TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2009

Insight provided by Recovery Corps provides critical assistance in development of report to President, Congress

BATON ROUGE, La. -- The National Commission on Children and Disasters today approved an Interim Report to President Obama and Congress. The report identifies several shortcomings in disaster preparedness, response, and recovery and provides recommendations designed to make children an immediate priority in disaster planning.

The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, a member of the Commission’s Human Services Recovery Subcommittee, worked directly with Commission members to assist in providing key recommendations related to long-term human recovery.

Most disaster planning fails to address the unique needs of children. This means the unique needs of children are less likely to be considered when medicines are developed, when school and child care staff are trained, and when families are separated in the aftermath of a disaster.

Children are at most risk during a disaster when they are away from their families and, in fact, 67 million children are in schools or child care on any given weekday, making them particularly vulnerable.

“The most vulnerable Americans in the most vulnerable settings are made even more vulnerable by government inaction,” said Mark Shriver, Chairperson of the Commission. “Disasters don’t strike on government’s timetable which means the time for government to act is now.”

The Commission is examining the performance of government and non-governmental organizations supporting the needs of children. The report identifies several gaps in disaster preparedness that neglects the safety of millions of children, including emergency shelters, delivery of medical and mental health services, and disaster preparedness in schools and child care facilities.

Key recommendations include:

• Incorporating children as an immediate priority within the White House and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
• Adopting national disaster planning standards for facilities that serve or house children, such as schools, group homes and juvenile justice centers.
• Adopting national standards to provide a safe and secure emergency shelter environment for children, including access to age-appropriate services and supplies.
• Requiring state child care regulatory agencies to include disaster planning, training and exercising requirements within the scope of the state’s minimum health and safety standards for child care licensure or registration.
• Integrating child mental and behavioral health training into preparedness and response activities.

“The Commission did an outstanding job of really honing in on the key areas where current recovery strategies associated with catastrophic events have failed the children of this country,” said Dr. Monteic A. Sizer, President and CEO of the Recovery Corps. “Mr. Shriver, Dr. Irwin Redlener, and others came to Baton Rouge to see first-hand the state of recovery following hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav, and Ike and put a tremendous amount of effort into crafting a number of outstanding recommendations that will make children less vulnerable during future catastrophic events.”

Added Shriver, “This report offers a clear roadmap toward a disaster preparedness, response, and recovery system that finally meets the unique needs of children.”

The Commission is collaborating with the FEMA Children’s Working Group, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other organizations to implement the recommendations as quickly as possible.

To read the Commission’s Foreword to President Obama and Congress click here.

The draft Interim Report being voted on at this morning’s public meeting is available at www.childrenanddisasters.acf.hhs.gov.

An embargoed copy of the final Interim Report will be posted later this week. A final report is due by October 2010.

ABOUT THE RECOVERY CORPS
The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation based in Baton Rouge, La., and formed in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. The Recovery Corps’ mission is to facilitate human recovery for the State of Louisiana in the aftermath of disaster, both natural and man-made. The Recovery Corps has partnered with human service and non-profit organizations throughout the state and the country to deliver assistance as effectively and efficiently as possible, allocating more than $80 million to recovery efforts and assisting more than 30,000 households since January 2006.