“It was chaos. First I
had to deal with the loss and then I had to
deal with the details and then, well then I
was left
with me.” |
Our History
- In
Spring 2000, Rabbi Stephen Roberts
approached the American Red Cross in
Greater New York (ARC-GNY) about
recruiting a committee to facilitate
partnerships with faith communities so
that spiritual care could be immediately
available in the event of a local
emergency.
- Over the
course of a year, a multi-faith team
including Catholic, Jewish, Protestant
and Muslim professional chaplains worked
with ARC-GNY to develop this concept and
create a disaster response spiritual
care program for the New York
metropolitan area.
- The
program was finalized one week prior to
9/11/2001. With disaster protocol ready
to be implemented, more than 800
chaplains volunteered their time and
skills over the next nine months of
rescue and recovery efforts. The largest
multi-faith chaplaincy effort ever in
the United States, the program had an
immediate impact.
- After
9/11, ARC-GNY received a grant from Aid
Association for Lutherans; a small part
of which was directed to increasing
capacity in spiritual care. This lead to
the formation of an autonomous agency
for the direct provision of spiritual
care within ARC-GNY’s tri-state
jurisdiction.
- ARC-GNY
hosted the agency until March, 2004 when
it became an independent 501(c)(3)
organization named The Institute for
Disaster Spiritual Care (IDSC).
- In
Spring 2005, diverse faith communities
joined together to take on its financial
responsibilities and IDSC became
entirely volunteer run; Rabbi Stephen
Roberts, Hayyim Obadyah, and Dr. John
Scabilia were the three founding board
members.
- The
organization changed to its current
name, Disaster Chaplaincy Services (DCS),
in the Fall of 2005. Today, DCS is
headed by an Executive Director and
three support staff, with volunteer
leadership in the form of a Board of
Directors, a Chaplain Leadership Team,
and over 170 chaplains representing
diverse cultural and ethnic as well as
faith traditions.
- DCS
continues to partner with ARC-GNY and
collaborates with agencies such as the
Office for Emergency Management (OEM),
NYC police and fire departments, and the
Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
DCS chaplains have volunteered over
60,000 hours since 2001 and are deployed
side-by-side with other disaster
response professionals, often providing
peer support as well as survivor care.
- Our
faith partners represent a full spectrum
of New York faith communities, ranging
from American Baptist to Zen Buddhist.
All faith traditions are invited to sign
Letters of Agreement (LOA) with DCS and
to have representatives on the Board or
Advisory Committee. Chaplains endorsed
by their community are also encouraged
to join our work and/or take advantage
of professional development and disaster
preparedness trainings.
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