LIRS Receives $14,829 Grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation

Grant Supports Creation of Disaster Preparedness Manual to Meet Needs of Vulnerable Migrant Children, Families  

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) is proud to announce it has received a $14,829 grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation to help pay for the creation of Disaster Preparedness in Migrant Communities: A Manual for First Responders, a unique resource to help communities integrate migrants into their planning and response to disasters.

"We're extremely grateful to the Annie E. Casey Foundation for this generous grant," said LIRS President and CEO Linda Hartke. "Disaster Preparedness in Migrant Communities: A Manual for First Responders will educate, empower, and equip first responders to see migrants as part of their disaster response, understand the specific vulnerabilities faced by migrant communities during a disaster, work alongside the ethnic community to mitigate disaster risk, and appropriately deal with crisis when it occurs."

The Casey Foundation grant will off-set costs related to writing and editing Disaster Preparedness in Migrant Communities: A Manual for First Responders, and pay for its design, production, and distribution. Both the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod (LCMS) made grants to LIRS that supported research, data collection, analysis, and creation and distribution of the manual. To obtain a copy of the manualwhen it is released, please email [email protected].

"We're very thankful to the ELCA and LCMS for supporting our work on Disaster Preparedness in Migrant Communities: A Manual for First Responders," said LIRS Director for Children's Services Kimberly Haynes, MSW. "We plan to release the manual in December 2012, following an intensive review process by our community partners and allies."

Disaster Preparedness in Migrant Communities: A Manual for First Responders will share a unique collection of resources based on LIRS's decades of work with immigrants and refugees. Features include:

• Observations about the unique characteristics of newcomers in American communities, and how those relate to their ability to cope with disaster
• Questions for reflection on how communities can best build ties with newcomer community leaders and plan for their inclusion in disaster planning
• Recommendations for actions that position planners and first responder teams to lead the entire community – newcomers included – to a safe outcome
• Tools to round out planning for all stages of coping with disasters, gleaned from expert sources

The Annie E. Casey Foundation, headquartered in Baltimore, Md., creates better futures for the nation's children by strengthening families, building paths to economic opportunity and transforming struggling communities into safer and healthier places to live, work, and grow.

LIRS is nationally recognized for its leadership advocating on behalf of refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, immigrants in detention, families fractured by migration and other vulnerable populations, and for providing services to migrants through over 60 grassroots legal and social service partners across the United States.

Press Contact: Jon Pattee
202-591-5778, [email protected]

SOURCE Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service