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CURRENT
ISSUE: September 19, 2005
VOL.
43, NO. 16Oakland,
CA
Catholic Charities readies local teams to help evacuees
Catholic Charities
of the East Bay is mobilizing teams of trained volunteers to work directly
with victims of Hurricane Katrina now living here. The volunteers will
act as case managers, helping families navigate bureaucratic tape to get
federal assistance and begin reestablishing their lives.
“These families need help contacting FEMA, accessing Red Cross vouchers,
getting their social security checks, and filing for unemployment,”
said Millie Burns, CCEB’s director of planning and program development.
They also need help finding housing and jobs, enrolling their children
in schools, and resolving other issues.
Two recently arrived families must make funeral arrangements – one
for a relative who died in New Orleans and another for a 34-year-old daughter
who died on a plane enroute to Oakland, she said.
The first 10 volunteers have already participated in two days of Red Cross
training and a day of orientation at Catholic Charities. They will be
assigned to specific families to provide “a coordinated package
of assistance,” said Burns.
The Red Cross estimates that more than 700 displaced families have arrived
in the Bay Area, with about 400 families living in the homes of East Bay
relatives.
“They will need a great deal of sustained support,” said Burns.
“They will not recover in a few weeks. But the Catholic community
is up to the task. We know how to welcome the stranger. We can do this.”
Catholic Charities is working closely with the Red Cross to coordinate
“a coherent, efficient response,” said Adam See, CCEB’s
development director.
Burns is hoping that volunteers, especially those with a background in
social services or grief counseling, will step forward soon so she can
develop additional teams. She also needs volunteers to staff a call center.
Persons interested in helping should call Wanica Means at (510) 768-3121.
Catholic Charities also plans to ask local parishes to adopt Gulf Coast
families now living in their midst. The parishes would offer practical
help and raise funds for the family’s needs.
Burns said much of the emergency help available for families does not
address such needs as first and last month’s rent and acquiring
a car to get to work and appointments.
Parishes interested in the “Adopt a Family” program should
contact Millie Burns at (510) 768-3188.
Priest headlines benefit concert
By Voice staff
Father
Mark Wiesner, parochial administrator at St. Augustine Parish in Oakland,
will headline a Sept. 25 benefit show with his traveling theater group,
the Ruach Players, to raise money for survivors of the deadly hurricane
that devastated the Gulf Coast late last month.
The show will take place at 7 p.m. at Father Wiesner’s north Oakland
church, 400 Alcatraz Ave. Admission is free; donations will be collected
for Catholic Charities USA, which is assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina.
The cabaret show will include standards, oldies and selections from “Godspell.”
Wanica Means, coordinator of volunteers at Catholic Charities
of the East Bay, talks with Omar Butler of Richmond during an orientation
for Katrina relief volunteers.
HOANG HO PHOTO
Catholic Charities’ Carol Spruell gives a lemonade
drink to a girl from New Orleans now living in the St. Anthony of Padua
Shelter in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
GREG TARCZYNSKI PHOTO
