We are Down Home
One of our Veatch grantees in North Carolina, We are Down Home, recently updated supporters on continued needs in the devastating wake of Hurricane Helene, particularly in western North Carolina.
We are Down Home has been building member-led chapters in the directly impacted rural counties of Watauga and Ashe since 2021. The Down Home chapter organizer immediately mobilized members with chainsaws and winches to assist people who were stranded, and organized a door canvass to collect community assessment surveys to help connect residents to resources.
In addition, there has been widespread news coverage of the situation in Asheville, North Carolina, where entire communities have been isolated by landslides and road closures, struggling without power, food, or clean water.
We are Down Home Co-Directors Todd Zimmer and Dreama Caldwell wrote to supporters: “It will take years for Western North Carolina to recover from Helene, and social and political crises will undoubtedly follow the initial emergency phase.”
While Down Home’s crucial civic engagement efforts in Watauga and Ashe counties are on hold for now, continued engagement with more than 200,000 registered voters continues across the state. Through it all, Down Home will be monitoring ongoing needs and building out resource databases for sharing and collecting information to help guide ongoing recovery.
Organizing Resilience
In support of Down Home’s efforts, Veatch grantee Organizing Resilience is listening to organizers and volunteers on the ground in communities hit by Hurricane Helene and harnessing the resources that are unleashed during climate crises to save lives and advance broader structural change. In addition to western North Carolina, Organizing Resilience is monitoring storm impacted communities in Florida, Georgia, western Virginia, and eastern Tennessee.
Organizing Resilience has created the Hurricane Helene Response Fund, which you can access from their website: www.organizingresilience.org, to address immediate needs and support long-term recovery and rebuilding efforts in North Carolina and Georgia. Veatch grantees will advise on distributing these funds.
Looking ahead, Todd Zimmer and Dreama Caldwell note that going forward, “…it will be necessary to advocate for an equity-centered rebuilding effort. Western North Carolina is historically characterized by both resilient local people, and systemic poverty. There will be efforts to displace people on land that is valuable for developers, and efforts to employ shock doctrine tactics to privatize our community resources.”
Organizing Resilience will continue to work with Down Home and other Veatch grantees in the impacted regions, to respond to the immediate needs that community members know best, and to ensure their place at the table for the long process of recovery and rebuilding.
You can donate to the Hurricane Helene Response Fund on the Organizing Resilience Website: www.organizingresilience.org.
For more information on the work of Veatch grantees Organizing Resilience or We are Down Home, please contact Veatch Program Director Eileen Jamison at eileen@veatch.org.