Ongoing Response and Recovery After Helene
Since the first week after the storm, United Way of Henderson County has been on the ground rapidly organizing and mobilizing on a whole new level, bringing together mountains of supplies, volunteers from far and wide, decades of partnerships and collaborations, and a steady stream of funding to support local agencies on the front lines of recovery.
Since September 27, 2024 we've been working side-by-side with partners across the county and region to help rebuild our community. Our collective efforts are creating great results, and we are committed to serving our community through the long road to recovery.
CONNECTING to RESOURCES
- Vital resources have been listed on our Helene Resource page since the beginning
- 1,300+ Henderson County neighbors connected to resources through 2-1-1 or nc211.org within the first thirty days following the storm.
- Residents were helped one-on-one and provided with information and resources at the Disaster Recovery Center and the Disaster Recovery fairs held at 5 local libraries.
MOBILIZE and ORGANIZE
- Mobilizing enormous amounts of supplies into our community.
- Organizing and mobilizing local nonprofit partners and equipping them with the knowledge and information that they need to be effective community nonprofit resource representatives at our Henderson County Disaster Recovery Center and county-wide resource fairs.
COORDINATE VOLUNTEERS
- 1,500+ volunteers provided more than 6,600 hours of volunteer service to recovery.
CREATING HELENE EMERGENCY RESPONSE FUND
- Nearly $500,000 granted to Helene response and recovery to date.
LEADERSHIP and COLLABORATION
- Leadership to create the Henderson County Disaster Recovery Partnership, connecting over 50 organizations committed to recovery.
- Coordinating nonprofit inter-agency communication across Henderson County to establish essential communication channels, ensuring resources are getting where they need to be, identifying gaps in resources, and collaborating on next steps in our community response.
Our elevated commitment and expansive response in the aftermath of Helene demonstrates our steadfast ability to build upon seventy years of partnerships and respond to our communities’ greatest needs. We are also reminded daily just how essential it is that we continue our work to collaborate with and support our partners as we make progress towards solutions that address the systemic and compounding issues faced by our community.
Long Term Recovery and the Disaster Recovery Partnership
Our record of community engagement, accountability, and trust resulted in the Henderson County Long Term Recovery Steering Committee’s request for us to lead the creation of the newly formed Disaster Recovery Partnership (DRP) and serve as the Fiscal Sponsor for this collaborative work.
The mission of the Disaster Recovery Partnership is to unite and empower Henderson County communities in the face of disasters by promoting effective information sharing, simplifying access to critical resources for individuals and families, and collaboratively addressing unmet needs. Click here to learn more and participate.
Looking for recovery resources? Click here to access our community resource page.
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