SVdP-USA Launches Disaster Services Corporation
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVdP-USA) has launched Disaster Services Corporation, SVdP-USA to better respond to disasters such as those seen in recent weeks in Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The corporation, which will remain under the auspices of SVdP-USA’s national council, represents a necessary change in legal structure to help the organization better focus its disaster-response efforts, said Elizabeth Disco-Shearer, CEO of the corporation.
SVdP-USA has operated a disaster services division under its national office for four years now and previously operated the division under its south-central region encompassing Texas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, working in earnest starting with the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2006.
SVdP-USA has been working in Texas, Louisiana, Florida, and Puerto Rico in recent weeks – Disco-Shearer describing Hurricanes Harvey and Irma as Hurricanes Katrina and Sandy coming at the same time, while Puerto Rico might be the worst off of them all due to infrastructural damage.
The advantages of structuring a separate corporation are two-fold, D-Shearer said. For one, SVdP-USA works in many other service realms, such as homelessness, and the corporation allows for resources to be focused strictly on the terminology, laws, and logistics of disaster relief. Second, it allows the corporation to fundraise separately from the larger organization...