Disaster relief comes in many shapes and sizes. From item donations to fundraising, there are countless ways to contribute to the aid of others. The American Red Cross has taken a boots-on-the-ground approach when assisting communities facing disasters throughout the country, but in Hays County those boots are firmly planted.
Hays is one of 19 counties in America that have an active Red Cross Community Adaptation Program. This program is a collaboration with community nonprofits that works with local groups to extend the nonprofit’s community reach and fortify its ability to continue providing essential services during times of local disasters.
“The foundation of the program is to help prevent displacement due to disasters by coming into communities earlier in the disaster cycle,” Community Disaster Risk Reduction Coordinator Alyssa Ramirez said.
“Over the past ten years the amount of billion-dollar disasters [in the United States] has doubled. [The Red Cross] used to deploy once every three months and now we’re deploying about once every ten days.”
This upward trend in disasters motivated the Red Cross to look into ways they could help communities become more resilient in times before a disaster. Thus the Community Action Program, or CAP was born. Functioning for just over three years, the program has expanded to 19 counties, with current Texas locations in Hays and Cameron counties.
Each CAP team consists of a manager and two coordinators dedicated to expanding the reach of the program in their county.
“We support hyper local, nonprofit organizations that are working in the housing, hunger and health space,” Ramirez said. The Red Cross and local nonprofits form a partnership.
“We walk hand-in-hand together to figure out what are the best resources that our program can provide,” Ramirez said. The Red Cross helps meet the needs of local nonprofits, and during times of disaster, those nonprofits commit to offering aid and help in partnership with the Red Cross.
In Hays county CAP has partnered with organizations such as the H.O.M.E. Center, whose goal is to break the cycle of homelessness in Hays county, especially for the veteran and elderly populations. CAP was able to donate an ADA-accessible van to the organization to transport clients to doctor’s appointments and to aid in client moves and the transportation of donations.
CAP was also able to connect the H.O.M.E. Center team with another nonprofit, PromoSalud, a community certification institution for health workers. Three members of the H.O.M.E. Center’s team were able to utilize the program to become state-certified health workers to better assist their clients. The H.O.M.E. Center team was able to use this training as well as their new van to assist the Red Cross in disaster relief in Burnet County after the July 4 floods.
“The Community Adaptation Program was created to start changing the culture of the American Red Cross in general, changing that culture from transactional to transformational,” Ramirez said. It’s really being rooted in community, being community- focused and community- centric.”
Hunger, housing and health are the main focus of the CAP program. Another nonprofit partnering with the CAP program is Contigo Wellness, who provide access to mental wellness and healing for people of color and historically oppressed communities. CAP also partners with the Hays County Food Bank by providing a walk-in freezer, signage and scales for their new facility.
The nonprofit Mission Able works with CAP to provide repairs and home maintenance for families in need. CAP was able to donate a dumpster trailer to Mission Able as well as a tool trailer. McCoy’s Building Supply donated the tools needed to fill the trailer.
CAP has also partnered with Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos, donating laptops and garden tools to enhance the school’s programs.
The CAP program continues to foster their relationships with local nonprofits and are open to partnering with more nonprofits throughout Hays county. For more information about the program reach out to Alyssa Ramirez at [email protected].
