Service
In addition to responding to disasters we also work with various groups to support their activities. We have worked in support of Remote Area Medical, North American Mission Board Families on Mission, and the University of Tennessee Baptist Collegiate Ministry.
We are also members of the East Tennessee VOAD (Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster) and the Local Emergency Planning Commission.
DR Training Facts
- All volunteers must be 18 years old to serve.
- All volunteers must be a member of a cooperating Tennessee Southern Baptist Church.
- We ask that you please take specialized classroom training after you have taken the prerequisite course of "Introduction to Disaster Relief".
- Disaster Relief Credentials and the yellow had will be given after "Introduction to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief" and at least one specialized class has been taken.
- Please check out this link regarding Volunteer Requirements and Volunteer Responsibilities required by the North American Mission Board
Home
Purpose: |
To provide physical, emotional, and spiritual help to victims of natural and man-made disasters, including floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, fires, and terrorist attacks, in North America and overseas |
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Organization: |
Disaster relief units are owned and staffed by Southern Baptist churches, regional Baptist associations, and state Baptist conventions. Volunteer teams respond to disasters within their own state and work cooperatively with other states in larger emergencies. Teams also work overseas when Baptist Global Response requests help. |
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| Our Focus: | Cumberland Gap Disaster Relief has mass feeding as our main focus. Our unit is capable of producing more than 10,000 meals per day. At full capacity we require a staff of 20 people to operate our unit. We need cooks, wash crew, inventory crew, food preparation crew, and others. We will also have a coordinator to work with the Red Cross and/or The Salvation Army to have the food ready to go when they come to pick it up. We may also have a feeding line, but often this will be manned by folks from local churches. |
DR Responses
Since we organized as a unit in 2002 we have been called out several time. Many of our people have been trained in several different areas. We have had people respond to work with chainsaw and rebuild crews as well as mass feeding. Several of our volunteers have worked with other association units as well as the state unit.
We can activate ourselves in the case of a local disaster, the state director calls us out in the case of a larger problem, and the North American Mission Board can ask for assistance from the state at which time the state director will call out units to go out of state.