Jewish volunteers to help hurricane victims
With social service agencies in Houston swamped with people in need, Jewish Family Services in Columbus and other parts of the country are reaching out to help.
June Gutterman, CEO of Jewish Family Services of Columbus, is also the co-chairwoman of a recently created network of Jewish social services agencies in North America and Israel that has established an Emergency Response Line to aid victims of Hurricane Harvey.
The idea for the Emergency Response Line came to Gutterman when she was talking to her colleague, Linda Burger, CEO of Jewish Family Service of Houston, and heard about the volume of calls the agency was getting.
“It was really obvious that they’re getting a lot of calls about resources and they also are doing counseling for anxiety and trauma,” Gutterman said. “What if we took the load off?”
Those who need help getting through the stress, anxiety and trauma of the storm can call the line and talk to a social worker who can help them cope.
The response line, which can be reached at 832-930-0196, will begin operations on Friday. The
response line already has almost 30 volunteers signed up from more than 140 social service agencies across the country, all reached through the Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies.
“We can be the voice on the other end of the phone,” she said. “The ear that listens.”
The Network was founded in May, and Gutterman never expected it to be able to make this large of a difference this quickly, she said.
“Once we do this, this can be pulled out, God forbid, whenever we have an emergency,” Gutterman said. “We are much stronger and much better at what we do if we do it together.”
Danielle Ruben, manager of clinical and intern services at Jewish Family Services of Columbus, will be one of the volunteers on the other end of the line when victims call in.
“I want to be able to give a little sense of hope when right now there’s probably not much hope down there,” she said. “It’s nice everybody can come together in times of tragedy to support people.”
The line will stay up as long as it’s needed, Gutterman said.
“We exist together, we don’t exist alone,” she said. “We’re here and we’re all in, that’s what we’re hoping our action shows to the people of Houston.”