By Lisa Crouch
The Children’s Disaster Services (CDS) team serving at the Surfside building collapse in Florida returned home after a six-day deployment, due to low numbers of children in the facilities.
The CDS volunteers were ready to serve at the Family Assistance Center, but they found that the children and families involved had significant community and/or family support outside the disaster response area, resulting in very few children needing the CDS childcare center.
This is not unusual in such disasters and, as with any deployment, the team was committed to being flexible in helping children mitigate the effects of the trauma. The team was able to work with the Red Cross to identify needs of children who had evacuated their homes and were being sheltered in nearby hotels.
We appreciate the CDS volunteers who were able to respond to this community and heartbreaking tragedy. CDS will be ready to respond again when the call comes.
— Lisa Crouch is associate director Children’s Disaster Services, which is a program within Brethren Disaster Ministries. Find out more at www.brethren.org/cds.
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