CDS Critical Response Childcare team serves in New Orleans following truck attack

By Carolyn Neher

Early on Jan. 1, 2025, a truck was driven into a crowd on Bourbon Street, New Orleans, killing 14 people and injuring 35 others. Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) has sent a Critical Response Childcare team to provide a calm presence for the children of victims or children of families of the victims. The team of specially trained volunteers has been serving in a Family Assistance Center since Sunday, Jan. 5.

Critical Response Childcare teams are trained above and beyond the typical CDS volunteers, prepared to serve following mass casualty events. Since 1997, CDS’s Critical Response Childcare teams have responded to several mass shootings including in Orlando and Las Vegas in previous years and more recently in Uvalde and Lewiston, as well as the terrorist attacks of 9-11, aviation and train incidents, and the Boston Marathon bombing. Other related work has included providing training for trauma healing in Nigeria with survivors of Boko Haram violence.