Organizing Help During Times of Crisis
Imagine leading a growing church that’s just starting to hit 1,000 in attendance when you decide to make the transition to Fellowship One. Normally this story continues with images of training key staff and volunteers as well as developing new processes for contacting visitors and assimilating members. Daystar Family Church in Northport, Alabama wishes that was their story. Instead, just three weeks after implementing Fellowship One they were faced with helping to organize a tornado relief effort for the entire community that included: working with FEMA, creating a shelter and distribution center and providing aid through boots-on-the-ground and supplies … all through Fellowship One. Here’s how they did it!
Volunteer Relief Coordination
The church began using Fellowship One on April 5, 2011 and on April 27th, devastating tornadoes ripped through their community. “We were just starting to use the software when we were placed on the front lines of relief and volunteer coordination,” explains Stacey Bryant, the Fellowship One Champion for the church. “We had volunteers showing up wanting to help, so we coordinated with FEMA.” FEMA required volunteers to sign release forms to begin helping and since the church now utilized Fellowship One, Stacey just added the release form to the volunteer’s contact information and created teams of volunteers. Paperwork was not going to stand in the way of helping people at Daystar Family Church.
Shelter and Distribution Center
The local hospital was also coordinating with FEMA and asked the church to set up a shelter, which they did in their youth facility. The same center also became a relief supply distribution hub, so the church again turned to Fellowship One to keep track of the stream of volunteers and families in need.
As needs increased, so did the supplies, even from unexpected places. “We found out a lady in Florida had created a baby registry for our church relief effort and soon after we began receiving hundreds of diapers, bottles and baby wipes for children,” recalled Bryant. The church, now organized around the relief effort, capitalized on the swell of volunteers to help meet the needs of families with children.
Blessing Families
“We coordinated over 340 volunteers, helped an average of 32 families per day for two months and were able to shelter, feed or help 600 families,” said Bryant. Seeing that there was also a great financial need for so many families, the church launched Fellowship One contributions on their website and set up a relief fund for donations. In mid-May at a benefit concert, the church pastor was able to use the donated funds – over $40,000 – to provide relief checks to families.
“It was a divine appointment to get connected and started with Fellowship One when we did,” said Bryant. “There’s no way our previous system could have helped us coordinate so much during and after the disaster.”
It is our prayer and hope that Daystar Family Church and other churches that use Fellowship One will continue to find creative ways to help support and encourage their communities in times of crisis.
acoppedgeF1 Staff
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Comments (3)
What a Blessing! Praise the Lord.
Great testimony! Thanks for sharing the story and highlighting how the church was able to leverage F1 to help organize the effort.
What a blessing. It is so nice to see everyone come together in a crisis. I'm sure that there were many people that wouldn't have known where to go or what to do in a crisis like this. It is so amazing that there was so much money raised to help the families. Often times people are unprepared financially for tragedies like this and have to borrow money from family or take out a cash advance loan. I'm sure that the money raised either prevented them from having to do this, or delayed it. I think it is a great idea for Fellowship One to continue to help other communities in a time of crisis.