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History of NVOAD
When disaster strikes—whether flood, hurricane, earthquake, or explosion—lives, homes, communities, and businesses may be damaged or destroyed. The people affected often need serious and substantial short- and long-term help to put their lives back together. Federal, state, and local governments supply resources; voluntary organizations also provide money, volunteers, material necessities, and a variety of expertises.
After Hurricane Camille (1969), it became clear to organizations that regularly helped disaster victims that their services were frequently duplicated and uncoordinated. For example, two organizations would be feeding disaster victims on opposite corners. Representatives from seven organizations began to meet on a regular basis to share their respective activities, concerns, and frustrations in disaster response. They developed National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (NVOAD), which now has more than thirty members.
The association began its work by conducting annual meetings. The first was in 1971. In 1976, members decided that the national organization would be strengthened through regional meetings, and within a few years, these regional meetings began to concentrate on local leadership. Local counterparts of the national organizations were encouraged to organize at the state level to form a Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster group (VOAD). From 1977 to 1992, NVOAD's participating organizations and their local counterparts sponsored at least two regional meetings each year, rotating the sites among the ten Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) regions. Since 1992, the regional meetings have been consolidated into one national training meeting for VOADs, called the Annual VOAD Leadership Conference.
In the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo and the earthquakes in northern California (both in 1989), it was abundantly clear that NVOAD was necessary, for no one organization could handle disaster response on the scale required. After Hurricane Andrew (1992), the VOAD movement extended to the local level. Disaster response organizations in regions hit by the disaster learned that cooperation at the regional, county, or metro-area level was crucial. In Florida, for example, the disaster did not affect the entire state, just the far south. It made sense for local groups to convene locally instead of in the state capital. In 1996, servicing local VOADs became part of the official mission of NVOAD.
NVOAD is a consortium of recognized national voluntary organizations active in disaster relief. Its mission is to foster more effective service to people affected by disasters. NVOAD and other VOADs support and facilitate the delivery of disaster services by their members. They do not themselves deliver response and recovery services. Member organizations support the efforts of federal, state, and local agencies and governments.
NVOAD bases its mission on these four values:
Cooperation. By this we mean that we need each other, that no member organization has all the answers for the challenges we face. We treat members as partners.
Communication. Here we mean the regular sharing of information about our member organizations—their capacities, accomplishments, and commitments. We try to maintain good channels for sharing information, listen carefully to each other, and deal openly with concerns.
Coordination. We commit ourselves to work together and not competitively toward our goal of effective service to disaster victims. We seek to match services to need. Through planning and preparation, we equip our organizations to behave in a coordinated fashion in time of disaster.
Collaboration. We dedicate ourselves to work together to achieve specific goals and to undertake specific projects at disaster sites. We form partnerships during the disaster response.
NVOAD accomplishes its mission in several ways:
Convening meetings. NVOAD convenes an annual meeting and occasional meetings as needed. We hold also hold three continuous e-meetings: for board business, situation reports, and general discussion. They are open to all NVOAD and VOAD members. Consult Appendix 1 for information on subscribing.
Education. The member organizations provide disaster-related training, often across organizational lines, to increase awareness and preparedness in each organization.
Outreach. We encourage the formation of state and local VOADs, and we give prospective groups guidance on getting themselves organized.
Publishing. We publish a quarterly newsletter, a directory of member organizations, and other materials as appropriate.
Representation of disaster-related concerns to the government. We maintain a relationship with FEMA through a signed memorandum of understanding, and we participate in federal, state, and local disaster planning.
Mitigation. NVOAD encourages its members to participate in mitigation efforts to reduce the impact of disasters.