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Schuylkill County COAD

Community Organizations Active in Disaster

When a disaster occurs, neighbors and community organizations are often eager to help. The Schuylkill  County COAD is an organization formed to improve awareness of the needs of the community and connect the capabilities of community partners with those needs during all stages of an event. The Schuylkill County COAD hopes to provide opportunities for community organizations to get involved to make the community and its members safer and more prepared for threats of disasters of all kinds.

The concept of non-profits and County and Local government working together in disaster response stared in 2005 with the County’s response to accepting Hurricane Katrina evacuees. At the time, the County had an active Citizens Corps Council, Community Emergency Response Team (CERT), and the beginning of a Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD). Throughout the years these groups coordinated responses to the Flooding in June 2006, Tropical Storm Lee in September 2011, as well as some smaller events.

In January 2018, a small group of member organizations met to discuss the future of these programs in the County. The group was re-organized as the Schuylkill County Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) under the umbrella of the Schuylkill County Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC). Working with the LEPC would provide an opportunity to utilize the existing resources with the private, non-profit, and government organizations represented to provide an “All Hazards” approach to planning and response throughout Schuylkill County.

What is COAD?

COAD stands for “Community Organizations Active in Disaster”.  A COAD is a local group of community organizations that coordinates emergency human services, while working in concert with partner agencies, including the local emergency management agency and social service agencies, during all stages of a disaster.

What does the Schuylkill County COAD do?

The Schuylkill County COAD is a collaborative partnership between community stakeholders – government, voluntary, private and non-profit organizations – that assists in organizing community efforts to provide needed services to community members that arise as the result of a disaster that occurs in the County. The goal of the Schuylkill County COAD is to organize and deploy community resources in an efficient and timely manner during each phase of a disaster.