As we near the two year anniversary of Hurricane Harvey, we can’t ignore the fact that families are continuing to recover and rebuild their lives from the devastation this storm wreaked -- and for many, the challenge is made more difficult due to a lack of accurate information available in the language they understand best.

By partnering with the Red Cross and local long-term recovery groups working on the ground in the Gulf Coast, we are helping to get legally-accurate, easy-to-understand information into the hands of those who need it most. We are midway through this project, through which we will produce four Disaster Recovery Guides translated into five languages to be distributed across Houston and Harris, Nueces, and Refugio counties. The Guides will cover four topic areas: flood insurance, renters’ rights, title clearing, and contractor fraud.

Recently, we formed a partnership that will broaden our reach even further. Thanks to a connection from our funder, we were able to begin work with another Red Cross grantee -- a group that believes that everyone should have equal access to information, communication and services that can impact their quality of life and their ability to be independent. No Barriers Communication, based in San Antonio, will translate our four written guides into videos accessible by American Sign Language.

The more people that have access to this important disaster recovery information, the better. We are so happy to work with No Barriers Communication to broaden our reach to include the hearing-impaired! Once the videos are complete, we will host them here on our website -- so please stay tuned for more from the Disaster Recovery Guides project.

Funding for this project provided by:

*Image Credit Lafayette, TN, February 8, 2008. George Armstrong/FEMA Photo Library*

Since Hurricane Harvey, we have been working alongside our partners and residents of communities affected by the storm. Building off our work to empower community members with the knowledge to drive the future of their communities through projects like the Land Use Colonia Housing Action (LUCHA) and the Disaster Recovery Leadership Development program in partnership with the Texas Organizing Project, [bc] will produce a series of graphic Disaster Recovery Guides to aid residents of Harris, Aransas, Refugio, and Nueces Counties in accessing disaster recovery resources to aid them and their families in their recovery, in conjunction with the disbursement of federal funding allocated to these four counties. This project is supported by a generous grant from the American Red Cross.

We look forward to providing further updates on our progress to engage diverse community members throughout this process and to sharing the Disaster Recovery Guides, which will be available in 5 languages, via our website.

To learn more about how you or your organization can get involved with this project, please contact us at inform@bcworkshop.org

Funding for this project provided by:

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