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It started after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.

Catholic Charities' regional office, overwhelmed by the scope of the disaster, put out a call for help from fellow Catholic Charities agencies. Catholic Charities of the Albany Diocese sent a child psychologist to Oklahoma to do case management for three months.

Then, when the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, left New York City in desperate need of disaster case managers, Albany diocesan Catholic Charities sent 275 people there.

And in 2005, said marketing and communications director Paul McAvoy, "we sent 40 people, several at a time, in three-week 'shifts' to Baton Rouge to help with Hurricane Katrina recovery."

Local needs aren't forgotten: After Hurricanes Irene and Lee hit the Diocese in 2011, 22 Catholic Charities case managers spent several years helping residents with long-term disaster recovery.

"I'd say we're one of the top in the country as far as being willing and able to send people for these kinds of things," Mr. McAvoy told The Evangelist. "What's really interesting is that last couple of years, [those] who are volunteering and going on these trips are not disaster relief [case managers]. It's a way for people who are working in a different area of Catholic Charities to see a kind of work that they don't normally see."

Off to Texas
That's the case for social worker Rebecca Collins. Last week, she left for a two-week stint in the Diocese of Houston, Tx., to help Catholic Charities there assist flood victims. April flooding left more than 1,000 homes in that diocese swamped. It was the third time the Houston Diocese had been flooded this year.

"We are working with individuals who have already been established with Catholic Charities," Ms. Collins said. "We are trying to provide them with resources."

That includes finding temporary housing -- especially for those who have been staying in hotels, whose funds are starting to run low -- connecting people to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and helping document damage and losses. Houston Catholic Charities has teamed up with Jewish Family Services, the United Methodist Group and other community partners.

Home work
This is very different than Ms. Collins' work in Albany with Catholic Charities' Disabilities Services agency. As a community support supervisor, the 24-year-old oversees community-based services for people with developmental disabilities.

"I'm also a home behavior specialist. That means I meet with individuals with developmental disabilities," she explained. "I create assessments and I figure out their triggers. This helps the individuals and the families." She also just earned a master's degree in social work.

In Houston, Ms. Collins has often been working 12-hour days. Catholic Charities had planned to have her work with the elderly, immigrants and refugees, and persons with disabilities.

"I've learned a lot, and very quickly," she told The Evangelist.

"We have a task and we go until we say we need to step away. On the first day, we went out and did some canvassing. We stopped at people's houses and asked [how] they were doing with their repairs."

Some of her new skills will be helpful when she comes back to the Albany Diocese. She's gaining a better understanding of how to be a proper advocate and a role model for clients.

Better advocate
"We are encouraging people to advocate for themselves," she said, and many people who have developmental disabilities would benefit from learning those self-advocacy skills: "That's huge."

"We are so grateful to Rebecca for stepping up to the plate and doing this," said Mary Olsen, director of Albany Catholic Charities' Disaster Response and Recovery office. "Her positive attitude and willingness to help is perfect, because that's the kind of volunteer we'd like to send -- someone without preconceived notions who wants to help."

While Ms. Collins is in Texas, her coworkers here are splitting up her duties so everyone gets the services they need. "We pull together," Mr. McAvoy said.

Meanwhile, Ms. Collins is drawing attention to the fact that, although the floodwaters have subsided, damaged homes are still a huge problem for the area.

"We are making sure they have touched base with FEMA," she said of affected residents, noting how thankful the people have been: "People say 'sir' and 'ma'am.' People are very respectful. I'm referred to as 'Miss Rebecca' most of the time. Everyone has been very hospitable, very welcoming and very friendly."

This weekend, Ms. Collins will head home to the Albany Diocese. But that may not be the end of Catholic Charities' help for Houston: "The Diocese of Albany has a national reputation for sending people to help when there is a large-scale disaster," said Mr. McAvoy, "and we also have a reputation for being very generous with the donated money that parishes collect and we send to help in a disaster's aftermath."[[In-content Ad]]

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