Her efforts have been aided by Ark of Safety, a regional interfaith program to provide disaster preparedness training to churches in Inland Southern California. On January 27, the Diocese was honored for its work in disaster training when it received the Walking Out Your Faith Award, given to houses of worship that have shown the most improvement in administering the Ark of Safety program.
“Our parishes and schools have really embraced the Ark of Safety as a way to get prepared for a disaster or event and to understand their role in the wider community,” said Gallant, Director of the Emergency Operations Collaborative for the Diocese. “This award serves as reminder of our Diocesan Vision - to provide hope in the lives of those impacted by natural and man-made disasters.”
State Senator Mike Morrell, whose office has partnered with local churches in the Ark of Safety program, presented the award to the Diocese at the Fourth Annual Ark of Safety Forum on Jan. 27 at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. Morrell said he thinks the faith community has a key role in getting the region more prepared to respond to a major earthquake or other disaster.
“Before we had public services people depended on churches, people of faith,” he said.
The Ark of Safety Forum also explored the special role that churches and faith leaders have in comforting those who are traumatized by a disaster or traumatic event. Pastor Joshua Beckley of Ecclesia Christian Fellowship spoke at the Ark of Safety Forum about providing spiritual care during a disaster. He used his recent experience ministering to those impacted by the terrorist attack at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino on December 2, 2015.
“Pastors deal with bereavement and crisis on a daily basis,” Beckley said. “But that was the first time any of us had an experience with that level of devastation and crisis.”
Beckley said he learned from Dec. 2 that although all are in need of spiritual outreach in the wake of a disaster or attack, those most directly affected require a different approach than the larger population that is feeling fear and anxiety. He said that when he met with families who had lost a loved one in the Dec. 2 attack he couldn’t find the words to console them, but later realized that didn’t mean he’d failed to help.
“Sometimes it’s your presence, silently sitting with them,” Beckley said. “We found out later that our presence helped them. It made them feel like the community cared.”
Other topics and activities covered at the Jan. 27 Ark of Safety Forum included “Community Response During Disasters,” which recounted the response efforts in the wake of the Blue Cut Fire of last summer, and a tabletop exercise presented by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department to gauge readiness for an active shooter scenario.
Morrell lauded the progress made through Ark of Safety while adding that the work must continue in order to meet the needs of communities in the event of a major disaster.
“It’s a matter of getting this on people’s radar,” he said. “We’re really not prepared like we should be.”