An allocation plan for more than $3.4 million donated toward Southern Baptist disaster relief efforts in New York and Washington takes a comprehensive approach in dealing with a crisis expected to impact individuals and families for years.
The plan allocates 59 percent of the money to “victim benevolence and counseling ministry” and 41 percent to the longer-term “ongoing response ministry” — including provision for supporting future volunteer efforts and a church planted in the affected area.
The plan, titled “Enduring Hope: Disbursing Disaster Relief Donations with Integrity and Impact,” was adopted by the North American Mission Board (NAMB), the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association and the Baptist Convention of New York at the recommendation of a task force that has addressed the issue since late September. The document also has been submitted to state conventions as a possible model for disbursement of their own relief funds set up in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The plan was developed in consultation with donors to ensure that the use of the funds would comply with their intent for how it should be used, said Claude Rhea, chief development officer for NAMB.
The document outlining the allocation plan states, “Our immediate and long-term strategy will include multiplying and ministering through our churches in metropolitan New York.”
Under the “victim benevolence and counseling ministry” category, 40 percent of the fund will go to “financial assistance through Southern Baptist churches and associations” in New York, Boston and Washington D.C., as well as to those in New York who lost their jobs because of the disaster.
Twelve percent will fund deployment of a “resident chaplain” to “oversee and augment our chaplaincy presence” in New York. Chosen for the role is Joe B. Williams of Oklahoma, an FBI chaplain who assisted in the aftermath of the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
Seven percent of the money will go to assist state and local partners in funding traditional Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts of feeding, child care, cleanup of affected apartments and similar ministries. The category of “Ongoing Response Ministry” includes securing a “strategically located center” to house volunteers working in the area in coming years (26 percent) and funding for planting of new churches to provide long-term care for affected residents, including ministering in the immediate “ground zero” area of lower Manhattan (15 percent).
Rhea said a new task force is being formed to determine how to proceed on the center. Decisions include whether to purchase or lease, and whether to co-locate with an existing church or use a separate facility.
(BP)
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