Nonprofits on Staten Island learned firsthand after Hurricane Sandy that collaboration, particularly with local government agencies, is key to disaster response. Many of the new relationships groups made because of problems they encountered after the storm are paying off now during the Covid-19 crisis.
In the first days and weeks after Sandy hit, Staten Island’s nonprofits were operating on their own. FEMA and the American Red Cross were slow to arrive — in part because the island was hard to reach after the storm. When they did get there, the borough president set up a mobile command center to meet with representatives of the national organizations but never thought to invite local nonprofit leaders.
That disconnect led to wasted efforts, says Diane Arneth, executive director of Community Health Action of Staten Island.
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Her group had been searching block by block in its mobile health unit for injured people and later provided health services with the help of volunteer doctors and nurses. She says that soon after the storm 40,000 pallets of bottled water were delivered to the island even though it had no problem with its water supply. Then the city government wanted her group to drive to midtown Manhattan to pick up even more unneeded water. Gas was still a precious commodity on the island, and she refused. “We got our hands slapped because we weren’t being cooperative,” she says.
The nonprofit association kept trying to get into the borough president’s regular meetings, but nobody would talk to the group, according to several leaders. “Local elected officials were clueless how to connect with the not-for-profit community,” says Betsy Dubovsky, executive director of the Staten Island Foundation
David Sorkin, the CEO of the Jewish Community Center of Staten Island at that time, a group that helped many people impacted by the storm, was also the head of the Staten Island Not For Profit Association. He had to find the meeting location and literally knock on the door. He told the borough president that local nonprofits needed to be there. “We’re connected to the churches, synagogues, the mosques, the not-for-profit organizations,” he said. “We have resources, but nobody’s listening to us.”
When the group was finally invited to join, the response to the hurricane was transformed, says David Sandman CEO of the New York State Health Foundation. The local groups had far more information than the big national organizations and were vital in matching resources with needs. “We were the guys with the flashlights out in the community,” he says.
Covid-19 Payoff
Spurred by its struggles after Sandy, the nonprofit association has worked to strengthen ties to local government. It continues to run a collaborative of nonprofits focused on disaster response that was formed during Sandy recovery efforts. The Staten Island Community Organizations Active in Disaster has about 30 groups that meet monthly and about 100 that filled out a recent needs assessment and are part of the borough’s nonprofit association.
“This was obvious from Sandy: We needed a structure and a framework in place that gives nonprofits, philanthropy, the public and private sectors their assigned role when something like this happens. It’s not a mystery anymore,” says Sharmila Rao Thakkar, executive director of the Staten Island Not For Profit Association.
The disaster collaborative includes representatives from city and state governments as well as local nonprofits. It has been crucial in the nonprofit response to Covid, helping members understand each other’s needs and the resources available to meet them. It was a stark contrast to the way nonprofits were excluded from government decision making in the early days of the response to Sandy.
“What’s different is the incredible partnerships that the nonprofits, the health-care community, and our public officials have,” Thakkar says. “Not only are we collecting needs on the ground but we are crafting the story and taking it to our leaders — the mayor, the governor, and others.”
Because the group includes representatives from local hospitals and nursing homes as well as from the city’s department of emergency services, it was easy to assess the needs of local health-care providers when the Covid crisis emerged and communicate them to city government. The group was quickly able to gather scarce personal protective equipment through donations from local business and government and ensure they were distributed to group homes, nursing homes, and other community groups that needed them most. When a local hospital was unable to obtain protective goggles for medical staff, Sorkin’s group donated swim goggles it had stored in a closet.
“Communication, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration made our response not only as immediate as it could be, but possible,” Thakkar says. “None of this work that we’re doing is easy or without challenge, but I take a real excitement at some of the successes that we’ve had.”
