Bervera and Womack knew they had to do something to help their members. Despite warnings that people were being turned away from the city at gun point, they found their way back into New Orleans and began the search for juveniles and their families. In that first week, they also decided to raise money to help the families. And at the same time, they began to deal with their own personal losses: they discovered that Womack’s Broadmoor home had taken on 5 feet of water. “It was really disheartening,” Bervera remembers.
FFLIC: Providing immediate aid for youth and their families after the storm Once state officials learned about the young people detained in Orleans Parish Prison, they contacted FFLIC to help them locate their families, so that the kids could be released into their custody. The FFLIC team went to the Convention Center and the Superdome in New Orleans, asking people if one of their family members was a detained juvenile. They went to shelters in Houston and other cities asking the same question. “We put on our FFLIC t-shirts and walked around,” Bervera said, “and it worked. I’ll never forget finding my first grandmother.” With the help of 40 volunteers in at least 15 states, FFLIC was eventually able to match every single one of the detained juveniles with their families and have them released into family custody.
With this “reunification” project underway, FFLIC sent out an e-mail to its friends and acquaintances asking for support. The staff relocated to Lake Charles, found office space—and then Hurricane Rita hit. Bervera remembers, “It was our next blow. Everyone was roaming Lake Charles in a daze, drinking FEMA water—but Lake Charles bounced back.”
Soon, thanks to that early email, FFLIC started receiving donations, mostly from individuals, but also from the Twenty-first Century Fund. They raised over $100,000. The funds were then split among the families in the program, allotted according to need. In the Lake Charles office there is a framed collage of the hand-written cards that came in with the donations.
