For the following two weeks, beginning on 9/12/11, DCS chaplains joined American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health volunteers in providing support to visitors at the National 9-11 Memorial.  Chaplains spoke with hundreds of people who came to the memorial.  Some visitors had worked in the towers or were from the neighborhood, and for many, this was their first time back in the area in ten years.  Other visitors had family, friends or co-workers who died at the site.  Some had no personal connection to the loss but felt called to come and pay their respects.

A chaplain provided this comment regarding her contact with one visitor to the National 9-11 Memorial: “I spoke with a man in his 30s who survived the North Tower attack, only to enlist in the war.  He went to Iraq.  He was upset and needed to talk.  His pain was palpable, but he said he felt better after we talked and I realized once again how very important it is for many people to just tell their story to someone other than family or friends.”

DCS chaplains were onsite at the World Trade Center site 24 hours per day, 7 days per week beginning on September 12, 2001, and continued this around-the-clock coverage throughout the nine month recovery period.  Our chaplains have been on site at every 9/11 Commemoration event since 2002.

Jay is responsible for the day-to-day operations of DCS to achieve the goals and further the mission of the organization:  to assure skilled and appropriate interdisciplinary spiritual care for all people affected by emergencies, crises, and disasters throughout the tri-state area.

Jay brings to DCS more than eight years of experience in non-profit management from his previous post as founder and Director of Get Your Guts in Gear, Inc.  Prior to founding GYGIG, Jay spent six years working as a litigation attorney in New York City.

Jay is experienced in program development as well as fundraising, logistics planning, and administering a non-profit organization in partnership with a volunteer Board of Directors.  He also has demonstrated ability to initiate and foster partnerships and alliances with other non-profit agencies, corporate partners, and stakeholders.  Jay will be working closely with Julie as he gets to know DCS, its partners, volunteers, and leadership.

Jay received his J.D. from Pace University School of Law in 1997 and plans on pursuing theological studies in the coming years.

Prerequisites: ICISF’s Group Crisis Intervention.
Suggested but not required:Peer/Individual Crisis Intervention, Pastoral Crisis Intervention.
Dates: November 4-5, 2011
Time: 8:30am-5pm each day.
Full participation both days is required.
Location: St. Joseph Renewal Center, 1725 Brentwood Road, Brentwood, NY
Cost: $250, lunch each day is included, plus an additional $30 materials fee
To register contact Sr. Josephine Daspro, 631-273-1187 x.43 or x.23

Are you concerned about the health and mental health effects of your 9/11-related work?  Do you wonder if there might be changes in your health you might not be aware of?  To help you find out, free and confidential monitoring exams are available through the World Trade Center Health Program (WTC Health Program).

The World Trade Center Health Program (formerly known as the WTC Medical Monitoring & Treatment Program and as the Mt. Sinai Program) provides medical monitoring and treatment benefits to eligible emergency responders and recovery and cleanup workers, volunteers-including chaplains–, residents,  building occupants and area workers in New York City who were directly impacted and adversely affected by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.  In addition to medical monitoring free and confidential medical and mental health treatment and services are available.

If you are a chaplain who worked on-site at any point during the 9/11 response and recovery, you may be eligible for these services.  Disaster Chaplaincy Services is encouraging ALL chaplains who worked on-site to fill out an application and enroll in the WTC Health Program.

Please contact the WTC Health Program for initial enrollment at 888-982-4748. For previously enrolled responders needing appointments, or for further assistance call 888-702-0630.

Information is also available at the following websites:

cdc.gov/niosh/topics/wtc (new enrollees)

wtcexams.org. (existing patients)

You showed up to take care of others, now show up for yourself.

Donate now to support the ongoing work of Disaster Chaplaincy Services.

ALMOST 10 YEARS HAVE PASSED: HEALING, HOPE, CHALLENGE & RESILIENCE

An Interfaith Discussion, with Reflection & Refreshments

Hosted By:

The Episcopal Parish of Trinity Church &
St. Paul’s Chapel
August 4, 2011 – 6:00 PM
74 Trinity Place in the Parlour Room

Come Share:

What Memories of your Efforts? What Worked well and what not so well? What impact did interfaith chaplaincy efforts have on your own perspective? What are the ongoing unmet spiritual care needs in our community?

Where are we all now in our work as caregivers? Are we still a community?

With the ten year anniversary coming how are we feeling?

And more…

Co-Sponsored by:

Disaster Chaplaincy Services ● Interfaith Center of New York
Jewish Board of Family & Children’s Services
Muslim Progressive-Traditionalist Alliance
National Disaster Interfaiths Network ● New York Disaster Interfaith Services

To give a sense of attendance, please RSVP to:

Leila Miriam Raimi
dimahh@gmail.com or 347-301-6175

With thanks to the New York Council for the Humanities

People seeking information about passengers aboard the bus should contact 311 or 212-NEWYORK for more information.

Winter has very much dug in here in the NorthEast, with many of us constantly digging ourselves out!  But there are some bright spots to look forward to.  Multiple training opportunities are be offered on a variety of topics and locations over the next few months that you may be interested in.

One course is coming up very soon, the first weekend in February titled, From Trauma to Addictions. This is an excellent course on what can come in the aftermath of crisis.  Peter Volkmann, MSW is the presenter of this course, and also on the advisory committee to the DCS board of directors.

The Manhattan Campus of the VA Harbor Healthcare System is offering several workshops this winter and spring.  Palliative Care and the Veteran Culture in the United States are the next opportunities for learning and networking.

If you are a current volunteer with DCS you are required to take a FEMA online course.  Please take a few minutes to read this article.

As always, thank you for supporting the work of Disaster Chaplaincy Services.   Please consider donating to DCS so that this important mission can continue to thrive. Click here to donate now.

ATTENTION ALL DCS VOLUNTEERS!
FEMA TRAINING IS A REQUIREMENT FOR SERVICE
All DCS volunteers are required to take the course IS-100.b Introduction to Incident Command System (formerly titled ICS-100).  This is a free course that can be found online at FEMA’s online training website.  Click here to be connected to the training portal.  This course is free and will likely take an hour or two to complete.

IS 100.b, Introduction to the Incident Command System, introduces the Incident Command System (ICS) and provides the foundation for higher level ICS training. This course describes the history, features and principles, and organizational structure of the Incident Command System. It also explains the relationship between ICS and the National Incident Management System (NIMS).

The primary audience for this course is persons involved with emergency planning, response or recovery efforts.  This course is NIMS compliant and meets the NIMS Baseline Training requirements for I-100.
All DCS volunteers are required to take this course.  Please complete the course online and send a copy of your certificate to Julie Taylor, jtaylor@dcs-ny.org or mail it to Disaster Chaplaincy Services, P.O. Box 7373, New York, NY  10116.  This certificate must be on file at the DCS office by June 30, 2011 in order for you to remain an active volunteer.

Note: IS-100.b is an updated version of the IS-100.a course. If you have successfully completed IS-100 or IS-100.a, you may want to review the new version of the course. For credentialing purposes, the courses are equivalent.  If you have completed this course you must send a copy of your certificate to the DCS office by June 30, 2011 to remain an active volunteer.

A training combining Pastoral Crisis Intervention 1 & 2 is being offered by the Western New York Stress Reduction Program near Buffalo at the beginning of March.

This workshop teaches immediately applicable skills in crisis intervention that enhance and compliment skills learned in CPE and other training venues.  The multi-phase, multi-tactic process known as Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) has become the standard of care utilized by agencies and communities across the U.S. and around the world when assistance is needed after a crisis.

The curriculum is internationally recognized and each class is backed with continuing education credits through the University of Maryland Baltimore County, all courses offered by ICISF meet partial requirements for individuals seeking certification from the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists (ATSS).

Pastoral Crisis Intervention 1 & 2
Near Buffalo, New York

Please do not register if you cannot commit to attending all 3 days in their entirety.  Registration is limited and certificates of completion will be given only to those who have completed the training in its entirety.

As 2010 comes to a close, we bring you our year in review. Disaster Chaplaincy Services is a unique organization bringing a unique service to the New York Metropolitan area. Thanks to the support of people like you, we are able to assure rapid and compassionate spiritual care to those affected by emergencies, crises and disasters.

Help DCS move into 2011, ready for any challenge and deployment by making a tax-deductible, year-end gift today.

Peace and blessings to you for this new year,
Rev. Julie Taylor

For the first time in our history, DCS received a grant from the NYC City Council. Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Coulcilmember Eric Ulrich were instrumental in securing this funding for DCS. Through this generous grant DCS was able to offer three crisis intervention trainings to clergy and community faith leaders. 74 faith leaders from 14 faith traditions received certificates of completion. We were able to hold the courses at at African Methodist Episcopal church, an Islamic mosque, and a Unitarian Universalist church. These were truly multi-faith events that brought the religious communities of New York together to train for the difficult task of taking care of those affected by disaster, crisis, and emergencies.

This past year DCS was also able to finalize and agreement with Bergen County, NJ, to create our first affiliate, Disaster Chaplaincy Services-Bergen County. This has been a tremendous undertaking and we hope to hold the first trainings in Bergetn County early in 2011. The DCS model is not only useful, but transferrable! We’re convinced that what we have learned here can be taken to other parts of the country. We look forward to our experience with Bergen County to inform future affiliate work.

As we approach year’s end, we’re reaching out to all our supporters to contribute to our Winter 2010 fundraising campaign. If you have not done so already I hope you will continue to stand with us as we look ahead to 2011 and make a special tax-deductible, year-end gift today.

We end where we began–with a heartfelt thank you. DCS counts on an involved network of partners, donors and volunteers to help continue its mission.