South Dakota VOAD currently has the following committees
These committees are not tied to a particular disaster, but instead focus on their subject matter throughout the year to create guidance documents, best practices, and other resources for the VOAD membership and the general public. You can find some of those resources here.
Disaster Case Management is a time-limited process by which a disaster case manager partners with a disaster-affected individual or family to plan for and achieve realistic goals for recovery following a disaster. DCM program development, implementation and evaluation is focused on the activities and the best available evidence of effective services in these areas. DCM works with community partners and resources to minimize barriers that prevent individuals and families from accessing services.
The Disaster Case Management Committee provides a forum for SD VOAD organizations to collect and share information, review emerging trends and issues, and recommend adaptations. Develop, advocate, and promote DCM standards in support of SD VOAD’s mission and values; and to work collaboratively within the SD VOAD member and partner network to identify, assess, and foster solutions to overcome systemic barriers that prevent individuals and families from accessing disaster case management services and resources.
Committee Member Agencies:
Material donations are incredibly important after a disaster; however they can present significant challenges to the community. In some instances, the immediate onslaught of unsolicited material donations cause difficulties for communities to process, store, and utilize the donations, which reduces a community’s ability to effectively respond to those in need. Donations Management can help a community capture the full value of donor’s charity.
The Donations Management Committee provides subject matter expertise primarily focused on issues related to unsolicited donations of products, services, and money, but encourages development of relationships between SD VOAD members and donors. The committee promotes best practices and engagement of SD VOAD membership with federal, state, local and tribal government, the private sector and the public to maximize the goodwill of donors through planning, education, training, and exercising during all phases of the disaster cycle.
Committee Member Agencies:
Emotional & spiritual care is a process through with individuals, families and communities impacted by disaster draw upon their rich tradition of faith, hope, community, and meaning as a form of strength that supports the recovery process. Spiritual care includes anything that assists an individual, family or community in drawing upon their own spiritual perspective as a source of strength, hope and healing. Emotional care offers an opportunity where one can express their emotions without judgment.
The Emotional and Spiritual Care Committee’s mission is to foster emotional and spiritual care to people affected by disaster in cooperation with national, state and local response organizations and VOADs. The committee does this by embracing the unique contribution of various mental health disciplines and faith based groups; identifying specific issues of emotional and spiritual needs as a significant component of disaster response; educating state, local and non-affiliated partners about emotional and spiritual needs in disasters; and promoting best practices, standards and models to provide effective emotional and spiritual care.
Committee Member Agencies:
Recovery is the period following a disaster whereby things return to a new normal. The purpose of a long term recovery is to provide the infrastructure and platform to identify and address the long term needs that are left after the initial response to a disaster. Many communities develop a Long Term Recovery Group to help to affected individuals and families in a holistic, integrated process that brings needed resources to the most vulnerable.
The Long Term Recovery Committee is charged with reviewing issues related to Long Term Recovery Group formation and support.
Committee Member Agencies:
The term mass care refers to a wide range of humanitarian activities that provide life-sustaining support to individuals and families who are temporarily displaced or otherwise impacted by a disaster or emergency that disrupts their ability to provide for their basic needs. Mass care services begin as soon as a disaster is imminent or occurs and continues through the recovery phase.
The Mass Care Committee’s purpose is to pursue avenues for action and planning among partners to speed the provision of shelter, feeding, bulk distribution of relief supplies and related services to those affected by disaster, reduce the duplication of efforts so that the greatest use can be made of limited resources during crisis, and establish a united voice for advocacy in working with our public institutions, including emergency management, to prepare communities for the disasters they will face in the future.
Committee Member Agencies:
Nine federally recognized Tribes share geography with South Dakota – more than any other state. South Dakota currently has the third highest percentage of Native Americans of any state, with 5 counties remaining wholly within Indian reservations. Understanding and working with tribal communities is incredibly important when assisting our Native American neighbors after a disaster. Effective relationships with tribes are necessary to support tribal communities to be prepared before an emergency and recover after disaster strikes.
The mission of the Tribal Relations Committee is to enhance relationships with tribal communities to aide in capacity building; support tribal communities in their efforts to build more resilient and better prepared communities and to provide culturally competent services to effectively assist in recovery.
Committee Member Agencies:
In times of disaster, people are drawn to help their neighbors physically, spiritually, and emotionally. Volunteers are needed to help disaster-impacted individuals, families and communities recover. Volunteers can provide unskilled labor, like mucking out a flooded home or cleaning up after a tornado, as well as skilled labor, like electrical or plumbing work, to repair homes. Volunteers’ skills are best utilized and are most effective when they volunteer as part of an established organization trained in disaster response activities.
The Volunteer Management Committee provides critical resources, training, and technical guidance to more effectively manage disaster volunteers.
Committee Member Agencies: