This month, United Rescue Alliance became a member of the Abilene Chamber of Commerce! This is a great opportunity for United Rescue Alliance to plug in even further to the community of Abilene. We will have more information in the coming weeks but wanted to share this exciting update!

At the end of July, URA traveled to Tel Aviv, Israel to teach a summer course called Public Health Consequences of Disasters Addressed Through MESSH Response to 31 international masters students from Tel Aviv University. During the course, students learned about Whole Community Disaster Preparedness and URA’s response framework: MESSH (Mental, Emotional, Social, and Spiritual Health) from URA CEO and Founder Angel Poorman, and Director of Program Management, Hannah Eager. Dr. Brenda Zamora, Executive Director of URA Guatemala taught students about Disaster Medical Operations. Dr. Brenda Jones from Lee University taught on Public Health consequences during disasters. Finally, Kailey Quiett, URA’s Emergency Management Coordinator taught about Incident Command Structure in disasters. All of these topics came together to give students a complete picture of MESSH focused disaster response specific to Public Health.

Thanks to generous donations from URA partner, Watts of Love, each student received a solar light to use during disaster response!

The team spent months preparing for this course and were immensely grateful for the opportunity to partner with Tel Aviv University to bring this course to fruition!

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training educates volunteers about basic life saving skills and disaster preparedness. Team members are able to use their new knowledge and skills to volunteer during disasters and assist emergency response organizations and first responders. CERT training includes topics like fire safety, light search and rescue, disaster medical operations, and disaster preparedness.

United Rescue Alliance wants YOU to be the next CERT member! You are welcome to sign up as an individual but everything is more fun in a group so grab your family, your neighbors, your church, and anyone else you can think of and spend December 4-7th getting CERT trained!

At the end of July, United Rescue Alliance facilitated a leadership development team retreat for Jim Ned CISD at Camp Barkeley Training and Equipping Center. The training included team-building exercises and events. The curriculum included highly vetted group engagement tasks intended to establish team culture, enhance team communication, promote trust, and cultivate team unity. Completion of elements of the rebuilt ropes/challenge course helped facilitate some of the main training objectives. The utilization of the Life Languages communication workshop, led by the Life Languages CEO, Gerald Parsons, was also essential to the overall success of the training!

United Rescue Alliance and Camp Barkeley Training and Equipping Center were honored to work with Jim Ned CISD!

Over the summer, United Rescue Alliance worked with Community Foundation of Abilene to help them prepare their Continuity of Operations Plan. Continuity of Operations Planning, or COOP, is the process of a business preparing its operations and employees for inevitable disasters. At some point, all businesses will face disasters or emergencies. Because the likelihood of a business reopening decreases if they do not have a disaster plan in place, Continuity of Operations Planning is vital!

United Rescue Alliance was honored to assist Community Foundation of Abilene in their planning, and would be honored to do the same for your business! We offer in-person consulting, or virtual, take-at-your-own-pace training. Click the link below to learn more!

During August, Camp Barkeley Training and Equipping Center hosted the Abilene Christian University girls soccer team for an overnight retreat aimed at promoting personal growth. Camp Barkeley also hosted the URA Guatemala family who hosted the URA-Beltway mission trip in July. Finally, The Lions Company, a traveling prophetic and worship team, spent five days at Camp Barkeley the end of August.

In addition to all of these exciting events, Camp Barkeley Training and Equipping Center, created even more VIP dorms and can currently lodge about 40 people. On top of having worship every Tuesday night and Intercession on Thursday, we have now added worship at HOP on Wednesday nights by Michelle Ellis.