CASE STUDY: A FAITH-BASED ORGANIZATION

The Eastside Community Support Association (ECSA), a local faith-based, nonprofit organization located in a small office behind a church in a low-income section of East Austin, illustrates the potential positive role of voluntary efforts in dealing with crises. It also reveals the limitations faced by small-scale organizations in dealing with large-scale and complex social problems. The organization was run by Pastor Gerald Jackson, a dedicated middle-aged African American who believed that the church had a special mission to minister to the poor. ECSA had been in existence for a few years before Hurricane Katrina struck, and the association administered a number of programs, including a breakfast program, HIV testing, and a children’s summer camp. Given its history of ministry to an impoverished African American community, responding to the needs of the mostly African American Hurricane Katrina victims was an irresistible moral imperative.

The storm and the arrival of survivors in Austin evoked an outpouring of sympathy, and a large number of church members volunteered to help. Somewhere between fifty and one hundred church members provided assistance at the Convention Center and solicited donations of money and goods to provide to survivors. Some of the volunteers were from another church in a more affluent section of the city. Given the large number of donations that were made, the organization was forced to move its operation out of the small church office into a larger facility. ECSA provided assistance with transportation, food, and access to medical care and helped survivors who had FEMA housing vouchers contact local landlords. The organization raised nearly $50,000 to provide gift cards to survivors. During the first few weeks, ECSA helped over six hundred families.