD.
• Items that are being brought are: Homemade cinnamon Rolls, Mandarin Orange Salad, Sweet Potato Spring Rolls, Quiche, Fresh Fruit Salad, Green Salad, Breakfast Tacos, Bagels and Cream Cheese, Muffins, Scones, sausage rolls and Juice.
• Everyone send thank you sentences to Carolyn Shell by Friday.
• Speakers at the Dec meeting will be Mardie, Linda, Cindy and Roland.
• Carolyn and Chris will do decorations
• Everyone should be thinking about what they want VOAD to look like in the future.
• Next meeting will be December 7 from 10am to 12pm.