By By ANNA M. LEE Managing Editor
As more information is gathered by FEMA, the number of families in Escambia County who have unmet needs as a result of Hurricane Ivan swells.
The latest report shows that 101 families with collective unmet needs of more than $1.5 million have been identified in the county.
Now that Escambia County's Long Term Recovery (LTR) committee has found an organizational home under the Coalition for a Healthier Escambia County, its next step is to arm volunteers with the training they'll need for case management.
The committee is seeking as many volunteers as possible to go through a six-hour training course the week before Thanksgiving. Those volunteers will then act as case managers, evaluating the situations of those 101 families in order to report back to the LTR committee. From that point, the committee can make a determination about allocating resources to each family.
At this point, committee members plan to organize case managers into teams of two or more, and each team would handle five to 10 cases.
The LTR committee will communicate with churches in the county in order to recruit volunteers.
Those interested in volunteering sh ould contact Carolyn White at the Escambia County Department of Human Resources, 809-2000.