Emergency Services

Disaster Assistance Program


Disaster Assistance
Leaving Tsunami Zone signThe Disaster Assistance Program is funded under contract with the California Employment Development Department. These funds were used to hire individuals who have lost or cannot return to their jobs due to a declared natural disaster. Additionally, this program served individuals who had been unemployed long term and were unlikely to return to work in their previous career or industry.

The main goal of the Disaster Assistance Project was to assist with community repairs and clean up to enable resumption of regular employment. This program attempts to minimize the negative impacts of a disaster by:

  • Maintaining employment of those directly displaced due to the disaster, and persons who have been unemployed long term due to being dislocated or displaced from their primary occupations because of industry decline and/or plant closures;
  • Reduce the impact on the Public Assistance and Unemployment Insurance Benefits systems.
  • Reduce the financial impacts on Public and Private non-profit agencies by providing a workforce to rebuild facilities and clean-up damages due to the declared disaster(s).
  • Support local private sector service and retail industries by helping to maintain consumer base incomes.

American Indian Rapid Response Project
Rapid Response is a strategy designed to respond to major layoffs, plant closings, disasters, and similar events by quickly coordinating services and facilitating the provision of immediate aid to affected workers.