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