Vol. IX Issue 2 April 2006 In this issue: LEADERSHIP In Times of Trouble, Call Conflict Resolution Team MONEY To Build or Not to Build; Alternatives to an Edifice TOOLBOX Congregational Handbook a Good First Place to Turn MEMBERSHIP Set Safety Policies Now, Before You Need Them NOURISHING THE SPIRIT UU Trauma Ministry Team Responds in Times of Crisis QUESTIONS & ANSWERS Minimum contributions, getting new members UU World, and explaining our political activism BRIEFLY NOTED Congregational Life Articles at UUA.org; Telltale Signs That Conflict Exists; Resources for Creating Safe Congregations; and more! EMAIL LIST Find out when the new InterConnections is online InterConnections Archives

UU Trauma Ministry Team
Responds in Times of Crisis

The Rev. Jim VanderWeele left New Orleans for two weeks when his church, Community Church UU, flooded after Hurricane Katrina. When he returned he was faced with the arduous tasks of finding his scattered parishioners, mourning his destroyed church and swamped apartment, and responding to the personal tragedies of his parishioners. It was a lot to do.

Fortunately, the Unitarian Universalist Trauma Response Ministry was there to help. The trauma ministry, founded by ministers who responded to chaplaincy needs after the 9/11 attacks, sent the Rev. Aaron Payson, of Worcester, Mass., to help him. "We had some long conversations," VanderWeele says, "and he provided me with a stack of reading material on stress and trauma that was extremely helpful." Payson accompanied VanderWeele the first time he ventured in to view his flooded church. Later, two other team ministers came to help. "I greatly appreciated all of them," says VanderWeele. "I was working 14 to 16 hours a day and dealing with all this stress."

The trauma team, formed to provide a quick response to traumas involving UUs and others and to help UUs be prepared in their own church communities to respond to tragedies, has responded 20 times.

After hurricanes in Florida in 2004 the team assisted ministers and congregations. During Southern California wildfires in 2003 the team sent gift baskets to harried ministers and provided phone support. A team member helped out when a congregation lost a teenager in a car-pedestrian accident and 900 people were expected for the funeral. And following Hurricane Katrina, team members aided stressed and in-shock ministers who lost homes and churches.

"Sometimes people only need a phone conversation with us," says the Rev. Rosemary Bray McNatt, a group founder. "And sometimes we go and stand with the minister and help the congregation through these times."

Adds McNatt, minister at the Fourth Universalist Society in New York City: "A key part of what we do is caring for the caregivers. People think that ministers are automatically good at these situations, but sometimes a trauma overwhelms a minister's ability to respond." The team also educates congregations so they're prepared for trauma, says McNatt, who encourages congregations to do ten things now before a tragedy occurs:

• Collect names and cell phone numbers of key leaders.
• Agree on a way for members to get in touch after a disaster.
• Back up financial and other data, and keep it in a safe place.
• Get names of next of kin from members.
• Plan how you would "shelter in place" if necessary. "If you can't evacuate, do you have the equipment and provisions to provide shelter in the church or someplace else for 72 hours?" asks McNatt.
• Organize a safety committee and develop an evacuation plan. Says McNatt, "When I was an intern at our church in Montclair, N.J., it filled with smoke during a pancake breakfast when a transformer blew. We had our kids out of there in two minutes, because we'd practiced it."
• Train people in CPR and first aid.
• Keep an emergency phone number list where you can find it.
• Gather people who will be responsible for the congregation in an emergency and help them get acquainted.
• Take the trauma team's 10-question survey about evacuations, first aid, emergency preparedness, etc.

The Rev. Susan Suchoki Brown, the team's president and minister of First Church UU in Leominster, Mass., said the team tries to be aware of trauma situations, but also depends on people to ask for help. "We really want people to call us, and more and more are doing that," she says.

For more information about the trauma team visit www.traumaministry.org, or call the team at 866-730-8181.