June 2019 Newsletter from evacuteer.org

Evacuteer.org June 2019 Newsletter                                                    View this email in your browser

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Calling all new and returning Evacuteers: Join us for our Hello Hurricane Season Training on June 17! Hurricane season starts June 1, and we're kicking it off with a BIG volunteer event! The City-Assisted Evacuation plan has changed this year (more on that below), so we're asking all previously trained Evacuteers and new volunteers to come out to one mandatory re-training this season. If you can't make it on June 17, don't worry! We will set one more date in July, so stay tuned... The last mandatory evacuation of New Orleans was over 10 years ago- but we know it's not a matter of if, but when, we will be called upon to help our neighbors get out to safety ahead of a storm. This year, the pressure is on for Evacuteers to prove that we WILL show up when we are needed. We hope to have HUNDREDS of new and returning volunteers come out and commit to serving with us for the 2019 hurricane season! We are so grateful to First Baptist New Orleans for partnering with us to serve as our volunteer orientation site ahead of a citywide evacuation! They have all of the technology we need, parking, and seating for over 500 people. And after contacting dozens of other facilities across the city, they're not only willing to stay and help, but they are actually excited and want to provide this service to our community! So to everyone at First Baptist New Orleans, THANK YOU!!! Food will be provided, but you must sign up in advance- and bring a friend to help us reach our goal of 500 trained volunteers this season! What: Hello Hurricane Season Evacuteer Community-Wide Training When: Monday, June 17th, 6-7:30PM Where: First Baptist New Orleans, 5290 Canal Blvd, NOLA 70124 Click here to sign up

Volunteer to help canvass Mid-City on June 1! Our friends in the Mid-City Neighborhood Organization (MCNO) are seeking volunteers to help with canvassing on Saturday, June 1. This is one of our city's biggest neighborhoods, so the more hands, hearts, and feet we have, the more ground we can cover! We will go door-to-door with hurricane preparedness info in both Spanish and English. Volunteers will meet up at Finn McCool's (3701 Banks) for 9am and distribute materials for a couple of hours. Come back to Finn's afterward, and they will even buy you a beer! :) Sign up for hurricane preparedness canvassing in Mid-City Important update to the City-Assisted Evacuation plan has been announced! Our partners in City Hall announced last week that we are moving the central processing facility for City-Assisted Evacuation (CAE) from the Union Passenger Terminal (or Greyhound/Amtrak station) to the Smoothie King Center. This new facility will allow us to quadruple the number of people and pets we can help get moved through and boarded onto buses bound for shelters! The rest of the plan is unchanged: we still encourage EVERYONE using CAE to go to their closest Evacuspot FIRST, so that we're managing the flow of traffic and keeping everyone out of the heat, off their feet, and on air-conditioned buses as much as possible throughout the evacuation process. What does this change mean for us? Because the Smoothie King Center will accommodate more people using CAE, we need to increase our volunteer numbers so that we can effectively back-up first responders and other agencies where we are needed! Please help us spread the word, and encourage your friends and neighbors to come to our community-wide training on June 17th! Click here to read the City's press release about the new Smoothie King Center MRC hurricane season training is underway! Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is a volunteer program under the New Orleans Health Department that helps the City respond to all types of emergencies. They are hosting three hurricane season training sessions this year, and all are welcome! Evacuteers may choose to attend specific training modules which will include Special Needs Registry outreach, shelter operations, working with diverse populations, and more. Participants will also get the opportunity to tour the Emergency Operations Center! The series begins this Saturday, June 1st, and additional sessions will be held on Saturday, July 20th, and Saturday, September 7th. Lunch and parking are provided, but you must sign up in advance! Sign up for MRC training Call for your feedback on City-Assisted Evacuation! Since the CAE plan was drafted back in 2006, New Orleans has changed. A LOT. Evacuteer represents a broad, diverse network of local volunteers and community partners who are invested in the health and well-being of our neighbors. We believe that your input will be instrumental in developing a "white paper" list of recommendations for CAE plan changes, which we will submit to City Hall this summer! We have already seen one big change to the CAE plan, and we hope to see more changes in the coming years so that we can continue to adapt to meet the needs of our community. We are so proud and grateful for our 10 years of partnership with the City of New Orleans, and we invite you to be a part of our effort to engage with the City as a thought partner in the planning process! If you have comments or suggestions you'd like to share on how the City can improve CAE, please take our volunteer survey! Click here to take the Evacuteer CAE survey

Thank you to everyone who volunteered in the City-Assisted Evacuation exercise on May 22! We had a great turnout of volunteers from Evacuteer, Medical Reserve Corps, SBP, Limitless Vistas, Inc., Job Corps, and many others! This annual exercise helps us to figure out what works well, what doesn't, and what we can do to best prepare ourselves ahead of a real-life evacuation. Following the exercise, Evacuteer.org's Executive Director was invited to speak at a press conference with the Mayor! We don't get a whole lot of press throughout the year, so we were pretty excited! Click here to watch the footage and hear Jillian praise our amazing volunteers :) We're proud to partner with WWNO again this hurricane season! Our local NPR affiliate WWNO (89.9FM and 104.9FM) have generously granted Evacuteer.org another underwriting contract this year! This gives us an opportunity to air our upcoming volunteer events, and share critical information with their community of listeners in the event of a mandatory evacuation. Have you heard about us on the radio yet? Give them a listen online today! Are you receiving the City of New Orleans' emergency alerts? Text your zip code to 888777, or go to ready.nola.gov/alerts to sign up!