What is the FBCI??

Faith Based Community Initiative

(print a brochure)

What Makes it Unique?

The FBCI program is exciting because it provides a model of community-based disaster response. In a time of disaster, the FBCI partner's relationship with its community enables it to use its manpower, knowledge, and skills to serve those in need.  These resources combined with those of the Red Cross provide a better quality of service to clients while enhancing the Elkhart County Red Cross's relationship with the surrounding community.

What it Does:

The FBCI is a program designed to build and sustain relationships between the American Red Cross of Elkhart County and the local faith-based community.  This program provides an opportunity for the Elkhart Count Red Cross to utilize community resources and for faith-based organizations to reach out to their communities.  This partnership is beneficial because it combines the knowledge and skills of the Red Cross and the local faith-based community.  By partnering with the local faith-based community, the Red Cross can better serve diverse communities in its area.

How it Works

The partnership between the Elkhart County Red Cross and the faith-based community will be realized through the development of self-staffed shelters.  Potential FBCI sites will be sought out and approached by the Disaster Outreach Coordinators.  Sites interested in participating in the FBCI program will assemble an "Action Team," a team of individuals who will be ready and willing to open a shelter at their facility or would assist as a team at another facility during a time of disaster if called upon.  The Action Team will go through a broad Red Cross training covering the role of the Red Cross, Mass-Care overview, and Shelter Operations and Shelter Simulation.

The members of the Action Team are not expected to be subject matter experts, nor are they expected to collect and store material resources.  Instead, their training will provide them with the knowledge base of how to open and maintain a shelter.  Red Cross personnel, who are subject-matter experts (shelter managers, nurses, mental health, etc.), will come in to assist in running of the shelter; however, the volunteer base will come from the FBCI's Action Team.  The Red Cross will also provide all materials needed to run a shelter (food, cots, blankets, etc.).

The Outcome

The partnership between the Red Cross and FBCI site creates quicker response in a time of disaster, and a more effective use of community resources and skills.  It will also strengthen the bond between the Red Cross and the local faith-based community.  This relationship will be maintained by the Disaster Outreach Coordinator at the Elkhart County Red Cross through updates about Red Cross activities, information about becoming more involved with the Red Cross, and yearly "mock disasters" that will challenge the participating site to implement their training and review their agreement.

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     Central Christian Church Of Elkhart 
     Canaan Baptist Church

     Clinton Frame Mennonite Church
     Community Baptist Church
     First Mennonite Church of Middlebury

     First Church of God, Nappanee
     Goshen City Church of the Brethren
     Guidance Ministries

     Life Tabernacle Church
     Maple City Health Care Center

     Middlebury Church of the Brethren
     New Hope United Methodist

     Pleasant View Mennonite Church
     St. John of the Cross

     Tolson Center

      Trinity Lutheran

     Trinity United Methodist

      Union Center Church of the Brethern

      Yellow Creek Mennonite Church