NEW JERSEY INTERFAITH PARTNERSHIP FOR DISASTER RECOVERY

After Nearly Eight Years, NJIPDR Closing

Dear Friends: At the New Jersey Interfaith Partnership for Disaster Recovery Board of Trustees meeting on July 1, 2009, the decision was made to conclude active operations of the organization. The interfaith disaster ministry relationships which NJIPDR nurtured for nearly eight years will continue. As a voluntary organization, NJIPDR will participate in NJ-VOAD and coordinate with faith partners to address response and recovery needs of future disasters.

Since October 2001, the New Jersey Interfaith Partnership for Disaster Recovery responded to the needs of NJ residents who were affected by 9/11 or by any of several different flood disasters, providing interfaith healing, advocacy, support, recovery, and assistance. Our commitment has been to aid populations made vulnerable by disasters, especially undocumented people and those affected by racial, ethnic, or religious bias, and those overwhelmed beyond their abilities to cope due to loss, trauma, disabling injuries, unemployment, or underemployment, as a result of disaster.

We have been able to carry out our mission over the last seven-plus years because of the most generous and faithful support we have received from donors, colleagues, friends and many partners of different faiths. I want to give my deepest thanks to each of you who have lent your support and commitment to help vulnerable NJ residents recover from the impact of disaster.

Our greatest debt of gratitude, by far, goes to the Community FoodBank of New Jersey, and to Kathleen DiChiara, for generously providing office and meeting space for NJIPDR all these years, from the very beginning. The witness of CFBNJ, of tirelessly seeking out resources to offer in caring for people in need, (people whom society too often overlooks and/or blames them for their troubles), has been a constant inspiration and model for us. It has been a tremendous privilege to work alongside CFBNJ in supporting people who can regain self-sufficiency through the sharing of resources and the offering of respect, compassion and advocacy.

I wish I could say that our clients and other NJ residents with unmet needs from the 9/11 disaster have all recovered. However, we have seen that recovery from terrorism, violence and exposure to toxic environments, like recovery from flood disasters, can take far longer than expected. The burden of addressing the continuing needs of the NJ resident Ground Zero rescue and recovery workers has shifted to ongoing community, social service and health organizations. We at NJIPDR are proud to have worked with many of these capable groups.

The former employees, Myles Varley and Leslie Foltz-Morrison, are now on volunteer status. The social work consultants, Claire Chichester and Natallie Sosanya, have concluded their case management with all the clients affected by the 9/11 disaster and by the Spring 2007 Nor'easter Flood. The accountant consultant, Zev Nathan CPA, has prepared the last of the payroll tax reports and will prepare a financial statement for the fiscal year ending 6/30/2009.

I believe that our work was, and continues to be, important and necessary. While Americans are very generous and responsive in a crisis, there is less public support and understanding for the length of time that recovery from a disaster takes. I am proud of our commitment to the work of long-term disaster recovery and most grateful for having had the opportunity to serve 450 families with your help.

Sincerely,

Myles P. Varley, M.S.W.
Director

NJ Interfaith Partnership for Disaster Recovery

31 Evans Terminal Rd; Hillside, NJ 07205-2400
telephone 908-355-0064
email njipdr@netzero.com
web www.freewebs.com/nji-disasterrecovery