City holds press conference to discuss training volunteers for weather assistance

JACKSON, Tenn. — A press conference was held at Jackson City Hall to discuss the ways the city will be preparing for assistance during bad weather, like we had a few months ago.

In response to the weather events we had in January of this year and the cold weather centers that were opened, there were talks after the fact of how to better serve the community when this happens in the future.

The Minister of Community Engagement at the All Saints Anglican Church in Jackson, Olivia Abernathy, tells us more about these talks.

“The cold weather event that we had in January, there were some ways that were last minute that we were scrambling to get volunteers,” Abernathy said. “The First United Methodist Church was having to pull a lot of weight getting volunteers and opening up their church. So part of the debrief was needing trained volunteers that are ready to go when it is time.”

The training will be on April 30 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the All Saints Anglican Church. Abernathy talks more about the training that will be provided.

“There will be service providers that will come in to provide parts of the training. There will be training from the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse about trauma informed care, working with people that potentially have mental illness or substance abuse problems. Then there will also be training about policies and procedures and things like that,” Abernathy said.

While this training is a great step to better serving the community in these events, there are still talks about more ways that the surrounding area can provide assistance.

“So the conversations that we’ve had are what can we give to each church as kind of an action step that they can be responsible for,” said Abernathy. “I know that there were some churches that provided hygiene bags, there were some churches that provided clothes and things like that. So really trying to work together as a faith community and give each church some way to get involved.”

Abernathy also said that they will attempt to provide training twice a year, in the spring and in the fall. If you are not able to go to the trainings and volunteer that way, you can always call to see how you can help.

Click here for more information on how to sign up for the training.

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