July 2024 Newsletter Now Available

The July edition of the Maryland VOAD Newsletter is now available. Find it here and sign up to receive additional newsletters each month to your inbox.

Do you have an update, event, or announcement to share with the rest of Maryland VOAD? Send your information and pictures to CommunicationsCoordinator@MarylandVOAD.org to be shared on our social media or by the 25th of each month to be included in the next newsletter issue.

Missed last month’s Newsletter? Find it here!

Check out the upcoming events below:

Event Calendar

The US Small Business Administration offers the Business Resilience Guide to support business partners. Disasters can take many forms and the financial cost of rebuilding after a disaster can be overwhelming. If you’re prepared for emergencies, you’ll be in a better position to recover and continue operations should disaster strike.

Visit the website for additional resources or to find a business counselor.

Maryland VOAD Members, Partners & Friends,

I wanted to thank you for the support of Maryland VOAD. We have served the community well this year. Here is a short list of our accomplishments in 2024:

Tool Trailer -Your contributions have put us well underway toward meeting our goal of $40,000 to equip the trailer. We are approaching the half-way mark.

Following the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse we supported the seafarers trapped on ships in the harbor and have assisted longshoreman and other dock workers who lost significant income following the event.

In Somerset and Dorchester Counties, this summer, with the support of Maryland VOAD, the Eastern Shore Long-Term Recovery Committee launched Phase 2 in our response to October 2021 Tidal Flooding, an ambitious effort to elevate and repair an additional 100 homes in the next few years. It is the first time, as far as we know, that a Long-Term Recovery response has integrated a significant mitigation component.

The committee created a “Blue Ribbon Mitigation Task Force” with a goal of raising $6.5 million for the project. Organizations serving on the task force include Maryland Department of Emergency Management (MDEM), Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development, FEMA Region 3, The Nature Conservancy, University of Maryland Environmental Finance Center, Institute for Sustainable Development, many national faith-based communities (LDR, MDS, BDM, UCC, Disciples), Somerset County Commissioners, Dorchester County Council and the City of Crisfield.

The 64 homes that were either elevated, or built new after Hurricane Sandy, did not see any damage or water intrusion during the 2021 tidal flood event. We know that if we build and elevate homes to this standard (the 100 year flood plain base elevation + 2 board feet) we can create resilient homes.

As climate change leads to more severe and frequent coastal flooding, MD VOAD is focused on helping communities build back better and become more resilient. In recognition of this effort, at its Annual Conference, National VOAD gave the Innovative Program of the Year Award to Maryland VOAD and the ESLTRC.

Phase 2 has the focused goals of:

1. Being good stewards of funding entrusted to the ESLTRC;
2. Preventing repetitive loss; and most importantly,
3. Significantly improving the quality of life for the survivor families.

Many thanks once again for all your support,

In Christ,
Pastor Phil

SAVE THE DATE! March 31 – April 2, 2025

Location: Cacapon State Park, Berkeley Springs, West Virginia

For additional information, go to: Regional Conference

Maryland VOAD member, National Disaster Response Agency, is recruiting for up to four (4) new members.

National Disaster Response Agency is a pre-disaster team that deploys under federal, state, local or USAR team through a MOU provided for the duration of deployment. Individuals are deployed and staged before the storm and are one of the first to go out when it is safe to begin rescue.

Team members are compensated after a two deployment trial. Membership on this dynamic team requires physically fit individuals to clear the board and to complete the team certifications.

Contact Field Operations Supervisor, Captain Mike Ziolkowski for more information.

Capt. Michael Ziolkowski
National Disaster Response Agency
Field Operations Supervisor
Cell (716) 579-6128

National VOAD Innovative Program of the Year

National VOAD awards recognize organizational and individual excellence and contributions that reflect “the best of the best” in service and support within the entire VOAD movement.

The Innovation Award is given to one local, regional, state or territory VOAD or a VOAD member organization in good standing, nominated by their peers, for exceptional innovation or ingenuity through the development and implementation of a program or project that has: provided a long‐term solution to a specific community’s problem utilizing one of the core four C’s of National VOAD; or created a unique project or program that filled a gap or unmet need in a community in preparing for, responding to, and/or recovering from disasters that positively impacted the lives of victims and could be replicated as a model for other communities.

As reported last month, Maryland VOAD and the Eastern Shore Long Term Recovery Committee received National VOAD’s Innovative Program of the Year Award. Pictured here is Pastor Phil receiving the award on behalf of Maryland VOAD and the ESLTRC with April Wood (President and CEO of National VOAD, and Elizabeth Disco-Shearer (Chair, NVOAD Board of Directors).

The Innovative Program of the Year Award is award to an organization within National VOAD “for exceptional innovation or ingenuity through the development and implementation of a program or project that has provided a long‐term solution to a specific community’s problem.” The innovations sited for reception of this award include:

• Combining a mitigation component to the long-term recovery response—not just repairing homes but elevating them two feet above the 100-year flood plain anticipated levels.
• Forming a Blue Ribbon Mitigation Task Group of over 50 people from environmental groups, universities, state, county, municipal and federal agencies and National VOAD member groups to provide support and to assist in the raising the $6 million needed to complete the project.
• Using VOAD member volunteers to assist with the elevation of the homes. (Previously, the entire elevation process was contracted out.) Mennonite Disaster Service (MDS) is partnering with us by taking the lead in the construction process. In elevating the first two homes with volunteer labor, we have seen a cost savings of $35,000 for each home.
• Partnering with coastal universities to do a research project alongside of the elevation project to demonstrate its worth to other coastal communities, allow them to understand the components for doing such a project and offering this as an alternative to other strategies used within coastal communities.

In his remarks while receiving the award, Pastor Phil said, “With the increased number and intensity of storms, and the proclivity for significant levels of tidal flooding in the communities of Somerset and Dorchester counties, it was imperative that ESLTRC, with the support of Maryland VOAD, draw different conclusions, and chose a different path forward in the long-term recovery process.”

About Us

One of the goals of Maryland VOAD is to engage with local and state partners to build relationships and raise awareness of what we can do to support in their jurisdiction. One of the ways we can do that is to have a presence at the upcoming Maryland Emergency Management Association Symposium in Ocean City.

Maryland VOAD will be staffing a table at this event and is looking for members to attend and engage as a representative. Can your organization have someone present for one of these days? Let Pastor Phil know.

2024 Emergency Management & Homeland Security Symposium

Register Today!!!

Upcoming Events

T-Mobile is accepting Q2 2024 applications for its Hometown Grants program through which it will invest $25 million in 500 small towns over five years to jumpstart shovel ready projects that foster local connections, like technology upgrades, outdoor spaces, and the arts to build stronger communities.

Elected officials, town managers/employees, tribal leaders, or nonprofit community leaders from small towns with population less than 50,000 can apply.

Applications for Q2 2024 (April 1 – June 30, 2024) will be accepted through July 1, 2024. Create an account and apply here.