Baton Rouge Business Report--12.19.06

By Adrian Hirsch , Contributing writer Keeping the faith: How have organizations that rely on volunteers and charity lit the way for so many in the wake of two hurricanes and still kept their own lights on?

On Dec. 27, 52 volunteers from New York will descend on Baton Rouge to improve life for those from the Big Easy. Since January 2006, Westchester County benefactors have flown down every few months to distribute nearly $200,000 in cash and household goods at the invitation of Congregation B'nai Israel's Rabbi Barry Weinstein. "It's very easy to write a check," explains Tracey Bilski, one of the event's New York organizers, "but we really want to connect to the community. We want to make a difference and let people know they're not forgotten."

Conversely, many Louisianans are trying to abandon their memories of the 2005 hurricane season in favor of the 2006 holiday season.

Yet, more than a year after the hurricanes, Baton Rouge's churches, synagogues and other faith-based organizations remain determined to do the right thing--almost anything--for the hurricane evacuees scattered throughout the city in trailer parks, apartments and single family homes.

Funeral arrangements, preemie diapers, eyeglasses, bus fare, day care, medical care, playground equipment, groceries, rent and depression counseling are among the myriad of daily requests subsidized by local congregations, who previously fretted about raising enough money for their own roof repairs, prayer book purchases or other necessities.

Even more remarkably, local faith-based organizations have tirelessly and transparently provided humanitarian relief without increasing their dues, bankrupting their churches or receiving taxpayers' money.

"Businesses would have had a hard time doing what we do: reorganize, double the staff, keep checks and balances and be good stewards of the money and be cognizant of confidentiality issues," says Carol Spruell, Catholic Community Services' communication coordinator.

"We go to the business world to benchmark, but I think business could learn a lot from us: how to turn on a dime and change course in a matter of hours. What business scenario could compare?"

Days of reckoning
Before the 2005 hurricane season, most congregations had no disaster plan, shelter training or contingency funds. Regardless, "They just swung open the doors and didn't think about capacity, which in some cases later became crippling," says Gerri Hobdy, director of grantmaking at Baton Rouge Area Foundation.

"It is part of their mission. It didn't matter whether the people were from their denomination or not. Some had professionals to do case management; many did not. They met the basic needs of food, shelter, clothing. It was quite tremendous. They never got the accolades because it's what they do."

The night before Katrina struck, the Pastors Resource Council Compassion, 500 evangelical ministries headed by Louisiana Family Forum, Healing Place Church, Bethany World Prayer Center, Chapel on the Campus, Christian Life Fellowship and 60 other local churches, positioned volunteers and supplies to provide immediate aid. The consortium partnered with 200 Gulf Coast churches to harbor nearly 11,000 evacuees, deploy 15,118 volunteers and distribute nearly 65 million pounds of goods.

Meanwhile, individual churches' relief efforts evolved spontaneously on a smaller scale. The morning of the storm, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church school principal Eula Smith assembled 50 women to prepare meals for those who found their way to the Mid City monolith.

"Word got around by the end of the day, and we fed 300 folks," recalls Eula's husband, the Rev. Charles T. Smith. "In the process of people coming in to be fed, we realized the terrific need for shelter."

Despite power outages, communication failures and traffic snarls, local congregants scrambled to convert institutional facilities devoid of showers, beds and washing machines into comfortable quarters, a stark contrast to the accommodation at the River Center.

"We tried to keep money in their pockets, and people helped us find some kind of employment for most of the evacuees," says Smith. "Every evacuee, when they left, we gave them $1,000."

Faith groups who did not shelter evacuees sent rescuers to free trapped New Orleanians; excavated and refurbished neighborhoods and religious institutions; and supported local host families overwhelmed by expenses with food pantry, utility and rent assistance among others.

For both individuals and religious institutions, expenses quickly eclipsed projected budgets. Especially for shelters, the cost of 24-hour care grew exponentially until the evacuees were settled in more permanent housing.

During their stay, even the most well-behaved guests accelerated the amortization of the sturdiest of buildings. Many facilities needed new paint, carpets, doors and repairs from operating at full capacity seven days a week.

To house 125 evacuees, the Rev. Bland Washington estimates Allen Chapel's 280 congregants incurred $8,000 to $10,000 in expenses, including $1,400 a month in utilities andthe rental of extra garbage bins and PODs. Shiloh's 3,000 congregants shouldered expenses totaling $300,000. Security alone cost $3,000 a week. Similarly, the Islamic Center appropriated $350,000 to lease 80 apartments; $50,000 for utilities; and $40,000 to repair wear-and-tear on its building. Another $65,000 was dispensed to several damaged mosques and centers in New Orleans.

Church and state
Prompted by reports that nearly 500,000 people sought shelter in religiously run facilities throughout the Gulf Coast, the Federal Emergency Management Agency agreed in September 2005 to reimburse religious organizations. Yet, very few local churches have received government assistance.

"Faith-based nongovernmentals have never before been reimbursed," says Dorothy Thomas, director of Longterm Recovery at the Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations and liaison to FEMA's Joint Office. "The president said they will be reimbursed, [but] FEMA did not have faith-based organizations as providers."

After locating FEMA's protocol, she tried to expedite the faith group's reimbursement. Organizations were expected to download applications, attach receipts and file the form with the East Baton Rouge Parish Office of Emergency Preparedness. OEP then submitted the forms to the state, which sent them to FEMA.

"There were many problems for churches and synagogues who couldn't get the forms and didn't understand the procedure," Thomas says.

So, FEMA and LANO presented an informational seminar at the River Center. Few faith-based organizations were aware of the event, and even fewer attended. Thomas estimates FEMA's reimbursement to all faith-based organizations statewide exceeded $1 million.

Her suspicions are confirmed by a study of 603 faith groups in the 225 area code conducted by LSU assistant professors of social work Daphne Cain and Juan Barthelemy.

The responses of 157 religious organizations demonstrated less than 10% received federal or state relief aid. Of those who did, 91% reported funds were adequate. Only one church received a federal grant. Meanwhile, 69.4% received congregational donations for Katrina efforts; 66.9% received private donations from individuals or groups outside the church; 36.9% used church budget money; and 6.4% held fundraisers.

The findings would not surprise Pastor Robin McCullough-Bade of Lutheran Church of Our Saviour, who chairs weekly meetings of the Federation of Churches and Synagogues' faith leaders support network.

"At our early meetings, there was financial exhaustion. We had gone out on a limb and wanted to know what we could do. No one knew even anything about FEMA reimbursement. It took months for the process to get sorted out, and by then, it was no longer an issue," she says.

"Many [faith-based organizations] don't want to go to the government to be supported for their righteous acts of beauty and love. They have the attitude, 'God will provide' or that 'FEMA has too many restrictions,' and have not even applied for grants."

Pennies from Heaven
On Sept. 12, 2006, as the Rev. Patricia Snyder opened the mail, $11,000 fell in her lap--literally. The note accompanying the donation came from two doctors Snyder married years ago in Tennessee.

"It was their anniversary, and they wondered where I was. They found me on the Internet and sent a check. They wanted to do something meaningful with their money. If you do what you're called to do, the money will follow."

The source of the funds received by local congregations is as diverse as the denominations themselves.

Like many churches, Allen Chapel acquired aid from a variety of sources. "We have not received anything from the federal government or the city," says Washington. "We did not ask for double offering. The membership gave the tithe, and we had enough funds.

"We survived financially because of so many other private donors. The Red Cross came with food and volunteer help. The bulk of donations came from the connectional [African Methodist Episcopal] church. We received donations from other churches that did not house anybody. But by the grace of God, the money came."

The Islamic Center's leadership never worried about closing the doors to its 200 families. "It wasn't the Islamic Center spending the money," recalls board member Ahsan Aslam. "It was the families, then Islamic Circle of North America and Islamic Relief. They started helping with food, then transportation to meet family in other cities. The LSU triage center was full of doctors; the same doctors came for prayers and to visit evacuees. It was the community."

Donations of food, clothing and volunteer labor provided some financial relief at Shiloh, and media coverage generated additional funds. "We were on NPR on Sunday, Sept. 1, and then WJBO and in Parade, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times. We received funds early," says Eula Smith.

"News teams from Paris and Athens television were here filming, and as a result, we received contributions from various parts of the world. We received contributions from some who knew us and some who didn't know us at all," says Smith.

"I thought we might be able to do $10,000, but the Lord blessed the effort in such a way BRAF contributed $125,000. I know [BRAF President/CEO] John Davies. But, we didn't go to him; he came to us."

BRAF also sought out smaller churches by working with the Capital Area United Way to fund relief-related requests from paying an electric bill to buying a commercial freezer. "The mini-grants didn't require [the beneficiary] to write a grant. We could verify the nonprofit and affirm the need on site," says BRAF's grantmaking director Hobdy.

CAUW and Friendship Force contributed $5,000 of the $31,000 received by the First Christian Church. "We had more than enough to cover expenses. We ended with excess--in the black--and were able to give each family a cash donation for startup. Other [leftover] money we donated to other disaster groups," says the Rev. Michael Karunas. Other organizations received unlimited support from national affiliates.

"We were prepared to spend everything we had to do the right things. Fortunately, we didn't have to," says Rabbi Martha Bergadine, the Jewish Federation's executive director. United Jewish Communities raised $28 million to aid Jewish and non-Jewish Gulf Coast residents and presented $1 million to restructure the local federation as a regional agency and to initiate family services case management.

"We were too busy with the immediate needs to bill for pledges from the 2005 campaign, but we were able to make the allocations we had planned," Bergadine reports. "There was a cash flow aberration, but there was nothing we said we couldn't do or cut backs to the agency."

By July 2006, Catholic Charities USA had collected $160 million. Over the next five years, $17 million will be distributed in Baton Rouge and $60 million in New Orleans. Already, CCS has supplied $3 million in direct assistance for basic, everyday communal and individual needs of evacuees.

From rescue to recovery
While the Gulf lay fairly dormant during the 2006 hurricane season, the faith-based organizations remained active, filling needs and gaps left by the government.

In January 2006, the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps hired CCS to help evacuees develop a recovery plan for self-sufficiency including housing, job training, medical care and day care. "All the resources of the state had to be brought to bear," LFRC CEO Raymond Jetson says. "Catholic Community Services is an organization with a vast infrastructure and resources that could be mobilized quickly. The need exceeds the capacity of traditional government and nonprofit models of service [because] we are helping people respond to a disaster who have lost everything."

Funding for the $3.5 million contract, which includes the region from Hammond to Lake Charles, comes from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which serves single mothers.

While CCS subcontracts Acadiana's case management, the local agency has expanded from 50 to 115 fulltime staff. "It's a daunting task," Spruell, CCS' communication coordinator says. "It's one family at a time."

The LFRC contract expires in August 2007; however, in its first nine months the program has reached 1,083 families, approximately 3,800 evacuees.

For its part, St. Jean Vianney is supporting Louisianans struggling to come home. "We see at least four to five families a week. They are out of FEMA trailers and apartments and trying to get closer to home from far away as apartments become a little bit more available. It's sort of a second wave," says Lori Aucoin, the church's director of social responsibility ministry.

The church parish has enough money in its $49,000 hurricane relief fund to contribute mattresses and other household wares. The parish has supplied $3,000 in gasoline vouchers and boxes of $25 Wal-Mart cards donated by the Paulist Center in Boston.

Many faith-based groups now target specific populations in their outreach efforts. While Istrouma Baptist Church spent $200,000 adapting its building to shelter 700 people, $10,000 rebuilding New Orleans and $10,000 providing direct assistance to local evacuees, the church has now committed another $50,000 to construction projects in Cameron Parish.

Closer to home, Eula Smith has coordinated mental health counseling at Elm Grove Park as part of a $30,000 Samuel Dewitt Proctor Foundation Balm in Gilead grant. "There's a lot of depression. They stopped serving food, and there's no transportation. A lot are disabled, and we've sent care packages to the older people," she says.

After closing its shelter for women about to give birth, new mothers and their families, University Presbyterian has hosted AmeriCorps volunteers in a Sunday school-room dormitory and augmented the group's stipends. Washington's congregation delivers 600 boxes of Food Bank groceries to FEMA trailer parks twice a week. After dedicating $5,000 to its shelter, the church was spending several hundred dollars monthly to rent a U-Haul for the project until it recently purchased a commercial truck.

True believers
While the rest of the country may suffer Katrina fatigue, local congregations are energized rather than exhausted as their congregants and coffers prosper from new members and a new mission to serve.

"Strong relationships developed," says Smith, whose church has welcomed 80 new members. Thanks to the generosity of its Baton Rouge base and 50 new New Orleans members, Allen Chapel's revenue reflects a 15% increase.

By contrast, University Presbyterian has fewer than 10 new members; still, in 2006, contributions rose. "People were glad we did what we said we were going to do," Snyder says. "We behaved in a Christian manner. We behaved like a church."

The First Christian Church annual stewardship campaign reached a 10-year zenith. "I do believe people give in what they really believe in, we'll support financially," says Karunas.

Likewise, the Jewish Federation's annual campaign finished stronger than ever. "People who could recognize the needs are greater. People dug deep and dug deeper again. People are very generous and care passionately about other people," says Bergadine. "They open their hearts and their wallets. After the hurricanes, people already had relatives [staying in their homes], and we asked them to take in complete strangers. One person had agreed to house two men with seven dogs, which we thought were small. When they came out of New Orleans with seven large dogs, [the host's] only comment was, 'I guess then I'll need a bigger truck.' After that, writing a check is easy."

The future with FEMA
Although the congregations' work is clearly sustainable, LANO's Thomas wonders if FEMA's inertia will taint faith-based organizations' response to future disasters.

"We are so fractured and fragile. How can [FEMA] expect these phenomenal humanitarian groups to stand up again without the assurance of reimbursement?" she asks.

For now, Thomas says the best bet for organizations seeking future FEMA reimbursement is becoming a Red Cross shelter.

The agency has recently revised its traditional shelter model into a four-tiered system. Before a disaster, community agencies can negotiate an agreement, verify capacity and receive a shelter designation. Generally, the level of reimbursement parallels the extent of Red Cross' supervision.

Many congregations remain unaware of the program; only 30 to 45 representatives attended the Red Cross' shelter workshop. The Islamic Center has received training and an independent shelter designation. "It's not a question of whether we would shelter again or not," Aslam says. "When people show up at your door, you can't say, 'We can't take you.'" However, "There is a call to prayer before sunrise and separation of men and women in the sleeping quarters," he cautions.

In early 2007, a new Islamic Center will open with a post-Katrina design that includes showers and other domestic amenities. "We're working with the Red Cross so we could get food and bedding," says Aslam. "[When Katrina hit], we had no plan or experience in sheltering. Things just happened, and we did whatever we could. Now, we're part of disaster recovery and interfaith groups now and I see how small we are. We can use their resources."

Of course, reimbursement is not the only reward. "The Baton Rouge community is very generous," Aucoin says. "People we've met who've decided to stay say how welcome they have felt."

As surely as Baton Rouge's congregations are improving the lives of evacuees, they also are investing in the city's future. "Churches have been instrumental in creating a resilient community," Hobdy says. "People go to services to integrate here. There's a lot of tension in the community, and they make people feel welcome. A lot of times that doesn't require money, it requires compassion."