Lutheran Disaster Response

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Lutheran Social Services of New England responded with a wide range of services using our established refugee resettlement models and networks. LSS successfully resettled 97 Katrina evacuee cases in Connecticut and 24 in Massachusetts with comprehensive social services.

The success of the effort was due in large part to the generous response of Lutheran congregations in New England that donated $30,000 in financial support. Additionally, churches provided substantial in-kind goods including housing and automobiles through the Good News Garage.

The Katrina relief effort established LSS as a fully qualified and visible disaster response agency in New England . Consequently, LDR (Lutheran Disaster Response, the church-wide agency) granted $74,000 to LSS to begin operating a program specifically organized for disaster response. Formalized and activated, the new LSS program – now called LDR-New England (LDR-NE) – became an active leader in the response to the New England floods of May 2006.

In addition to flood relief, LDR-NE has trained and supervised volunteer case managers to provide assistance to survivors of disaster and has established this Web page where victims of disaster may apply for aid and where churches and individuals may volunteer their services and make donations. To make a donation click on Donate to Disaster Response.

LDR-NE has become an important member of the Voluntary Organizations Assisting in Disaster (VOAD) in Massachusetts and is preparing to be involved with local VOADs in each of the New England states. The VOADs work cooperatively with both state and federal emergency management agencies, such as FEMA, in assisting survivors of disaster with a variety of case management support.

There are LDR-NE representatives in the six New England states. Currently, they are located in Portland, ME; Concord, NH; Amherst, MA; Wellesley, MA; Hartford, CT; and Cranston, RI . The LDR-NE central office is in Wellesley, Massachusetts.