Rebuilding Families Fund addresses long-term needs of flood victims

To help address the needs of families whose homes and lives have been upended by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee, The Schenectady Foundation established the Schenectady County Rebuilding Families Fund with a seed grant of $150,000. The Fund will support the work of a coalition of community organizations that are working to assist county residents most severely affected by flooding and damage.

“Now that the immediate response of help has subsided, many families are left facing a long period of recovery,” said Robert Carreau, executive director of The Schenectady Foundation. “With colder weather approaching, we need to hasten our efforts to ensure that people are safe, warm and nourished. The Rebuilding Families Fund will help the coalition conduct outreach to affected households and provide needed assistance.”

“We are working together to identify what families need,” said Debra Schimpf, executive director of Schenectady Community Action Program. “Our first concern is that people have their basic needs met for the winter months.  Wherever we can we will dispatch volunteers, donated materials and financial resources to assist people to finish needed repairs on their homes that cannot be covered by FEMA, insurance or their own resources.”

In addition to helping meet families’ basic needs, the coalition will help provide families with counseling and social supports over time.  The network leadership includes representatives of:

*American Red Cross
*Catholic Charities
*City Mission of Schenectady
*Cornell Cooperative Extension
*Habitat for Humanity
*Schenectady Community Action Program (SCAP)
*The Schenectady Foundation and
*United Way of the Greater Capital Region.  

Other partner organizations providing support and volunteers include Better Neighborhoods, Mohawk Opportunities, Northeast Parent & Child Society, Parsons Child and Family Center, Samaritan Counseling Center and the New York State Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers.  Municipalities, congregations and organizations such the Rotterdam Junction and Pattersonville Fire Departments are also providing support. The coalition will continue to reach out to other agencies for assistance as specific needs are identified.  

The coalition is focusing its efforts on the homes and neighborhoods most severely affected by the storms. The group’s work began by conducting a survey of households in Rotterdam Junction and Pattersonville to determine the status of their recovery and identify unmet needs.  The group has also conducted outreach in Scotia, Glenville and Duanesburg, and will soon assess how it can help in the Stockade district.

Coalition partners will submit requests to the Fund for appropriate resources needed for each family they are working with, whether for home repair, furnishings, clothing, counseling or other supports.  

“We are all doing our best to help with limited resources,” said Carreau. “We cannot promise to be able to provide everything a family may need, but we are committed to leveraging every available community resource to assist them.  We also want our community to know that while the immediacy of the storms are weeks behind us, the needs of our community members are still very much there.”

Community residents needing assistance may contact Schenectady Community Action Program at 374-9181 or Catholic Charities at 372-5667 during regular business hours.

Contributions may be made online via Paypal:

Or, sent to the Schenectady County Rebuilding Families Fund, care of:
The Schenectady Foundation
376 Broadway
2nd Floor, Schenectady NY  12305.

Contributions are tax-deductible, and 100% of all donations to the Fund will be used for the recovery program.