TigerNews | TOP continues to reach out to Katrina survivors

Long after other agencies are gone, TOP continues to stay involved with the Katrina survivors. It has been a year since the August 2005 Katrina and Rita hurricanes devastated the US Gulf Coast and TOP’s presence is still strong in Louisiana. Since January this year, TOP has provided training in Trauma First Aide® to more than a hundred mental health professionals, crisis counselors and case managers, nurses, Red Cross volunteers, and firemen in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Funded by grant monies from Catholic Charities, USA, TOP has offered four 3-day classes to professionals both directly affected and professionals working with the hurricane survivors. The trainings are going very well with word-of-mouth spreading and class attendance growing. After the training for the Firemen, they were quoted saying, “We wish we would have had this training before Katrina!” We expect to receive additional funding in 2007 for more training.