Last night in Ventura, California, UP oriented and empowered a room full of 200 people whose homes were destroyed in the Thomas wildfire.  Bringing the combination of seasoned empathy and technical/legal expertise that makes UP’s Roadmap to Recovery program a unique and valuable source of disaster recovery support, Sue Piper led the audience through the first steps and strategies for navigating the road to recovering from their devastating losses. Piper combined her “been there done that” knowledge with the resources UP has developed during our 26 years of working with disaster victims and trouble-shooting their insurance challenges. Thank you, City of Ventura and FEMA for partnering with us in this endeavor.

Meanwhile, up in Santa Rosa the same night, staff attorney Dan Wade brought our organization’s expertise to a workshop on Rebuilding in a Fire Ecology.  Rebuilding smart and strategically helps homeowners be resilient to future disasters and build homes that insurance companies will want to insure for an affordable price.

Tonight UP will be in Yountville, CA. providing a follow up to our December 2017 Insurance Orientation for wildfire survivors in Napa County.  Emily Rogan and Wade will lead the workshop, Napa County Supervisor Diane Dillon will be on hand to welcome the audience.

Then on Thursday, a new member of the UP team, Val Brown, will lead our second Roadmap to Recovery workshop in Fallbrook, CA where over 100 homes were destroyed in the Lilac fire last fall. That same evening, up in Santa Rosa, CA, Amy Bach will moderate an R2R panel of local experts discussing Financial Decision-Making for Wildfire Survivors. Our partners, the City of Santa Rosa and Sonoma County will be on hand to answer questions about property taxes and other concerns.

Is our staff of four full-time people overwhelmed?  A little.  Are we inspired by our incredible volunteer corps, donors and sponsors?  A lot. Are we delivering valuable help to traumatized people?  We are…UP to the challenge.