Nearly 300 community members showed up at the Stafford branch of the Ocean County Library on Monday, Dec. 17, for the Beyond Sandy: Storm Resources Expo. Through the next few years, many of them will require the information regarding the various ways they can continue to rebuild their lives. The expo was repeated the next day at the Toms River branch.
Waiting to greet them in Stafford and offer some much-needed information and support were representatives of about 30 out-of-state and local organizations, ranging from the Salvation Army and National Council on Aging to the Ocean County Department of Human Services and the N.J. Division of Consumer Affairs. Each group offered resources regarding many different disaster-related issues, including mental health services for anyone dealing with emotional distress, especially children and the elderly; where to find home and cleaning supplies; how to repair and winterize homes and properly clean up mold; and tips on how to avoid disaster-related scams.
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| Photo by Kelley Anne Essinger A group of Ocean County Library employees who worked diligently to host the expo greet residents as they enter the Stafford branch. |
Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.S. Small Business Administration representatives were there to prompt people to register with FEMA and submit an application for a Business Disaster Loan through SBA. The SBA program offers financial assistance to homeowners and renters for disaster-related losses during times of federally declared disasters. Officials said the loan could potentially offer homeowners up to $200,000 for damages associated with real estate property, and could ultimately provide homeowners and renters with up to $40,000 for damages associated with personal property. Interest rates are as low as 1.688 percent. Loan repayment terms are up to 30 years.
The deadline to register with FEMA and apply for a BD loan is Monday, Dec. 31. To register with FEMA, visit disasterassistance.gov, or call 1-800-621-3362. To apply to SBA, visit disasterloan.sba.gov/ela. For additional program details, contact SBA at 1-800-659-2955 or sba.gov.
Displaced residents with children who may need to transfer schools because they are temporarily living in a different location found assistance at the fair from the National Center for Homeless Education. The organization offers case-by-case help to children and their families and unaccompanied youth in homeless situations in accordance with the federally mandated McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act.
“The whole premise of this is to ensure educational continuity; to cut down on the lags that children experience as a result of being displaced. That, of course, would lead to greater success in their respective educational programs,” said Danielle Anderson Thomas, coordinator of the education for homeless children and youth and migrant education programs of NCHE. “Many times school is the only place that allows for some stability for a student that might be in such a situation, the only place that remains normal for them.
“That’s so important, particularly when you have highly mobile families who might move regularly and go from place to place to place. You can imagine what it might be like if each time a family moved the child had to attend a different school,” she emphasized. For more information about NCHE, visit serve.org/nche.
Whatever a family’s needs may be at this time, Ocean Partnership for Children Inc., Ocean County’s free care-management organization, was available at the fair to help community members find housing and offer service planning for children with behavioral and mental challenges, which executives said often affect the entire family. The organization works with about 200 families a year, but expects it will receive a number of new cases because of Superstorm Sandy.
“Trauma is such a big deal,” said Kathryn Colhoun, director of community resource development at Ocean Partnership. “Most of the families we work with have a trauma history, whether it’s with the youth or the parents, and it’s just a cycle quite often.
“We work with the entire family because they’re all interconnected. You can’t just treat one person in the family. Everyone’s affected, even in a case where maybe the parents are really struggling. That’s going to put enormous stressors on the family. The kids might react to that even if the hurricane wasn’t that big of a deal to them. Now maybe they’re displaced. There are so many factors that affect the youth with everything going on right now. It still hasn’t settled at all,” she explained. For more information about Ocean Partnership, visit oceanpartnership.org.
Ocean Mental Health, which recently partnered with the Ocean County Library to hold support groups in conjunction with Superstorm Sandy (many to be held throughout January at the Toms River branch), was offering information about its many different mental health services. The CREST program is specifically geared toward people who are experiencing a mental health crisis and need urgent help. It offers immediate access to short-term, recovery-oriented services.
“The program offers one month of case management services. Basically, it links the person to a subscriber, it provides linkages to ongoing services for mental health if those are indicated, and then also case management in other areas,” said Christina Gaetano, director of development at OMHS. "If what they’re experiencing is making it difficult for them to complete their FEMA paperwork, or if they don’t have enough financial stability and they need to link to social services, we help them manage those linkages and advocate for them to get whatever resources they need so they can live a healthy life,” she described. For more information about Ocean Mental Health, visit oceanmhs.org.
Valerie Bell, assistant director of public services at the Ocean County Library, said the organization does not have any plans for another resource expo at this time. Of course, she said, if the need arises, the library will certainly continue to help the community receive those necessary services. For more information about the Ocean County Library, visit theoceancountylibrary.org.
This article was published in The SandPaper.
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