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R3V Facilitator Update – Week 25 – 2022 – LTRG Update

This is a final update from your facilitator on progress to date and ideas for next steps on turning tragedy into transformation after the September 2020 urban wildfires in the Rogue Valley.

As these are the final days of my contract to support Caryn Wheeler-Clay in building the LTRG into a thriving recovery organization, I thought I would reflect on the efforts outlined in our statement of work.

Work we set out to do

  • Build one strong organization with the strengths of both R3V and the LTRG 
  • Support the LTRG’s ED in building the organization and its impact
    • Onboard staff – Admin assistant, public health and housing program leads
    • Build core operations – finance, HR, convening meetings, communications, development, board
    • Build programs – housing, community rebuilding, DCM and unmet needs 
    • Build impact and visibility – hosting impactful conversations and projects 

Progress to date (Italics)

  • Build one strong organization with the strengths of both R3V and the LTRG 
    • Caryn and team have taken up the work of recovery and transformation by helping center the voices of fire-affected and typically underrepresented community members. The organization has secured funding and staffed for bilingual and bicultural community building and housing affordability work.
  • Support the LTRG’s ED in building the organization and its impact
    • Onboard staff – Admin assistant, public health and housing program leads
      • The public health position remains unfunded, but the roles of assistant, outreach and communications, and housing program lead have been funded and candidates hired or in process of hiring.
    • Build core operations – finance, HR, convening meetings, communications, development, board
      • Budgets for the current and coming fiscal years have been aligned with our fiscal sponsor’s (Catholic Charities) processes and systems, HR methods are aligned with CCO, staff has begun taking on the management of newsletter and website projects and has been active in community outreach events.
      • R3V has supported the work of fundraising consultants to secure long-term funding for the LTRG’s mission.
      • Board governance and development projects are being coordinated by staff and completed by board members.
    • Build programs – housing, community rebuilding, DCM and unmet needs 
      • The housing program continues to develop partnerships to align available land with developers and funding sources. We are working to align available housing land with the $119MM Home Ownership Program of the OCHS’s CDBG-DR action plan. This should result in many new affordable ownership opportunities for valley residents in the coming years.
      • The housing program lead will become a valuable asset to the community’s commitment to meeting the housing needs of the valley’s residents.
    • Build impact and visibility – hosting impactful conversations and projects 

Thanks and thoughts on next steps

Thanks to all our community partners who have brought their clarity and creativity to our work at every step.

A special thanks to Oregon Community Foundation’s Community Rebuilding Fund for supporting our work financially and with wise counsel.

Based on my experience over the past several months, I would suggest the following priorities for the coming months:

  • Build the LTRG culture of project leadership internally so the organization becomes very effective at moving community initiatives forward, earning influence by being know for doing relevant, unique work.
  • Continue outreach into the fire-affected community to ensure that all our work is relevant to their long-term recovery and wellbeing.
  • Engage the broader community in conversations around what our recovery should look like. This can include the formal Community Recovery Plan process, but also informal Collective Impact conversations and panel discussions on the topics that invite creativity and alignment of effort.
  • Continue thinking creatively to find initiatives that will turn tragedy into transformation in the unique ways only a community-based nonprofit as agile as the LTRG can.
    • Housing is the first priority as it is the basis of all recovery and wellbeing
    • Community rebuilding – especially around weaving in voices that have not historically been at the center of decision making processes.
    • Leadership development – recovery, resilience, and inclusion all require a growing group of leaders who are continuously improving their skills.
    • Partnerships – the community is only as strong as the network of partners that supports it. Both the strength of partner organizations and the trusting, effective collaborative relationships between them are crucial measures of the success of the LTRG and our community.
  • Build the financial and operational strength of the organization so that you can become your own free-standing 501c3 with long-term staff who become experts in community recovery.

I appreciate the opportunity to serve in the work of this community. I have learned so much and have built lifelong friendships.

I am grateful for you and your work,

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Natural Disaster Followed By Avoidable Digital Disaster: A Proposed Solution

Update: this idea has taken flight and the DLAD program can be found here.

The Problems

  • Disaster response has become a data-intensive endeavor requiring vast amounts of data, governance, security, and analysis
  • Communities have not organized their digital leadership in such a way as to be able to quickly ramp up digital operations to meet the needs of other organizations active in disaster, at the national, state and local levels as well as the many community-based organizations active in disaster
  • Survivors of disaster suffer from this lack of proper planning and coordination
  • Disaster survivors should be asked for data one time and that data should be made available to all organizations they choose to involve in their recovery. 
  • Repeatedly collecting data re-traumatizes survivors and adds additional cost and delay to the process of recovery
  • Fraud is a very real challenge after disaster and data can help mitigate the possibility of fraud

A Proposed Solution

  • Create an active, standing DLAD (Dee-Lad or Digital Leaders Active in Disaster) before disaster strikes just as we create COADs and VOADs
  • DLAD would be comprised of local professionals from organizations who are willing to invest some time before disaster and substantial time in the wake of disaster to build a team to lead the digital elements of recovery
  • The skill sets required include
    • Data architects – for needs assessment data structure design
    • Data governance
      • Inputs
      • Validation
      • Security
      • ISA management 
    • Hardware, software, and database implementation management and support
    • GIS data analysis and user experience design
    • Analysts to support reporting and process modifications
    • User experience, website, and app designers
    • Government IT liaison to coordinate with and gain USA approvals/trust from FEMA and DoJ, SBA, USDA, state agencies, and local community organizations 
  • Design data structures to align with all reporting needs for federal, state and local as well as philanthropic stakeholders
    • Quintiles for standard measures of income, education, wealth, etc? 
    • To map to census and other data sets
    • Prior disaster best practices and learnings 
  • Pre map and pre collect status quo / baseline data that can be updated annually
    • Age
    • Ethnicity
    • Household size
    • Housing type & age
    • Jurisdiction – with demo norms pre disaster to ensure representative sampling post disaster 
    • Income – formal and informal
    • Community connections network mapping – relatives, friends, caregivers – web of people/orgs critical to your DLAs – trusted partners – daycare, medical, services
    • Community activity quality data – how active and connected was the person within some distance rings – e.g. this person has active social connections within 100 feet, 500′, 1 km, 5 km, 25, 50, 100, 1,0000k m. This helps us understand how rich the social fabric was that has been disrupted and what type of social setting might allow the person to feel at home and supported post-disaster
  • Design and build local data collection and governance tools to track survivors and their recovery.
    • Design a phone-based app that would work alongside United Us or similar platforms to immediately collect data on disaster affected community members. This data would be owned and controlled by the community.
    • Once the immediate response was over, the survivor data could be used to drive checklists to prepare for the FEMA application process, engaging with DCMs, etc. This data would have a release of information built in to the process so that survivors recovery is not limited by the data restrictions.
    • This would require careful PII practices just as Rogue Hub and other platforms do.
  • Organizations who may be able to contribute IT capacity
    • County government
    • Regional association of governments
    • Healthcare systems
    • Local technology firms
    • Large local businesses
    • Educational institutions
    • Large nonprofits
    • Individual consultants with specialized skills and experiences
  • Build relationships, trust, shared vocabulary and tools before disaster strikes across local organizations
  • Live into a shared commitment to stewarding the digital elements of recovery if and when disaster strikes

Where to Start

  • One digital leader, ideally in local government, needs to share this idea with a few of his most talented digital associates across nonprofit and business sectors.  I suggest 1:1 conversations to uncover interest and secure commitment to trying a few first steps.  Work towards a soft yes from each participant.
  • Gather a core team from the most willing and able people coming out of the initial set of 1:1 conversations.  Work towards a consensus on what to try first and how. The  key is to build social cohesion around a shared vision and get each member involved in moving at least one small task forward.  Momentum and social commitment building is the key to this step.
  • Build clarity and alignment with all the most visible and influential local leaders and organizations possible.  Work to earn influence by doing uniquely relevant work that supports your mission and the goals of local leaders.
  • Begin to network to state and federal disaster recovery leaders to become known as the DLAD for your area.
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R3V Facilitator Update – Week 20 – 2022 – LTRG Update

I hope you’ve been well, it’s been a while since our last update.  

We’re making steady progress building our community momentum toward recovery.  

Caryn and I meet a few times per week to work on ramping up the LTRG including:

  • Onboarding new team members working in Assistant and Outreach and Communications roles.
  • Securing budget approval for this year and next
  • Supporting our fundraising consultants and drafting a grant strategy to fund program and capacity

You can see the complete overview of what we’ve been up to on the R3V Dashboard for this week. 

If you missed the Collective Impact conversation on the Community Development Block Grant opportunities, you can see the recording here.

Please reach out if you have any questions,

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Collective Impact Meeting Mar 23, 2022- Community Development Block Grants – Disaster Recovery and Mitigation

This meeting was an information packed discussion of Community Development Block Grant programs that will disburse over $420 million dollars in Oregon over the next few years. 

Panelists

  • Alex Campbell, OHCS
  • Larry Florin, Burbank Housing
  • Jennifer Gray Thompson, After the Fire
  • Margaret Van Vliet, Trillium Advisors, Sonoma and Oregon
  • Caryn Wheeler-Clay, JCC LTRG

Questions Addressed

 Agenda 

 Audio transcript 

Chat transcript

Thank you to our panelists for sharing their insights and expertise!

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R3V Facilitator Update – Week 10 – 2022 – Building, Building

I hope you’ve been well, it’s been a while since our last update.  

We’re making steady progress building our community momentum toward recovery.  

Caryn and I meet many times per week to work on ramping up the LTRG including:

You can see the complete overview of what I’ve been up to on the R3V Dashboard for this week.  Caryn works with me as a tiny fraction of her work to support the recovery.

If you missed the Collective Impact conversation on the Community Re Visioning opportunities before us with the SR99 Traffic Growth Management study, the Greenway Re Visioning, and the Community Rebuilding Plan, you can see the recording here.

Please reach out if you have any questions,