After the storms: With the money awarded, TEAM Leon shares what worked, what they learned
All $1 million have been handed out to a total of 472 recipients as TEAM Leon plans to provide a final report to the county commission at Tuesday’s meeting.
The Targeted Emergency Assistance Microgrant used money from the county’s catastrophe fund to assist individuals and businesses in the unincorporated parts of the county after the May 10 tornadoes. One of the recipients was Bagigio’s, a restaurant in the Woodville area.
Assistant County Administrator Shington Lamy served as team lead, and alongside others involved in TEAM Leon prepared a final update which features background information, analysis of the program and information on ongoing community support.
“We were able to rapidly get the assistance where it was needed most,” Lamy said in an interview with the Tallahassee Democrat.
Lamy, County Administrator Vince Long and Public Information and Communications Manager Kianna Gilley sat down with the Tallahassee Democrat to go deeper into the report, sharing lessons learned and what the future looks like for the capital county.
TEAM Leon program came together in 9 days
Since the programs launch on May 23, the county received more than 2,100 applications for assistance.
Lamy said the county knows emergency programs and relief, and the quick turnaround for TEAM Leon was due in part to the experience gained during the pandemic.
“Utilizing the same platform we used during our mercy and rental assistance program we ran during COVID we were able to quickly stand up and put together (the program),” Lamy said. “The other great thing about it is that a lot of folks were familiar with the platform.”
He mentioned how there were many lessons learned from the COVID days that they made sure to fix for this program. The biggest one, making sure the application centers were up and running when the applications went live.
Leon County had three centers open to the public for those needed assistance in the application process. They were located at Eastside Branch Library, Fort Braden Community Center, and Woodville Branch Library.
Lamy admitted that having that one-on-one time for many meant residents could speak to someone of the trauma they had gone through. This meant that many throughout the application process got emotional as they spoke of their losses and the many questions for the future.
‘These are our neighbors’
This emotion spread to those at TEAM Leon, as Lamy put it, “we aren’t FEMA, we’re not the state, we are actually residents of the county.”
“For us, I think it brought a certain level of determination of providing assistance and resources in our community,” Lamy continued.
Long said he could sense it meant a lot to county staff due to their eagerness to help.
“Oftentimes we might have been grabbing a building official who had other responsibilities during the event or a finance person who may have been getting pulled in 1,000 different directions,” Long said. “It wasn’t just any response … this is where you really get to see people who clearly care about what they’re doing.”
Long admitted that the road to recovery is still not over. Included in the report that will be given to the county commissioners is a list of additional resources that have been activated through the county and other programs.
Some of these include the county’s State Housing Initiative Partnership (SHIP) Disaster Recovery Program and the American Red Cross.
The county requested and received a waiver from the state to allow for the immediate use of approximately $600,000 of county SHIP money.
The American Red Cross has also initiated its Accelerated Assistance program, which would help those in the city limits and the unincorporated areas. The Red Cross has begun stationing at the Fort Braden Community Center and Woodville Community Center to help those with applications.
“We’re going to continue to work and to meet unmet needs … to try to really continue to bridge that gap because we know some people were impacted more than others,” Long said.
Though as recovery continues, the county is now looking toward hurricane season. On March 31, the city and county held a joint press conference to remind residents to prepare.
“We’re in the midst of planning right now our Citizen Engagement series for Disaster Resilience so making sure that folks are aware to be prepared at all times,” Gilley said. “Make sure you have your disaster bucket ready, make sure you have your supplies … this is all stuff we just want to make sure folks will prepare for.”
Arianna Otero is the City Solutions Reporter for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact her via email at AOtero@tallahassee.com or on Twitter/X: @ari_v_otero.…Read more by , Tallahassee Democrat
