Annual Shelter Summit 7-14-2012 a big success!

We had a big crowd at the Puyallup campus of Pierce College.

Besides training sessions in emergency sheltering, co-sheltering (pets), and communication, we had a round table discussion and we learned a lot from the questions and answers  that were fielded by the various trainers.

We introduced our new Functional Assessment Services Team or FAST. These people can go to emergency shelters to assess whether there are any special needs that need to be handled. Examples would be supplying a wheelchair to someone that lost their's in a flood; providing blood pressure meds to people that evacuated during a disaster and forgot to take their meds; and providing other needs from crutches to a sign language interpreter.  We are still looking for volunteers that have a background in helping others and have been trained as social workers or case managers. If you know about durable goods and where to get them quickly when needed, then we need you too. Please consider volunteering with Citizen Corps of Pierce County.

We also had an exercise in the afternoon, not only an emergency shelter for people but an animal co-shelter also. Our new volunteers got some very valuable experience that will come in handy in future activations.