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CARRI Partner Community ForumApril 28, 2009
East Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO): The Significance of Grass-Roots
Organizations in Enhancing Community Resilience
A Community Resilience Lessonfrom the Charleston Tri-County Area
Rev. Jack LittleExecutive Director
East of the Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO)
CARRI Community Forum April 28, 2009
Resilience Issue
• East of the Cooper River area composed of one large municipality and a number of smaller municipalities with limited means to provide delivery of relief supplies following a disaster
• Multiple jurisdictions needed to assess needs following a disaster, and the means to distribute resources
• Large areas of economically disadvantaged and isolated residents with need of robust support networks
• Strong network of faith-based organizations with a desire to serve needs of the community
• Donated items routed to central location (Convention Center); municipalities will request needed items through the central location
CARRI Community Forum April 28, 2009
What We Did
• Faith-based leaders organized themselves into formal network (501c3) to provide critical goods and services following disaster – East Cooper Community Outreach (ECCO)
• ECCO is working with churches, non-profits, and civic groups
• Initial role of ECCO is to be central coordinator
– Distribute digital radios to help clusters identify needs
– Connect “clusters” to learn of needsand then exchange resources
– Be a distribution center for all goods from the Convention Center
CARRI Community Forum April 28, 2009
What We Did (cont.)
• City helped to upgrade building, provide emergency generators and some tax relief to help 501c3 get up and running
• ECCO has gradually increased services provided
– operates year round to help alleviate “situational and generational poverty”
CARRI Community Forum April 28, 2009
Key Players• Local elected and appointed leaders• Full-time director of ECCO• Civic leaders• Community leaders• Representatives of churches and
other faith-based organizations• Local emergency management
representatives• Volunteers
CARRI Community Forum April 28, 2009
Lessons Learned
• Need organized, systematic partnership between local government and faith-based/nongovernmental partners in order to harness their power and resources
• Local government must provide– A liaison to manage partnership from
government side (having “logistician” experience here is a plus)
– The warehouse and disaster relief goods that are distributed by the faith-based partners
– Resources necessary to get goods to faith-based partners (staff, equipment like radios and trucks, etc.)
CARRI Community Forum April 28, 2009
Lessons Learned (cont.)
• ECCO provides organized set of trained volunteers and day-to-day operations serving same constituency which they serve during a disaster
• Partnership is kept effective and functional by annual update meeting, rehearsal, opportunities for volunteer training, etc
• Other civic organizations and private sector representatives can be important partners in helping to fund 501c3 activities
CARRI Community Forum April 28, 2009
Resilience Enhancements
• Increased the reach of the municipalities to 1,000’s of people in the area who might otherwise be underserved
• Continued growth of ECCO services helps to improve day-to-day quality of life of residents and to break cycle of poverty, increasing resilience of entire East Cooper region
– Dental and medical clinic services– Education and training opportunities
• Increased the resources available to these constituents
– Monies in reserve to help poor re-build
– CERT training for volunteers to increase their ability to help themselves