First grant from Quad Cities Disaster Recovery Fund made to provide financial assistance to flood-affected households working with disaster case managers
The board of directors of the Quad Cities Community Foundation, in partnership with the Disaster Ready Quad Cities Long Term Recovery Committee, have made a $25,000 grant that will be used for flood disaster-specific individual assistance in both Rock Island and Scott Counties.
“While organizations supporting needs from the historic flood are continuing to provide critical, immediate assistance, this grant will help case workers to address unmet needs, filling in the gaps where we are already starting to see that existing federal, state, and disaster-specific resources don’t meet all the needs our community members are experiencing,” said Kelly Thompson, vice president of grantmaking and community initiatives and a member of Disaster Ready Quad Cities. “Individuals and families are in need of more support than existing resources are able to meet, given the scale of this disaster. This initial grant will allow us to begin to fill that gap.”
The grant is possible thanks to the generosity of individuals, groups and businesses who have given to the Quad Cities Disaster Recovery Fund, and will be made to Supplemental Emergency Assistance Program (SEAP), which serves as a communal emergency fund for clients of more than 50 local social service agencies. Funds cannot be accessed by contacting SEAP directly, but instead are being made available by working with disaster case managers who are helping individuals in need of assistance access support services—from financial help to housing displacement and beyond.
Dollars available through this grant will not be used instead of resources that are available through government and nonprofit support. Rather, they will be added on where those resources are not enough, to make it more likely that people will be able to get back to normal.
As many as 200 households in Rock Island County have been affected by the flooding, and as many as 800 households have been affected in Scott County. The three organizations providing disaster case management in the Quad Cities—Project NOW, Community Action of Eastern Iowa, and the American Red Cross—are partners of SEAP. Households typically are eligible to receive up to $300 for emergency needs.
“We are building on an existing system that already works really well for local social service agencies to help clients meet the normal emergency needs they experience throughout the year. We know the impact on people in our community due to this flood is greater than our normal resources can address,” Thompson said, “and the grant to SEAP will make available up to $1,000 more in additional support per household.”
The Quad Cities Community Foundation will make additional grants from the fund to organizations so that they have the resources they need to meet the long term needs of communities impacted. Any unused dollars from this grant to SEAP will be placed back into the Disaster Recovery Fund to meet other needs.
More than $120,000 has been raised to date for the Disaster Recovery Fund at the Quad Cities Community Foundation. Gifts have come from hundreds of individuals and businesses in the Quad Cities, and all over the country. The fund includes a $25,000 gift from MidAmerican Energy and $10,000 gifts from the Quad Cities Community Foundation Board of Directors, the Quad Cities Osteopathic Foundation, Ascentra Credit Union Foundation, and Gray Television (the parent company of KWQC-TV6).
Donations are continuing to be accepted online at www.QCCommunityFoundation.org and at the Community Foundation’s office at 852 Middle Road, Suite 100, in Bettendorf.
“We know that recovery from a disaster can take months, sometimes years,” said Sherry Ristau, president and CEO at the Community Foundation. “We will continue to work to be our region’s trusted partner in community philanthropy. While this is the first grant to be made, we want to assure the Quad Cities region that we will be here long after the waters recede, basements are cleaned, and the mud is power-washed away. We are in this for the long haul—and ask that the community join us by making a gift to the Disaster Recovery Fund.”
The Quad Cities Community Foundation is home to hundreds of endowment funds—started by individuals and organizations—that create a financial foundation for nonprofits and support the Quad Cities region today, and far into the future. Disaster Ready Quad Cities is a group of nonprofit, for-profit and public sector community members working together to ensure community needs are met during recovery efforts in the weeks and months ahead.
HOW IT WORKS
Households eligible for support through this grant must reside in Rock Island or Scott Counties, be affected by the flood of 2019 as assessed and documented by case management agencies, and be participating in disaster case management with either Project NOW, Community Action of Eastern Iowa, or the American Red Cross. Households will be assisted to access all other resources they are eligible for, making sure that resources like FEMA, insurance, and other federal and state disaster funds are used before local charitable dollars are used. Funds will not be paid directly to households, but will be paid out to vendors and organizations to meet specific identified needs.
Community members in need of support can contact a disaster case manager at one of these organizations:
For Residents of Rock Island County: Call Project NOW at (309) 793-6391
For Residents of Scott County: Call Community Action of Eastern Iowa at (563) 324-3236
For Residents of either Rock Island or Scott County (to inquire about a damage assessment of a residential property): Call American Red Cross (309) 743-2166