Disaster Relief Team
Dade County Street Response (DCSR)’s Disaster Relief Team was started in 2017 after Hurricane Irma, as we saw a disparate crisis response to vulnerable communities from the local government and large foundations. We established to respond to Black and brown communities before during and after crisis.
We operate with a coalition of several local organizations that provide emergency services under the the community emergency operations center (CEOC). The CEOC brings community leaders from each neighborhood who have trained to serve as point people for critical information and resource allocation.
Our Disaster Relief Team is the medical arm of the CEOC. We have mobilized 100s medical students and doctors to supply critical medications, hospital triage, wound care, CPR, and many other medical needs.
Before disasters, we are instrumental in educating the medical community about the importance of disaster resilience/climate change through a medical lens to make them comfortable having conversations with patients about preparedness. We have education sessions in predominantly black and brown neighborhoods about resilience and preparedness and make sure the medical community/general public has access to our hurricane healthy checklist (available in 3 languages). Lastly, we connect medically vulnerable and low-income community members to existing city/county resources before a crisis so that they will be prioritized for targeted services.
After disasters, we focus on decreasing morbidity and mortality with rapid response/triage at the shelters and emergency home calls through any form of communication including in person neighborhood sweeps.
See DCSR In Action
The disaster relief team is activated through the Community Emergency Operations center but workshops are available upon request.
