"One Bus, One Town" Offering Higher Ground to Katrina Victims

We are a group of people living in New York's Hudson Valley who have offered to open our homes to individuals and families displaced by Hurricane Katrina. We have decided to organize locally to make the process simpler, safer, and more efficient. Specifically, we are working on:

* Establishing a database of local people interested in hosting Katrina victims.

* Developing an organized, efficient screening process to ensure safe and appropriate placements, for the refugees and the hosts. In this regard we have teamed with http://www.shareyourhome.org/ which is a national database of both those offering homes and those looking for placement. Full background checks are a part of this screening process.

* Arranging for a bus that will bring people now living in hotels and shelters to our homes here. (As we are beginning to make our first matches we may be deviating from the original plan for a bus as we can fly some people out more immediately).

* Tapping into and organizing community, regional, state, and federal resources to provide as much support as possible to those families and individuals we host. This is a community effort that all can join in and work together on, to help those displaced. As a community we can do much more for them than they can do on their own.

*Our 1st tier goal is to place people in 20 homes that have been offered locally (this can be families, couples, or single people). We feel this is a fair 'limit' so as not to stress the resources of our local community, and to also be able to focus individually on those who we bring here.

* Each person we host will be assigned a 'community liaison' that will help them integrate into the community ( if they are relocating), or help them just temporarily.

* Our aim as a community is to help these people rebuild their lives, we understand this to mean that they have a safe comfortable environment in which to do so. That they receive medical and counseling services. That their needs are supported as much as we are able to offer, so they can recover as quickly as possible from their terrible losses.

You do not need to be offering housing to be a part of this project. Many skills and talents are needed. And we will have longer term needs to help provide for our host families.

Patricia Walsh

One Bus, One Town

51 Elting Avenue, New Paltz, NY

(845) 255-0515 P

(845) 255-0517 F

onebusonetown@aol.com