Using Community Navigation Data to Build Innovative Disaster Response Tools

Description:
Community Navigation providers are uniquely positioned to support communities before, during, and after disasters. VIA LINK, the 211 provider for Southeast Louisiana, partnered with Louisiana VOAD to transform 211 data into a suite of disaster intelligence tools that improve situational awareness, identify unmet needs, and support more effective decision-making.

By combining Community Navigation data with datasets such as FEMA assistance, demographic information, and community resource data, these dashboards and mapping tools help emergency managers, nonprofits, and funders better understand disaster impacts and direct resources where they are needed most.

Join this webinar to learn how these tools were developed, see real-world examples from disaster activations, and explore how similar approaches can be adapted and replicated in your own community.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain how Community Navigation data can be integrated with other public datasets to improve disaster response and recovery.

• Identify practical ways dashboards and mapping tools can support situational awareness, resource coordination, and decision-making during disasters.

• Describe the key steps and partnerships needed to develop and replicate similar disaster data tools in other communities.

Speaker: Andrew Holbein, Vice President of Data and Resource Development, VIA LINK

Andrew Holbein is the Vice President of Data and Resource Development for VIA LINK, which provides 211 services for Greater New Orleans.  He has worked in a range of government and nonprofit roles and has a passion for helping organizations improve their data capacity to better serve residents.  Andrew is the Board President of Louisiana VOAD, the umbrella organization for nonprofits and other organizations that work in disaster response in Louisiana.  He previously served as the Board President for the Gulf Coast Evaluators Network, the American Evaluation Association's affiliate for Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Andrew lives in New Orleans with his wife and two children.