http://ozarkspub.vo.llnwd.net/o37/KSMU/audio/mp3/cfo039s-joplin-recovery-fund-helps-heal-city_21728.mp3
For KSMU and Making a Difference Where You Live, I’m Mike Smith.
Over 160 lives were lost and some 8,000 homes and businesses destroyed or damaged when an EF-5 tornado hit Joplin Missouri in the early evening hours of May 22nd. It was a Sunday, and within hours after the tornado emergency essentials, supplies and services, and the civilian volunteers and governmental personnel needed to organize and carry out disaster relief efforts, poured into the city.
In Springfield Missouri that Sunday evening at the same time the world was learning about and responding to Joplin’s immediate needs, officials with the Community Foundation of the Ozarks put plans in place for funding the city’s long term recovery. The Community Foundation of the Ozarks coordinates the philanthropic efforts of its 44 affiliate foundations across southern Missouri. The Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri is CFO’s largest affiliate and serves Jasper, Newton, McDonald and Barton counties through its Joplin office. CFO President Brian Fogle tells KSMU:
“One of the 1stthings we did after the tornado that Sunday night, was to get on the phone and start calling people. We called the Community Foundation of Oklahoma City and Kansas City, bigger foundations who have had disaster experience. We called the Cargill Foundation that has a former FEMA worker as Disaster Services. We called Baton Rouge and New Orleans and people all over the country to say help us. Tell us what the considerations are, what the priorities of need are, what your roles were. We did a lot of research just to understand how a disaster and the recovery unfolds.”
Through those contacts, Brian Fogle learned that in the months and years after the initial response to a disaster by national and regional organizations providing food, shelter, water, clothing and debris removal, etc., there would be gaps in support for local non profit organizations. “A lot of donors start giving their money to those 1stresponders like Convoy of Hope, The Red Cross, etc. That needs to happen but sometimes that donation that may have (before the tornado) gone to a local agency is instead going to immediate relief efforts. So we did several tours of non profits, talked to them, and what we found is many of them running out of funds by August. They are seeing a tremendous demand for services, weather it’s child care, counseling services, family crisis shelter etc., but they were also seeing their donations dwindle because of donors focusing efforts on other things. That really framed for us that that’s where we need to be first. That’s the first round (of grants) we need to do. We need to look at those local Joplin non profits, look at their needs and what we can do to help immediately.”
Michelle Ducre is a CFO staff member working from the Community Foundation of Southwest Missouri’s Joplin office. She says: We knew that recourses would flood in to the area for immediate relief, but people are not necessarily thinking about long term recovery, but thanks to CFO leadership, we were able to establish the Joplin Recovery Fund” Which went active May 23rdless than 24 hours after the tornado hit the city. Today, the Joplin Recovery Funds total around four million dollars representing more than 2,600 gifts from 45 states and 4 countries. After the first-round grants of $300,000, $1.1 millon remain in the Joplin Recovery Fund. Again Brian Fogle: “What we pledge to every donor is that every penny will be spent in Joplin for recovery efforts, and all decisions will be made by a local group of people.”
From its Joplin office on August 3rd, the Community Foundation of Southwest Mo. announced it was accepting applications for its first Joplin Recovery Fund grants. Carthage resident Don LeFerla is a CFSWM board member and served on the Joplin Recovery Fund’s first round grant application and selection committee. September 16th, the committee awarded $300,000 in grant to 18 area non profit organizations. “Counseling services and transportation, child care, infant care, day care too for parents whose day care was destroyed and they had no where to go with them. It covered a pretty broad array of subjects. This was trying to get peoples lives back in place and help the organizations that would do that.”
Don LaFerla and his fellow committee members reviewed 45 Joplin Recovery Grant applications with requests totaling $900,000 before choosing the 18 recipients, among them, Children’s Haven of Southwest Missouri, led by Executive Director Stephanie Theis: “Children’s Haven of Southwest Missouri provides temporary care for children of families who are facing a crisis, and boy did May 22nd amp that up.” Children’s Haven received a $25,000 grant from the Joplin Recovery Fund. “The number of kids we have seen has increased 137% since the tornado and the length of their stay has increased 422%, so this money will help us provide for them and help families resolve their problems and get their recovery on the road.”
The 2ndround of Joplin Recovery Fund grant recipients will be announced in a couple of months. Information about that along with a list of the first round recipients and updates on CFO efforts for Joplin Relief is available at www.joplinrecoveryfund.org For general information about the CFO and its 44 affiliates across southern Missouri, www.cfozarks.org
For KSMU and Making a Difference Where You Live, I’m Mike Smith.