“We are still recovering from Sandy in many ways,” he said. “The biggest challenge for my family is dealing with so many different entities and agencies and organizations and how to deal with surveyors, contractors, FEMA, Red Cross, New York Rising…not that all of these helped by the way.”
Tragedies like Steinke’s support why the Lutheran Church of Our Savior, which has a branch in Mineola, is looking to help victims still dealing with the tragedy. Steinke himself will serve as a counselor for victims.
The church’s counseling center will have $200,000 in grant money available to help Nassau County families who have been impacted by Sandy. Church reps say the funds will be aimed towards establishing programs and seminars that will aid victims in dealing with financial and mental struggles along with navigating federal agencies for funds.
“It felt like you were appointed an orchestra leader of an assembly of musicians that I’ve never met before,” said Steinke of handling all the organizations. “Help is available but accessing the help is extremely chaotic. If you want help, the only way to get it is to be persistent.”
The Lutheran Disaster Response of New York and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America administered the grants. The church would be reimbursed for costs that come from the Sandy counseling sessions.
“Don’t give up hope,” said Steinke. “Be persistent. There is help, but it may be hard to find. Keep pushing.”
The counseling end helps disaster residents, while seminars are geared toward churches and agencies to help people prepare for disasters.
The center holds “faith-based counseling” which hones in on an individual’s faith as a part of sessions. Adapting it to Sandy issues is key, says the church Executive Director Molly Blancke.
“The counseling for Sandy has increased,” Blancke stated. “We were seeing very few people until about six months after the disaster because people don’t think of mental health issues right away. They’re frustrated with rebuilding.”
Blancke says there’s “little or no cost” and that the grant would subsidize what people couldn’t afford. “If they can afford to pay something, they do. Most people pay very little or nothing.”
“Most of it is for counseling,” she said. “We also do some seminars. This year we have seminars available for staff development, doing disaster planning with mental health as the focus.”
Mental health for Alan Steinke was his family. Without them, he said he would have been lost.
“Without the help of my wife and daughter, I would not have been able to navigate these systems,” he said. “I would have given up. Our greatest blessing was finding a rental home in North Amityville. We thought we’d only be there for seven or eight months. We were there for 15 months.”
The Lutheran Church of Our Savior is located at 132 Jefferson Ave. in Mineola. For more information about these upcoming programs, contact the church at 516-746-3824.
