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All the forms required for volunteering at Katrina Relief can be found at: Volunteer Forms Download

Kathleen Johnson I hope, as a volunteer, that you find this site helpful for your work here in Hancock County. I have been working here, in Mississippi, since the onset of the storm. Initially, the work was "online" as a virtual volunteer, and very soon thereafter I headed to Waveland for my first stint as a volunteer and returned shortly thereafter as a full-time volunteer. I work as the Director for Katrina Relief and Director of Operations at the Waveland Citizens Fund - overseeing Grants, Case Management, Construction Coordination, assessments, and recruiting volunteers, and writing grants. If you would like to volunteer in Hancock County or need assistance with your home re-construction project - please feel free to contact me at anytime. Contact Information

Join me on FaceBook     after you get signed up for a volunteer trip and post your news and pics for everyone's benefit. We need to tell the story of this unfinished recovery.

New Interactive Map To Add Your Work Request! This map will be used by the volunteers to aid them in visualizing where the work is that has been assigned to them, for the volunteer coordinators to assess density of work in certain areas, and as a visual aid for directions. We have just implemented this project and we invite you to add your Work Request. The interactive map will send us an email once you add your Work Request. We also ask you use the number below to call us and give us your name and phone number so we can enter that information privately on the Work Order in the office. We are also able to input data and export data from this map, show the map as a list, and other features that we will be utilizing to make the field work more effective. Taking Work Order Requests for volunteer assistance at your home. Call in your request to: (228) 466-4630. We need to know if you have materials on-site. If not - we will work with you to obtain materials. Click on link to access interactive map

	Recycling Left Over Construction Supplies There are approximately 12,000 damaged homes in Hancock County - if after the construction was complete on 30% of those homes they found they had a left over 2x4 and they donated that piece of lumber to a volunteer construction camp - we would have 3,600 2x4's to build approximately fourteen more homes. If you have any left over building supplies - sheetrock, lumber, shingles, plumbing and electrical supplies, paint, paint brushes, rollers, nails, screws - we desperately need those and any other construction items to help others build their homes. Call us at: (228) 466-4630 I came across this fabulous journal from one of the team members from the New Hampshire crew: http://whereyat.wordpress.com/  This gives a good rendition of a Katrina Relief volunteer trip and the learning curve the volunteers go through. Excellent very short video of Katrina in the aftermath in 2007
We do not follow the mantra of affordable housing - we believe in the policy of Inclusive economic renewal ! We desperately need volunteers to help us rebuild Mississippi
Lets Finish The Job! We have ten new houses going up at this time, all the pilings are in, banding boards on, decks on - we need skilled crews to come on down and help us to get these homes built. We need carpenters, plumbers, electricians, roofers, tape, mud and texture whiz kids, skilled flooring volunteers. If you have one day, one week, one month - you can make a difference! Housing: Bunk beds, shower trailers, and the best cook this side of the black stump!		Funding and Supplies ! Damaged/Destroyed homes in Hancock County = 12,000 The funding for rebuilding is still urgently needed. The overhead costs at the office are electricity, telephone, office supplies, gasoline, and replacement tools. We can not finish this job without your assistance. We have a registered 501 (c ) 3 to accept those funds. Please contact us for details. Yes, you can designate, specifically, what you want those funds spent on.

In hushed whispers, a gentle smile, to dream once more......10/9/07 Kathleen Johnson is a long term full time volunteer who has been working in Waveland, Hancock County, Mississippi, since just after the onset of the storm. She currently operates her own disaster relief agency serving a growing list of 1500 clients. Her fiscal arm is the Waveland Citizens Fund - a registered 501 (c) 3. Website: http://www.reliefvolunteers.com It has been a very long two years - plus. From my arrival when the debris fields were still flung across the roads, railroad tracks and piled higher than two story houses - we have made some progress since Katrina. The streets are now cleared, the debris, for the most part, has been removed. Yes, if you look in the weeds you will find remnants of the storm, and some of the trees still house debris 15-40 feet off the ground where no volunteer can reach. There you will see, from time to time, wind shredded draperies, blankets, and clothing - now weather worn and tattered from exposure to the harsh sun driven elements the past 24 plus months. The business district has the appearance of thriving. But as Trish Williams, from the Hancock Chamber, reported at Congressman Taylors Town Meeting not too long ago - the business district is struggling. The population is not back up to full strength, there is little expendable income above and beyond the rebuilding of the homes for customers to spend any money on anything but essentials, and the tourist industry all but died with the storm. There is no available affordable housing. The renters are in limbo with no where to go. There is not Phase III as promised for them. Rent varies from $700 for a one bedroom to $1500 for a small house. No one working at a convenience store for even the elevated Katrina wages can afford that along with gas, water, electricity and sewage costs. They cant afford to stay - they cant afford to leave. There are 46,000 people in the county. About 20 active Case Managers - most of them volunteers. The process for grants is tedious and political - the wait is long for the money.It is even a longer wait to find a Case Manager with an opening. Even longer wait for volunteers to come and complete the work. The volunteer pool is dwindling - there is no national marketing plan for volunteers. It is up to the individual church groups to solicit volunteers. There is no funding for the volunteer camps. The volunteers have to cover their own costs. FEMA trailers are being replaced by Katrina Cottages. Waveland has waved a green flag and is welcoming the Katrina Cottages but only if the owners have a permit to rebuild - obviously a "renter" has no permit to "rebuild". I was at the Bay St. Louis Alderman meeting tonight and about a dozen people were on the agenda begging for the right to put in a Katrina Cottage. And so it goes for peoples lives down here - they are tattered and worn from two years of struggling to rebuild their homes and their lives. Nothing is "normal" here - everything is a struggle. There are lines for "everything". Some of the business district is back - some have not returned. Its a 100 mile round trip to Gulfport if you can not find the part you need to repair what ever it is you are repairing today, and another 100 mile round trip tomorrow if you run short of another part. The residents struggle with reams of paperwork for a grant process that is overwhelming and complicated. Those with limited schooling find it impossible. Many still have not applied as they have totally slipped between the cracks. There is a plan to hang door hangers in the very near future. But for those that can not read and are too proud to ask - even that is problematic. People are angry. You see it at the council meetings where hissing and booing has become an acceptable form of protest and reported in the paper as the highlight of the weekly news; you see it in the road rage on the streets; you hear it on the phone in the DRO offices every day; you see it in the the tears of frustrated clients sitting in front of your desk everyday; the police officers report it from the field; you see it in the still unkempt yards where people have given up and do not mow anymore. I, as a Case Manger, hear it when another suicide is reported - never in the paper. It's always in hushed whispers and a call from a family member. There are some signs of normalcy. Wavefest was back in full force this year. Cruisin the Coast was extremely successful. The yacht club is thriving - the regattas go on on the weekends for those that can afford a yacht or the yacht club fees. The Casino that border on each end of Beach Blvd in Hancock County are thriving. The fishing pier near the Silver Slipper was packed full last Saturday night with people crabbing and fishing - that is a first since before the storm. I was in Walmart two days ago and stopped and watched the patrons walking down the main large center isle between the cash registers and the merchandise. For the first time I noticed that were people smiling. One family was horse playing in the isle. It sort of stopped me in my tracks as it had been a long time since I had seen that light hearted behavior. People have been so "serious" for so long that you take that behavior for the norm rather than the exception. And from the residents I hear of the paradise of the summer before the storm. Of the kids playing on the beach, the shaded streets overhung with big old oaks, the quaint little shops on Coleman Ave, the cute historic down town district in Bay St. Louis, beaches with piers and frolicking tourists who have come to use their summer cottages in paradise. It is paradise no more - but a place struggling to stay abreast. It is akin to someone dog paddling. Above the water it all seems so serene - but underneath the feet are going a mile a minute in order to keep the body upright and afloat. It will be paradise again - these people are strong and resilient. They do need your help still. They need your moral support, your understanding, your empathy, your assistance to come work beside them to reconstruct homes, your shoulder to cry on from time to time. It will be paradise again - the oak tree will stand proud once more reaching out across the streets as if to protect and to hold.

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