The Mississippi Red cross and NAACP are combining forces to better prepare for and respond to disasters in poor and minority communities. The partnership is an attempt to work with under-served areas statewide.
The goal of the agreement the two groups signed is to work together to train Mississippians in poor and minorities communities to improve disaster response.
State NAACP president Derrick Johnson says they have more than one-hundred years of developing networks in the black community around Mississippi.
"So often times people outside the community may know what impact a disaster would have on certain communities but we would know immediately," Johnson said.
The two organizations are trying to help people like Nekita Beverly whose home was damage in the spring tornados, but found a lack of emergency response in her area.
"This storm was a first time experience for myself and my children because we were caught in the storm. Due to the lack of assistance that we received that night, I felt like I had to do something," Beverly said.
Beverly is now a partner with the NAACP and Red Cross to help bring assistance to people in her neighborhood.
John Brown with the Red Cross says the organization has multiple similar agreements with other groups and finds them to be helpful in the chaos that follows a disaster.
"So whenever you can get a partner with an organization that knows the community and then we deliver those services. It helps us be more effective, saves money and time. So diversity is the key that we have with effort and resources," Brown said.
The agreement is a renewal of a partnership started in the wake of Hurricane Katina when many poor and minority areas were unprepared for the storm and felt overlooked in the emergency response.
