Be it natural or manmade, when a crisis emerges in a community, it is crucial to have a set of tools ready to respond.
With more than one hundred years of experience here in Buncombe County, we understand how useful the systems and relationships we've built can be in a crisis. A few examples:
- Our Community Engagement team can get out into the community to hear directly from those most impacted, to learn what is needed and where we need to be.
- Our volunteer center can set up a new system to quickly mobilize volunteers to take action and support the front-line organizations responding to the crisis.
- Our Resource Development and Finance teams can create fundraising tools to capture and distribute funds.
- NC 211 can scale up to address large numbers of calls from individuals looking for help.
No one wants to experience a crisis, let alone one like Helene brought to our doorsteps. But we need to take this moment as a lesson to shore up our systems so that we can continue to heal from this disaster while preparing for the next. This is critical to community resiliency.