National Health Security Public-Private Partnership Series

During the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, officials in Harrison County, Mississippi, realized that the county emergency operations center and the county’s disaster preparedness approach needed vital improvements. 

They needed to bring community and faith-based organizations to the table and incorporate them into the county’s plans, response operations; the organizations needed representation in emergency operations center so they could coordinate better.

Before the hurricane struck, the county’s emergency operations center was made up of government agencies and representatives.  While these agencies provided a lot of services, they were not the only ones helping residents to weather the storm.

In the midst of a disaster response, it was clear that many faith-based and non-profit organizations in the region were providing vital services and assistance, filling critical gaps in health resilience that the county’s agencies were not able to address: food, shelter, elder and child care, and transportation.

To bring all of these groups together, the county mobilized to build new relationships with the prominent faith-based and non-profit organizations in the area, working across the public and private sectors and create the South Mississippi Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (SMVOAD).

SMVOAD members from government agencies, faith-based groups, non-profits, and businesses meet monthly to discuss common concerns, identify gaps, and promote better use of available resources, focusing on critical health security areas.  They worked together to find ways to help care for elderly and people with special needs, provide housing and shelter, increase food availability and security, get medical supplies to people who need them, and connect people with spiritual care. Leading members facilitate coordination, communication, cooperation, and collaboration among the members and partners delivering services directly.

Through SMVOAD, non-profit and faith-based organizations on the Mississippi Gulf Coast now have a strong presence within the Harrison County EOC and are active participants in their region’s disaster preparedness and response efforts.

The SMVOAD is one great example, but there are Volunteer Organizations Active in Disasters (VOAD) across the country.  If you want to help in your community and become a member, check out the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters website.  If you are part of a state or local government agency, reach out to the VOAD in your state.

Partnerships among community, volunteer and faith-based organizations create strong new ties in a community that can deliver real value for building national health security. These partnerships strengthen national health security while also improving efficiency in resource allocation and costs for a community.

For more information on national health security, visit www.PHE.gov/NHSS.

This post is part of a series on public health partnerships.  To learn more, check out the first post, second post, and third post.

(Source: Community & Resilience Regional Institute (CARRI), resilientus.org)