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Together in Action: Tzu Chi Hosts California VOAD Disaster Response Training Conference

Northwest  |  December 20, 2024
Volunteers gather for a group photo with VOAD Executive Committee members after the conference. Photo/Judy Liao

Written by Minette Chan
Edited by Andrew Larracuente and Adriana DiBenedetto

On a foggy fall morning on November 4, 2024, over a hundred leaders in disaster preparedness and relief operations from across Northern California and more than 35 Tzu Chi volunteers gathered at Tzu Chi USA’s Northwest Region in San Jose for the first State of California VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) Disaster Preparedness and Response training conference. This event was sponsored by the United Way of Northern California, CalOES (California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services), and Listos California.

Disaster preparedness and relief operations partners from across Northern California gather at Tzu Chi USA’s Northwest Regional Office in San Jose. Photo/Renee Liu
Representatives of the disaster preparedness and relief operations organizations participating in the workshop arrive early in the morning to check-in. Photo/Judy Liao

VOAD partner representatives from many government and community-based organizations active in disaster response and recovery, such as the American Red Cross, United Way, Salvation Army, Catholic Charities, and various county and state emergency response departments, drove from various parts of Northern California to participate in this special event — the first and largest in-person conference organized by VOAD in recent years. Following this event in San Jose, California, VOAD subsequently held two more sessions in the cities of Sacramento and Redding, which are three and five hours away by car from San Jose. These efforts aim to reach as many VOAD partners as possible across the state, and strengthen communities.

The full-day in-person conference included sessions led by experts on disaster preparedness, response, and recovery, as well as opportunities for participants to share best practices, build new relationships, and strengthen existing partnerships — all of which are in line with VOAD’s mission of cooperation, communication, coordination, and collaboration. Topics covered a keynote presentation on “How to Prepare for Everything” by Aaron Titus, Executive Director of Crisis Cleanup, and panel sessions on the importance of connecting with local VOADs, as well as disaster response and disaster recovery. The conference ended with a networking dinner in the early evening in Tzu Chi’s dining hall, which featured delicious vegetarian meals prepared by Tzu Chi culinary team volunteers.

The conference aims to build a platform for disaster assistance between civil society and government agencies and promote mutual understanding. Photo/Judy Liao

This conference provides up-to-date training on processes and resources that are available to communities in the event of a disaster. Helping our local service providers stay up to date and connect with regional and state disaster leaders is an important connection prior to a disaster. We want to provide opportunities for organizations to grow their capacity to serve in difficult times.

Collaborating in Disaster Response and Recovery
With the conference theme of “collaborating in disaster response and recovery,” one of the purposes of the event was for different VOAD partners to get to know each other and strengthen relationships by creating a physical space to share their work, and familiarize themselves with each other’s strengths.

As Kevin Cox, California VOAD Chair, said in his opening remarks, “We don’t want to exchange business cards five minutes after a disaster.”

“I don’t like meeting people at 2 AM. It’s better to build these relationships early on,” shared another participant.

Tzu Chi’s campus created a welcoming and conducive environment for fostering such partnerships. Participants were greeted with their pre-printed personalized nametags at the registration tables set against the backdrop of the Tzu Chi prayer hall. Inside the Gratitude Hall, tables covered in Tzu Chi’s navy blue tablecloths sat six attendees each to encourage small group conversations. Warm hugs and big smiles were exchanged throughout the day as many attendees met each other in person for the first time after many online meetings over Zoom.

For most attendees, it was also their first time visiting a Tzu Chi campus. Memo De La Riva from the Emergency Preparedness Public Health government office in Santa Cruz County shared that until this VOAD event, he was not aware of Tzu Chi, but the impression left on him was profound. “I was impressed from the very beginning when I arrived at the facility. I thought everything was well organized. Most of all, I was impressed by the people of Tzu Chi and the fact that they are volunteers who are taking time out of their day to be here. Whenever I saw someone passing by, they’d smile at me, and I’d smile back. I think that made my experience today way better.”

It is my first time at the Tzu Chi campus, and it’s absolutely stunning. I have to say, everybody that I’ve encountered has been lovely and helpful and just a complete joy to work with. I did not expect to see as big a team as you all have, and everybody is jumping in and helping. I mean, honestly, my first thought was, if there’s a disaster, I want Tzu Chi there.

Building Strong Partnerships Among VOAD Partners
When Minjhing Hsieh, Deputy Executive Director of Tzu Chi USA’s Northwest Region and a member of the Northern California VOAD Executive Committee, initially heard about VOAD’s interest in conducting a series of large training events, he immediately thought of offering Tzu Chi’s campus as the venue.

“It is one of the very, very rare opportunities for so many organizations to get together in person, especially after the pandemic. I thought it was a very good opportunity for Tzu Chi to make connections with so many great agencies. In order for the mainstream agencies to know more about Tzu Chi, the best way is to have them come here in person to see our beautiful campus and also a lot of our great volunteers, so that they can experience our service, our enthusiasm, and our love and care in person. It’s a great opportunity to have so many agencies come together to see us,” shared Hsieh.

To promote a deeper understanding of Tzu Chi’s four core missions of charity, medicine, education, and humanistic culture, Hsieh also considered inviting Tzu Chi members on stage during one of the session intermissions. While the attendees enjoyed their vegetarian lunch of salad, pasta, Chinese egg rolls, and Impossible Burgers, Tzu Chi’s Community Education program members performed soulful guzheng pieces, sharing the unique sounds of a Chinese instrument that many audience members heard for the first time.

Araceli Gonzalez leads the emergency programs and housing services at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County and strongly believes in the power of collaboration. Having worked alongside Tzu Chi after the Coyote Creek floods in 2017, she had been familiar with Tzu Chi’s emergency response, such as its case management and cash card relief. “I have met a lot of the organization [members] from Tzu Chi through Zoom or in city meetings or county meetings, but coming here… It’s so beautiful, so heartwarming. The [guzheng] music, everything, just the energy! When people talk about disasters, it’s always so tense, right? But just coming here was so calming, so peaceful.”

Gonzales recognized that although both Tzu Chi and her organization are faith-based organizations, hers is Catholic while Tzu Chi is Buddhist. However, she highlighted that helping people is, first and foremost, about love. “You don’t have to be a specific religion [for me to help you]. I’m here to help you in whatever way that I can. And I think working together with Tzu Chi, it’s just amazing. Because we just feel the same way; we love to help and give back in that kind of way… At the end of the day, when a disaster happens, we all are together to try to help people.”

Araceli Gonzalez, who leads the emergency programs and housing services at Catholic Charities of Santa Clara County, shares her appreciation with Tzu Chi. Photo/Renee Liu
Tzu Chi’s continuing education program members performed a guzheng piece, the first time many people had heard of this Chinese instrument. Photo/Kitty Lu

Connecting with VOAD

The California Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) is composed of non-governmental organizations that provide assistance to survivors of disasters in the State of California. While VOAD doesn’t offer services directly, they manage the coordination and deployment of resources in disaster areas to ensure timely and necessary help reaches those in need. As Dana Reed, Director of Santa Clara County Office of Emergency Management, noted in his opening remarks, “VOAD is really critical. The government can only do so much. VOAD fills whatever the government cannot do.”
Similarly, Cox explained that the strength of the VOAD is the people and the partnerships among organizations. Nonetheless, due to the size of the state and the number of organizations willing to help in disasters, duplication of services unfortunately often occurs, complicating the flow of relief, which VOAD attempts to alleviate.

When volunteers just show up to help, it becomes a burden for the organization that’s trying to serve. If volunteers just show up and start donating goods, dropping off their bags full of things, it creates a disaster within a disaster. And so, it’s really important that individuals get connected with organizations and volunteer before a disaster. It’s also really important that organizations themselves know about their VOADs and know how to be connected, because [their VOAD] is going to be a central hub of coordination.

Rabkin further added her hope for VOAD partners, saying, “We should get to know each other. We should figure out how we can best work together to serve vulnerable communities… Because if we can work together, and we know who to call and why to call them, we’ll be more effective in a disaster. We can make sure that we find those communities that have been overlooked. We can identify gaps in disaster response… We work better together, and we’re stronger when we work together.”

Demonstrating the Tzu Chi Spirit of Great Love

The conference was a great success for both VOAD and Tzu Chi. VOAD partners built stronger relationships and strengthened future disaster preparedness and response. At the same time, Tzu Chi raised local awareness for their programs and left strong positive impressions about Tzu Chi’s spirit of charity.
Mike Ferrier, Chairperson for NorCal Community Recovery Team and former Chair of Shasta-Tehama VOAD, shared his overall impression of Tzu Chi since working with Tzu Chi volunteers at the Carr Fire in Redding in 2018 through the training conference in November 2024. “The underlying super factor is the attitude of the Tzu Chi people in dealing with the people coming in. It was the warmth, the ‘we’re-here-to-help-you’ spirit, the unobtrusive open hearts… I’ve seen other entities and agencies that are hard in their purpose, and they allow their methodologies to get in the way of their interaction, thinking, ‘Here’s what we do; this is all that we do, so you’re going to fit into our box.’ [But not Tzu Chi.]”

“You model volunteerism better than any other organization I know,” summarized Cox at the end of the event. “We would love to come back and have a quarterly meeting here and just enjoy the atmosphere and the relationship.”

And indeed, all are welcome. “This is the first time that a partner conference has been hosted in our Tzu Chi campus,” said Chi-Jen Huang, Executive Director of Tzu Chi USA’s Northwest Region. “I am very happy that government agencies and partners from all over the country related to emergency relief and medium- and long-term recovery can gather together to learn and share so that they can interact and understand each other more, both during peaceful times and when disasters occur. There will be more tacit understanding; each will know their respective strengths, cooperate with each other, exert their strength, and make good use of limited resources to provide families with the assistance and care they deserve.”

The effects of the conference would go beyond the day. As Minjhing Hsieh, Deputy Executive Director of Tzu Chi USA’s Northwest Region, expressed, “We hope that this kind of connection and relationship building can continue [after today] so that help and assistance to fire survivors or any disaster survivors can be amplified and have more impact.”

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