On August 29, 2005 the Mississippi Gulf Coast and surrounding regions were devastated by Hurricane Katrina, resulting in our nation’s largest and costliest natural disaster. Mississippi Protection and Advocacy responded immediately in order to ensure accessibility in shelters to those with disabilities. In February of 2006 DRMS became part of the national case management consortium that was developed in response to the challenging needs of recovery, called Katrina Aid Today. Our role in the consortium, under the umbrella of the National Disability Rights Network, was to assist qualifying families, that had a disability in the household, achieve long-term recovery goals from the hurricane’s devastation. With nine national consortium partners and 16 local members, assistance was provided in 34 states, as persons displaced by the storm sought to rebuild their lives.

Working closely with other agencies was a vital part of the effort to reach our goals for the clients, and this was made even more possible by our sub-grant with the Institute for Disability Studies at the University of Southern Mississippi.

The road was long and the sacrifices by our team were great, but as the process evolved, we were proud to be able to say that Disability Rights Mississippi played an important role in fighting for the recovery needs of the underserved disability population on the Gulf Coast. As Katrina Aid Today came to a close, we bridged over into the new phase of recovery in MS and were also proud to be a  part of the Mississippi Case Management Consortium. This was a statewide program utilizing a consortium of affiliate organizations in order to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate their efforts to provide high quality disaster case management services.

As of the end of June 2010 DRMS's role in this program will come to an end. We are no longer a part of the case management services being provided for the remaining recovery needs of individuals with disabilities, and while this ending is somewhat bittersweet, DRMS looks back on this time with the knowledge that we are better equipped for another disaster and that the relationships that were built will last for years to come. 

 The MCMC program does continue, only on a different scale, as the remaining needs have evolved, and the focus has shifted towards housing solutions. 

For more information regarding this program, please visit the informative web-site at www.mc-mc.org.

The mission of the Mississippi Case Management Consortium (MCMC) is to deliver high quality disaster case management services to clients who meet eligibility criteria by focusing on the case management processes of assessment, planning, advocacy, linking and monitoring.

The goal of MCMC is to ensure that clients of Hurricane Katrina and Rita with remaining disaster-caused housing needs transition from FEMA supported temporary housing to a permanent and sustainable housing solution.