Church World Service partners gather in Cleveland to collaborate on disaster relief in changing political climate

Climate disasters like hurricanes, storms, and wildfires are taking place more frequently these days, and often with increased intensity.

Yet in a reality where the demand for disaster response resources is greater, more than 200 employees have been cut from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, which manages the federal response to disasters and emergencies.  

Within this context, the United Church of Christ hosted meetings of the Church World Service Emergency Preparedness Response and Recovery (EPRR) Covenant Partners on March 13-14.

Zach Wolgemuth, EPRR director for Church World Service, said that this meeting offered an opportunity to bring together some of the nation’s foremost experts on disaster recovery.

“We carved out time to look at challenges and opportunities with folks from similar faith backgrounds, bringing together a safe space with lots of dialogue,” Wolgemuth said. “There’s a lot of history with this group, and it’s very forward-thinking in looking at how to move forward in today’s political climate, recognizing the importance of working together and needing to lean on one another.”

The ecumenical group includes UCC Minister for Disaster Response and Recovery Katie Howe. Global HOPE Minister and Team Leader Andrew Long-Higgins also joined the Cleveland meetings, together with leaders from Mennonite Disaster Service, Episcopal Relief and Development, American Baptist Churches, United Methodist Committee on Relief, Lutheran Disaster Response, Brethren Disaster Ministries, Week of Compassion of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

‘We fill the gaps’

The group spent a significant portion of the meetings reviewing specific disaster relief and recovery situations, including the Southern California wildfires, hurricanes Helene and Milton, and the wildfires on Maui.

“We fill the gaps that we see in disaster response,” Howe said. “By having a meeting like this, we were able to talk about where those gaps might be. As we have conversations specific to certain disasters, we may not have a presence in all these communities, but some of our ecumenical partners do, so we can talk about how to respond better as a whole.”

Howe noted that the UCC also brings the expertise of conference disaster coordinators who have been doing the work in their regions – some for more than 20 years and some brand new.

“The benefit of conducting reviews of each of these situations in the CWS EPRR forum is that each denomination is able to share what they are hearing from their local churches and clergy,” Long-Higgins said. “These perspectives are then pulled together to develop a more complete understanding of the relief and recovery needs of the community, who has specific assets they can deploy in each situation, and where gaps exist that need creative and collective thinking.”

‘A lot of unknowns’

In one session of their meetings, the group considered what domestic recovery looks like in a world where FEMA is downsized or even eliminated altogether, which, Wolgemuth said, could cause impacts and ripple effects across these faith-based organizations and other nonprofits.

“There’s a lot of unknowns,” he said. “We looked at ways to be a voice in helping to inform the administration around the importance of different social safety nets and government grants that might impact disaster survivors.”

The EPRR covenant partners hold regular monthly calls and periodically meet in person. But this meeting, which was originally scheduled to be held in Houston, was initially cancelled due to lack of funds.

The Trump administration’s sweeping actions limiting access to federal reimbursements has severely limited CWS’s ability to maintain programs and serve vulnerable families who are in need of critical services. As a result, CWS has had to significantly reduce its operational capacity, place a significant amount of U.S.-based staff on furlough, and limit local service provision to the most urgent needs of clients. 

Noting the importance of the EPRR partners, the UCC Global HOPE team arranged for the UCC to sponsor these meetings in their Cleveland offices.

“For me, this is one of the most productive ecumenical meetings because it is focused on tangible and practical work: providing assistance to victims of disasters. Especially in the current operating environment where the amount of need far exceeds available resources, we have to come together to work collaboratively,” said Long-Higgins.

Wolgemuth said he is extremely grateful to the UCC for this support, space, and hospitality.

Productive collaboration

Howe noted that the EPRR partners recently attended the larger National Convening on Disaster Recovery, a National VOAD convening focused on long-term disaster recovery that took place Feb. 25-27. This offered broader high-level overviews that were important to engage with, Howe said, and it laid a strong foundation for last week’s EPRR meetings that allowed for more proactive conversations among the faith-based disaster organizations.

“At a time when so much of our work is hindered by an atmosphere of polarization, opportunities to engage in productive collaboration such as this are a helpful reminder that the work we do is not ours alone,” Long-Higgins said.

“The value in this group has been that collaboration,” Wolgemuth said. “There’s a level of trust among our organizations here – a level of candidness, love, trust, and support – that is extremely unique compared to other coalitions and networks. It allows for the efficiency of moving forward and getting to action items where we work on things jointly.”

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