City Needs Volunteers to Help People with Disabilities During Disasters

The City will hold a free training at the First Church of Nazarene on May 28-29 for volunteers who will assess the needs of people with disabilities and provide them help during disasters.

The participants to the two-day seminar may join the city’s Functional Assessment Service Team, a pool of local volunteers who can readily be tapped to visit disaster shelters, assess the functional needs of people with disabilities, and advise shelter staff on how best to meet those needs.

“Our commission supports this training training program because it will help insure that Pasadena’s emergency and shelter sites meet the diverse needs of our community,” said Dolores Gibbs, chair of the Accessibility and Disability Commission.

The training will be from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and will include presentations, discussion and table top exercises. The topics to be discussed will cover aging and disability issues, shelter operation, resource ordering, emergency management and personal assistant services.

Those who have a least two-year experience working with assessing the needs of people with disabilities and are to make at least a two-year commitment to volunteer at disaster shelters may join the seminar.

Contact Robert Gorski, Human Services and Recreation Accessibility and Disability coordinator, at rgoski@cityofpasadena.net by May 7 to register for the training.

The First Church of Nazarene is located at 3700 Sierra Madre Blvd. For more information, contact Lisa Derderian, Fire Department emergency management coordinator, at lderderian@cityofpasadena.net or (626) 744-7267; or Gorski at rgorski@cityofpasadena.net or (626) 744-4782.