News & Events

Massachusetts VOAD Zoom Meeting

Description: Bimonthly meeting of MAVOAD. 25 member agencies participated. All members were unusually subdued during the meeting. FEMA Region 1 Report: Critical focus on food insecurity nationally. There have been no federal requests for FEMA activation for Inaugural concerns—that’s at least encouraging. MEMA Report: Continued major need for food distribution assistance. Four isolation centers (entire hotels) continuing across MA for Covid-positive or in-isolation homeless. Continued requests for provision of new clothing for clients. The Salvation Army will be deployed tomorrow distributing food to on-duty police and military (Inauguration day) in downtown Boston. I and other MAVOAD members previously formally requested MAVOAD to petition MEMA (MA Emergency Management Agency) and the MA Board of Health for prioritization of VOAD member Covid immunization. A MA BoH representative participated in this meeting and reported that disaster response agencies were NOT included in Stage 1 or 2 of the state immunization rollout. So far, only Medical Reserve Corps responders participating in direct-contact immunization sites are eligible in Stage 1. The BoH representative also indicated that Stage 2 would probably not begin until at least mid-February, and that disaster responders with no co-morbidities could expect to wait until Stage 3. An email address for requesting exemption was provided (but with no sense of encouragement). A new VOAD member organization, Communities Responding to Extreme Weather (CREW) climatecrew.org made a presentation on their work building grassroots climate resilience to equip communities with the resources and capacity to prepare for and respond to local climate changes.