Throughout the year, one of the main goals of CLDR has been to expand our local services across the nation. It is our vision to have CLDR certified child life specialists responding to small-scale local events through systematic integration with their local emergency entities – American Red Cross, Emergency Management Agencies, first responders, etc. Through collaboration, we believe CLDR will be able to provide a much-needed service to children and families affected by these daily disasters (e.g., home fires, acts of violence, small floods) across the nation. The CLDR local task force was initiated to achieve this goal. They hope to initiate new pilot programs, support and empower CLDR Local Program Managers and Local Responders, and seek additional resources needed for integration and support as identified. We are extremely grateful for the CLDR Local Task Force leaders:
Genevieve Lowry, Erin Silber, & Gail Klayman
If you are interested in becoming more involved with the CLDR local task force, please let us know by filling out this form.
We are deeply grateful that we are not alone in our mission to achieve this goal! 
Veterans United Foundation (VUF) is generously providing their support to jump-start this initiative with us. In addition to immediate assistance in upgrading our operations with computer equipment, they committed to providing 50 local responder packs for future responses.
These local expansion packs are made to be ultra portable and can be utilized when CLDR responds to local calls for help. In addition, these packs can be brought to national deployments with Children’s Disaster Services as additional items to the larger kits provided by CDS.
So what’s inside the pack? We intentionally selected items for supporting children following any type of disaster. Since play is a child’s method for all types of processing, learning, and making sense of the world around them, the items revolve around expressive play. CLDR aims to provide the tools necessary for the children to do their work with the support of a certified child life specialist in the immediate hours of the disaster’s impact. From tiny emergency vehicles to puppets to books that help children process their newly changing worldview – these kits are full thanks to VUF!
Supplies are ordered and in the coming weeks the employees of Veterans United Home Loans will assist in putting the packs together.
These local packs will kick starting this years initiative of strengthening our local response across the nation and we are incredible grateful for the services of the CLDR local task force members and the support from Veterans United Foundation to make this a reality.
