wfn.org | Disaster News Web site to launch in October

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Sept. 22, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
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By United Methodist News Service

A World Wide Web site providing comprehensive information on faith-based
responses to tornadoes, floods, hurricanes and other disasters will be
officially launched Oct. 1.

Funding partners of Disaster News Network (http://www.disasternews.net)
include the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) and Church
World Service, the relief agency of the National Council of Churches.
The site is already up and running.
 
The idea for the site originated from another faith-based Internet site
called Village Life, said 
the Rev. Jim Skillington, a United Methodist pastor in the
Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. He is executive director of
villagelife.org, a not-for-profit communications ministry.

While running Village Life, he discovered that gathering news about
disaster response was "a nearly impossible proposition." Skillington
also found the need for a news site with a more narrow focus than
Village Life, so he talked with people in the faith-based disaster
response community to see if a disaster-related network could be built.

Out of those conversations, a case study was conceived. UMCOR and United
Methodist Communications were among the organizations that funded the
study.

"One of the basic findings of the study was there was no infrastructure
to support the reporting out of the news to the church public,"
Skillington said. Church members did learn about their denomination's
disaster response efforts three or four weeks after the fact, but not
"in a timely manner." And small, local disasters were getting scant
attention.

The study showed that the secular press had trouble getting information
on how a broad spectrum of churches responded to disasters, and the news
media were hesitant to report what only one denomination was doing.

Skillington presented the findings to the Domestic Disaster Roundtable
of Church World Service, which represents more than 25 faith-based
organizations. They decided to move forward with the Internet site, he
said.

He has been testing the site, originally called Disaster Response
Network, online since early May. It had received more than 50,000 page
views by the end of June. By the end of August, free-lance writers had
contributed more than 200 original stories.

The site offers daily news items and the state news pages. 

"We're committed to continuing coverage of a story as long as someone is
still helping in that disaster," Skillington said.

What's "news" at Disaster News Network can vary each time a user checks
in. On Sept. 17, for example, flood-related stories - from Fort Scott,
Kan., to Del Rio, Texas, to Albany, Ga. - dominated the news. Feature
stories also pointed out why this year's harvest will be "bleak" for
maple producers and why used clothes generally are not welcome donations
for disaster victims. About 300 viewers have signed up for a weekly
e-mail summary of news stories.

A second component is a database of volunteer opportunities, providing
"a point of entry for our faith-based organizations." The database is
not yet comprehensive, but two new listings are being added each week.

An "Online Giving" component is under construction. When completed, it
will allow funding partners to accept donations in five different ways -
by regular mail or telephone pledge, or by using a credit card, Internet
check or electronic bank transfer online.

While Skillington does not anticipate that online giving "will instantly
produce lots of money," he noted that it is becoming a proven method of
giving, based on the experiences of other nonprofit organizations.

Disaster News Network is updated at least once a day and sometimes more
frequently. 

"The Internet provides us a way of communicating quickly and
effectively," Skillington said, "and that's what we're trying to do with
this site."

# # #

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/