Requirements for Participation

• Basic Requirements
• Levels of Access
• Recovery Access
• LTR Access
• Coordination Access
• Situational Awareness Access
• Public Access
• Government Access
• Establishing Reputability
• The Local Coordinator

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Basic Requirements

In order to participate in Crisis Cleanup, an organization must:

• Have a physical presence in the area ("boots on the ground" or a call center)
• Interact directly with survivors
• Perform property assessments or remediation (assessments, debris removal, muck-outs, rebuilding, etc.)
• Have organizational capacity to be responsible (e.g. no clubs, Facebook groups. However, emergent organizations and scout troops are OK, as long as they have capacity)
• Be a reputable organization (Incorporation is not always necessary, but individuals may not join independently).

Additional requirement for for-profit organizations:

• No pecuniary interests in recovery work (E.g. If you earn money doing disaster relief work, you may not have access. Contractors and insurance adjusters are not allowed even if they promise to volunteer. However, a for-profit company volunteering their employees are OK).

Crisis Cleanup has a bias for inclusion—that is, any organization that meets all four requirements should be allowed to participate, absent some extenuating or unforeseen circumstance.

For full access, all four elements are required, which means that not every organization will be allowed to participate. For example, the American Red Cross and county offices of emergency management (OEM) are certainly reputable, and always has a physical presence in the area, but do not usually perform the type of cleanup work that Crisis Cleanup facilitates; therefore, the Red Cross and emergency management would typically have lesser access, unless they meet all requirements. Similar restrictions apply to local governments, unless they play a direct assessment or active coordination role in disaster recovery.

Non-VOAD and spontaneous grassroots organizations that can demonstrate reputability and capacity are encouraged to join Crisis Cleanup.

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Levels of Access

Crisis Cleanup helps organizations that interact directly with survivors, as they fix damaged property after a disaster. Crisis Cleanup is designed to be used by people who carry shovels and wear boots, not suits. Making sure that the system remains useful to workers and team leaders on the ground, as well as maintaining the trust and respect of the participating organizations are the project's top priorities.

As a side-effect of normal usage, Crisis Cleanup becomes a repository of valuable data to other relief and government agencies. Our goal is to respect the privacy of clients while while sharing de-identified disaster information with as many organizations as possible, to promote the public welfare and a speedy recovery efforts. To that end, Crisis Cleanup permits multiple levels of access to organizations that meet some (but not all) of the basic requirements above.

Level of Access	Typical Examples	Description
Recovery Access: Complete access to client database and maps. Limits: Some personal information for other organizations' cases is hidden when downloading large lists.	United Way 2-1-1, Faith Communities, Team Rubicon, Samaritan's Purse, UMCOR, Habitat for Humanity, Mennonite Disaster Service.	Your organization interacts directly with survivors to assess, muck out, remove debris, rebuild, etc.
LTR Access: Full access to client data within a Long Term Recovery Group's jurisdiction (e.g. county or parish), or any claimed or reported cases. Limits: All sensitive information for cases outside the organization's jurisdiction is hidden.	Long Term Recovery Group, Unmet Needs Committee.	Your organization does long-term case work or rebuilding in a specific location like a county.
Coordination Access: Full access for client data and maps claimed or reported by affiliates. Redacted access to other survivors' information. Limits: By default, any sensitive information is hidden, except as shared by affiliates.	HQ office of a national organization with regional affiliates in the field.	Your organization does NOT interact directly with survivors in this capacity, but DIRECTLY oversees organizations that do.
Situational Awareness Access: Access to Preliminary Damage Assessment and situational awareness data, but not personally identifying information (PII). Limits: Sensitive information is always hidden, even for cases within the organization's jurisdiction. Outside its jurisdiction, only general case type, status, and aggregated statistics are available. Case notes, details, all personal information, precise location, and other sensitive data is hidden.	State & County Offices of Emergency Management, American Red Cross, Salvation Army.	Your organization does NOT interact directly with survivors in this capacity, but only needs general situational awareness and statistics.
Public Access: Access to de-identified public maps and data. Limits: Only general case type and status are available. Case notes, details, all personal information, precise location, and other sensitive data is hidden. User may not claim work sites.	Website visitors and other members of the public	Members of the public who may benefit from basic, de-identified disaster information.

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Government Access

Can government access Crisis Cleanup? Yes. Government typically has "Situational Awareness" access, described above.

Note to the occasional aggressive EM: Please do not waste your time and ours by threatening, bullying, or demanding unfettered access to Crisis Cleanup. We don't feel that the data is ours to give to you, and bullying won't help your case. If you need more data, don't waste your time trying to convince us; talk to your local VOADs and relief organizations. They are authorized to release any information they deem appropriate.

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Establishing Reputability

The most common, and preferred method of establishing reputability is to be a member of National VOAD, a state VOAD, or local COAD, or obtain a recommendation from a VOAD member or government agency. Organizations without VOAD links that can demonstrate a track record of post-disaster property remediation are also considered reputable. In some instances, upstart or grassroots organizations provide substantial assistance to disaster survivors, and cannot always establish working relationships with VOAD members in the "heat of battle." In those rare circumstances where a recommendation is not possible, grassroots organizations may establish reputability by demonstrating that they do quality work, typically through interviews with people they have assisted or demonstrating a track record of disaster response. Recommendations are always preferred.

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Policy Effective: November 1, 2013. Last Updated: June 4, 2014 (Clarified that Red Cross and local governments may have full access if they meet all requirements); May 8, 2014 (Clarified Reputability may be established by establishing a track record; call centers servicing an affected area satisfy the physical presence requirement); February 6, 2015 (Clarified role of Local Coordinator by changing name from "Local Admin" to "Local Coordinator"); November 24, 2015 (Clarified Local Coordinator's time commitments diminish during long term recovery); May 25, 2017 (Clarified conditions under which government may have access); September 12, 2017 (Clarified for-profit organization policy); October 28, 2018 (Added Organizational Capacity); April 27, 2022 (Updated access level descriptions, added LTR Access, removed most of the "Government Access" section, removed "Local Coordinator.").