Coordinating Cleanup 1.0

Crisis Cleanup has a great logo

Nonprofits setting up operations in Colorado are abuzz with talk of Crisis Cleanup, the brain child of Aaron Titus, a guy who said "there's got to be a better way to organize some of the chaos of early recovery cleanup" (I made that quote up) and created a tool that's doing just that. He created a tool that works to advance how nonprofit organizations engage in cleanup activities following a disaster.

The cliff's notes version is that Crisis Cleanup is a google map populated with cleanup needs represented by pins dropped on the location of said need. Registered organizations can claim pins so that other responding groups don't accidentally send teams to a home that has already received help. There is a reporting aspect that accompanies this so that hours can be tracked and volunteer numbers logged, an innovative solution that helps manage the nonprofit aspect of early recovery cleanup following disasters.

I had an opportunity to be a user of the system after Hurricane Sandy as part of its beta testing during response and saw the potential. Since then the system has been implemented several times with what I hope are fixes and advances making it easier to use and more comprehensive from a data capture perspective.

Screen shot of the user interface -- Superstorm Sandy

With the system being used in Colorado to coordinate nonprofit cleanup activities, I'm interested in hearing from anyone who uses it to manage their infield work flow to get your thoughts on the system within the context of cleanup coordination.

And while I'm optimistic about how Crisis Cleanup can work to provide the autonomy nonprofits seek while working within a defined system, I feel that it's important to remember the need to be inclusive.

Spontaneous response in disaster and the substantial impact it has during early recovery activities is no longer an ignorable trend. Social media is being used to organize armies of volunteers to aid in response and recovery, and it's happening as I write this in Colorado. As a community of practice we must strive to include as many of these emergent groups as possible in response coordination. Not only is it key in working towards enacting the "all of nation" or "whole of community" approach to preparedness and response as outlined by Presidential Policy Directive 8, but its important for unity of effort to provide better coordinated service delivery to those affected.

As it stands the crisis cleanup tool is largely for vetted organizations, those with a response history or those who are "known" entities. And while I understand why the system is setup this way, to help ensure consistency in the work done on behalf of homeowners, I feel that there is a solution that can set an expectation as to the level of work needing to be done, while encouraging broader inclusion of locally responding groups.

All Disasters Are Local, a tired expression but one that holds truth; and while Crisis Cleanup has taken a monumental step in unifying early recovery cleanup from a nonprofit perspective, I believe that there is work to be done to ensure access to this tool makes its way down to the emergent groups on a local level. For it's those groups that have the biggest stake in ensuring that their communities make a full recovery and as such rightfully deserve to be included within the broader coordinated effort.

A tip of my cap to you Mr. Titus, I look forward to seeing how we can evolve the model moving forward.

Volunteers & Liability

Volunteers are the fuel that power many, if not all of the organizations and ad hoc groups that come together in the wake of disaster to aid a community in their recovery. Neighbor helping neighbor and strangers from around the state and country travel to disaster affected communities putting themselves in potentially dangerous situations to expedite a communities recovery. That speed is largely reliant on the productive use of the Volunteer interest while it's available, because once the disaster falls out of the news cycle (if it made it into the cycle) the Volunteer interest will drop and a community will be left to do it themselves.

The surge of Volunteer interest following disasters is nothing new, and Emergency Operation Plans reflect this in the annexes that have been created to help transform Volunteer interest into coordinated action. Even with plans in place and MOU's signed, the biggest challenge in capitalizing on Volunteer interest after a disaster has to do with Liability.

Sweet graphic huh?

I understand that Liability isn't sexy but it can be the single biggest hurdle a municipality faces when translating Volunteer interest into action, mainly because in our overly litigious society, the prospect of being sued when a city is facing the reality of paying for a disaster is the last thing they want to deal with.

One of the many reasons municipalities want as many people to pre-affiliate with an organization as possible is because it clears up the ambiguity around who is responsible for that individual when they're in the field. One of the challenges that spontaneous groups represent to the pre-affiliation model are the questions they bring: who's liable should one of their Volunteers slip and fall in a basement? Are things like workman's compensation something a Volunteer is eligible for? Who’s going to pay for it? What's the homeowners role in this equation? And in the eyes of the law, how do you define a Volunteer?

While the questions around Liability and Volunteers are fairly consistent from event to event, the way in which states interpret and set laws governing liability and Volunteer coverage varies widely.

Thankfully, the good people at nonprofitrisk.org have undertaken the herculean effort of amassing a comprehensive guide covering State Liability Laws for Charitable Organizations and Volunteers. This resource document provides a detailed look at how each state view the important role of Volunteers and Liability as it relates to Charitable organizations—if you utilize Volunteers in conjunction with non-profit activities, I recommend looking through this document.

If more local non-profits can gain a better understanding of what their exposure is by providing a platform for Volunteers to work in a community affected by disaster, then the necessary steps can be taken to ensure that more organizations can provide a structured opportunity for them that protects both Volunteer and Organization.

In addition to the benefits this guide can offer local non-profit organizations is the potential to incorporate this information into disaster preparedness literature; the goal would be to help set and manage expectations around Volunteer liability for those who would start spontaneous response efforts via facebook/etc. This one-sheet could be coupled with the necessary paperwork: homeowner and volunteer liability waivers, to ensure that all those who are active in the field have some level of protection—it would also be a way to standardize the language and coverage organizations provide.

The role Volunteers play in the recovery of a community following a disaster is undeniable; oftentimes their involvement can mean the difference between weeks and months of response efforts. As a community of practice who rely so heavily on these well intentioned individuals and groups to fuel our work, ensuring that we arm our Volunteers with as much information as possible will ensure that they are making informed decisions about how best they can contribute to response and recovery activities.

Volunteers in Disasters

The impact of non-profits, or more specifically, VOADs (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) and their role in expediting a community’s recovery by leveraging their proficiency in the response/recovery time frame is undeniable; their depth of experience and breadth of resource can be the difference between weeks and months of recovery time. Oftentimes those resources brought to bear are volunteer-based.

However, not all of the resources brought to bear come in an organized fashion. Overwhelmingly compelled by the desire to do something, individuals and groups show up in droves with no previous response experience and jump in, these individuals are called Spontaneous Unaffiliated Volunteers (SUVs) and they continually challenge those responsible for volunteer coordination and management during response and recovery.

This influx of individuals wanting to help is well documented, so much so that guides have been created to help responding communities deal with the surge: "Managing Spontaneous Volunteers In Times of Disaster: The synergy of Structure and Good Intentions," but even with the historical data foreshadowing the surge, leveraging this pool of energy and desire to help continues to challenge those of us in response.

As someone who got their start and discovered their passion through volunteering, listening / reading to this news story gave me pause: "In the Face of Disaster, Certification Makes The Difference." The longstanding line from the response community to the world at large has been to pre-affiliate, get trained so that you can confidently and productively put that training to use after the next disaster strikes. With the understanding that all volunteers come with needs: food, housing, and productive work in a community, coupled with the shift that's taking place in how volunteers organize following disasters, the pre-affiliate message to me seems stale.

In the report it states: 

"Volunteers are always appreciated, but it's the certified ones that make the real difference."

I guess I'm unclear about what making a real difference means. Don't get me wrong, I believe that as many people who can align themselves with an organization prior to a disaster, the better. But to say that those who don't pre-affiliate but deploy anyway don't make a "real" difference does a disservice to the time, dedication, heart, and often tears that are shed as those SUV's help homeowners cleanup following an event.

The challenges associated with volunteers following a disaster are not black and white, there are liability issues, safety issues, logistical and coordination issues, reporting issues, etc...and because every jurisdiction seems to work from a slightly different playbook trying to address them or create standards to mitigate their impacts becomes exceedingly difficult. 

With the 'whole of community' and 'community resilience' rhetoric being pushed from a federal level, coupled with the local movement that's taking root in communities following disasters, the time is now to have a real conversation about changing views on SUVs and learning from their substantial impacts. Groups like: Occupy Sandy, Staten Island Strong, Respond and Rebuild, Rockaway Help, Southeast Nashville Flood Recovery, opokrelief are great places to start that dialogue.

As someone who began their career in disaster response and recovery as a SUV, the pejorative view that continues to pervade the response community regarding SUVs is something that I believe continues to limit the speed and cohesion of response efforts. There is no doubt that VOAD groups make a considerable impact in mass care activities, but as technology continues to increase connectivity and social platforms make the dissemination of needs easier and faster, a rethinking of how to better incorporate local groups, comprised almost entirely of SUVs, will have to be addressed to ensure that the 'whole of community' is being engaged in response activities.