“It’s not technology, it’s philosophy”
Free online case management platform jumpstarts recovery
E
ffectively delivering
resources to those in need
is an eminent challenge
throughout all areas
of emergency management, but
one organization aims to battle
this long-established concern
by providing volunteer groups
the crucial data they need to
accomplish their mission.
Crisis Cleanup is a free open
source disaster debris work order
By Julia Regeski
management platform designed
to improve coordination, reduce
duplication of efforts, improve
efficiency of recovery and enhance
the volunteer experience.
Following a disaster, when a
survivor calls into the Crisis Cleanup
hotline, they are immediately
connected to a volunteer. These
volunteers, while typically already
employed by a relief agency, work
through a virtual call center in an
effort to gather vital information
from callers, such as their address,
or whether the debris is blocking
entrance to survivors’ homes.
Once this information is collected,
it’s made available in Crisis
Cleanup’s online platform to a large
database of vetted organizations
and volunteer groups, who can then
“claim” an incident and commit to
assisting the individual in need.
This process of open-source
One way Crisis Cleanup presents information on survivor needs is via a user-populated interactive map.
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disaster case management proved
helpful not only when Hurricane
Matthew battered the Georgia
coast, but also more recently,
when the entire region was hit by
Hurricane Irma.
When it became clear the storm
would likely impact the entire state,
a group of nonprofit and public
sector partners in emergency
recovery called Georgia Voluntary
Organizations Active in Disaster
worked with Crisis Cleanup founder
Aaron Titus to activate a Hurricane
Irma event. Then, the Crisis Cleanup
1-800 number was made publicly
available to Georgians in need of
debris removal.
What followed was a large
amount of phone calls into the
system, with survivors throughout
not only Georgia, but the entire
Southeast, calling in hopes of
receiving help. Titus estimates the
system received an unprecedented
60,000 phone calls between
Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
Such a large amount of requests
poses a challenge, according to
Titus, due to the fact that Crisis
Cleanup is not actively maintained
by a single organization or
program; but rather, is meant to act
as an open source communications
tool, able to serve in any way it
needs to.
“Crisis Cleanup represents a way
of engaging the whole community
after a disaster,” he said. “It’s not
technology, it’s a philosophy.”
One of many areas that chose
to embrace the Crisis Cleanup
philosophy was Chatham County.
For both Hurricanes Matthew
and Irma, Chelsea Sawyer,
emergency management specialist
in community outreach at Chatham
County Emergency Management
Agency, not only recognized the
program’s diverse usefulness and
success after Irma, but worked to
adopt it into multiple organizations’
emergency plans.
“It took that burden off the EMA,”
she said, “because originally
(survivors) were calling us directly
and trying to get us to input their
cases. We could give them that
1-800 number, and it sent the
information off to another location
that wasn’t being inundated with
phone calls like we were.”
Sawyer and Chatham EMA
worked to adopt Crisis Cleanup as
a way to organize response on a
community-wide scale. As needs
were generated in Crisis Cleanup’s
online map, officials were able to
identify exactly where needs were
most concentrated, allowing them
to gauge where services would be
able to make the most impact in
real time. Sawyer and her team also
used Crisis Cleanup to determine
where services like volunteer
reception centers should be located.
“People would call in and need
help, say, gutting their house,” said
Sawyer. “That’s a home that we can
send unaffiliated volunteers to. It
worked out really, really well, and
it prevented us from doing double
entry and double work because we
took the needs directly input from
the clients who made a phone call,
and connected those needs with a
real group of people that wanted to
help.”
Crisis Cleanup ultimately did
so much to connect volunteer
resources that it became an
integral part of Chatham’s VOAD
development, especially since it
demonstrated what can happen
when a diverse group of community
stakeholders is able to cooperate
effectively.
Titus says that enabling the kind
of group effort demonstrated in
Chatham is what he hoped for
when developing the platform.
“It gives the volunteer sector the
tools and incentive to collaborate
and collect data that is valuable,”
he said. “That will allow us to
strengthen relationships and
our partnership with emergency
management.”
Emergencies often result in
numerous agencies, offices
and organizations, all trying to
collectively coordinate to help
those in need. For the voluntary
organizations and countless
volunteers who want to be a part
of this process, cooperation is
no less needed, but it often goes
unseen. Crisis Cleanup allows
these mission-driven relief groups
a convenient, efficient method
to communicate about the things
that matter most to them and
successfully begin what, for many,
is the long road to recovery.
DISPATCH