The After the Fire USA Wildfire Leadership Summit
September 20-22, 2022 in Sonoma, CA
PANEL: Maximizing Volunteer Programs for the Rebuild
MODERATOR: Stephen McMahon, CEO of McMahon Solutions
PANELISTS:
Trey Bearden, Chief Operations Officer, ToolBank USA
Heather Irwin, Founder, Sonoma Family Meal
Jon Kennedy, CEO, Rebuild Now, Inc.
Michael Gorham, Manager, Strategic Partnerships, Team Rubicon
Contact the Panel:
https://toolbank.org/
https://www.sonomafamilymeal.org/
https://www.rebuildcalifornia.com/
https://teamrubiconusa.org/
https://mcmahonsolutions.com/
After a disaster, and throughout the rebuild, volunteers are essential in performing critical work and organizing these folks is a big challenge. Stephen McMahon the CEO of McMahon Solutions, who also works closely with Fannie Mae, helps provide organizational support to communities after a disaster. ‘The upswing of goodwill’ Stephen mentions, is undeniable after an emergency, and makes a major difference.
Trey Bearden, the Chief Product Officer of ToolBank USA speaks about how their national program to outfit communities with tools post-disaster improves rebuilding efforts across the USA. The model allows community groups to receive tools as a loan rather than purchasing them and incurring high costs. As ToolBank deploys across the nation they help critical rebuild infrastructure, and improve rebuilding times.
Heather Irwin, Founder of Sonoma Family Meal speaks about how after the 2017 North Bay Fires her organization began covering the gaps in food distribution. Families may have shelter, but what about their meals? Sonoma Family Meals sends foods to shelters, hotels, and more to make sure that in the times of crisis they may have a warm meal. Their work continues, now 5 years later, to fill the needs of many food insecure people in the local community.
Jon Kennedy the CEO of Rebuild Now Inc. has had experience with disaster case management but later embraced the fact that volunteers help immensely in the rebuild, but 100% volunteer effort is not sustainable. He started Rebuild Now Inc. to advocate for an organizing structure that helps organize volunteers but still have paid staff make sure that everyone is on the right page.
Michael Gorham, Manager of Strategic Partnerships at Team Rubicon talks about how debris removal, and landscape-scale work takes workforce development and organization. Team Rubicon mobilizes veterans to engage in post disaster volunteer projects to get the jobs done on the ground, allowing communities to recover more quickly.
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