Preparedness
Readiness is decided long before the smoke.
A disaster response is not assembled on the day of the disaster. It is assembled out of relationships, phone numbers, and a working understanding of who does what, all of which have to exist before anyone needs them.
In September 2023, Health Matters Clinic participated in the Cal OES Regional Disaster Ready Summit for Los Angeles County, held at the Skirball Cultural Center. It was one of eight summits held across California, convening community organizations, emergency responders, tribal governments and local leaders.
The summit's stated objectives included growing community understanding of the emergency response system and connecting organizations with the local emergency response staff who run it. That is the whole point of attending one: you learn the shape of the system, and you meet the people inside it, at a moment when nothing is on fire.
Sixteen months later the Los Angeles wildfires arrived. On January 18, 2025, HMC ran the L.A. Wildfire Relief Response, deploying 198 volunteers alongside 36 partner organizations in a single day.
The summit, precisely
- Event
- Cal OES Regional Disaster Ready Summit, Los Angeles County
- Date
- September 2023
- Venue
- Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles
- Series
- One of eight summits held across California
- Convened
- Community organizations, emergency responders, tribal governments and local leaders
- Objectives
- Grow community understanding of the emergency response system, and connect organizations with local emergency response staff
- HMC's role
- Attendee and participant. HMC is not a Cal OES certified, trained, or partner agency, and this page makes no such claim.
Learn the system
Attend the regional summit. Understand how county emergency response is structured and who staffs it.
Keep the network warm
Continue running mobile health outreach, street medicine, and wellness events with community partners across Los Angeles.
Deploy
The L.A. Wildfire Relief Response ran on January 18, 2025, from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Twelve hours, 198 volunteers, 36 organizations.
Photography needed
Distribution day, wide establishing shot
No wildfire response photography exists in this repository. This band is deliberately empty rather than filled with imagery from a different Health Matters Clinic program. The README lists every shot required, in priority order.
January 18, 2025
One day, by the numbers.
Every figure below is taken from the L.A. Wildfire Relief Response impact report. Nothing here is an estimate, a projection, or a rounded-up total.
Individuals and families received direct assistance.
Volunteers deployed, including health professionals, logistics teams, and community coordinators.
Hours of service contributed by those volunteers across a twelve hour operating day.
Partner organizations collaborated to coordinate distribution and extend reach.
Essential items distributed, including food, hygiene kits, and medical supplies.
Deliveries made to displaced individuals and to organizations distributing onward to affected populations.
“The ability to deliver supplies to homebound seniors was crucial. Many had no way to access relief centers.”
Community partner organization
“I volunteered because I wanted to give back. Seeing the relief on people’s faces when they received supplies made every moment worthwhile.”
Volunteer
Relief item needs
What people actually asked for.
A survey of 29 participants ranked the items they needed most. The four items above 80 percent are baby wipes, disinfectant wipes, cleaning supplies, and bottled water. Nonperishable food ranks eighteenth, at 51.72 percent.
That ordering is the finding. Hygiene and cleaning supplies outranked food, and by a wide margin. It is not what most people picture when they picture disaster relief, and it is exactly what disaster relief turns out to be: people trying to make a displaced or smoke-damaged space liveable again, keep a baby clean, and stay well enough to deal with everything else.
It also explains why a food drive alone would have missed most of what this community was asking for. Respondents could select more than one item. Percentages are of the 29 people surveyed.
Ranked needs, 1 to 12
Blue bars mark the four items above 80 percent.
Ranked needs, 13 to 23
Food, clothing, and school items sit below every hygiene category.
Operations
How one day reached that many people.
120 individuals and families sought support. Of them, 78 households required immediate relief items. Thirty-six nonprofit and community organizations coordinated distribution, which is what turned a single site into county-wide reach.
The event ran from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, twelve hours of continuous service. Volunteers included health professionals, logistics teams, and community coordinators. Sixteen deliveries went out to displaced individuals and to organizations who distributed onward, because the people most cut off from a relief site are the ones least able to travel to it.
In-kind donations exceeded $200,000. That figure is the reason 980 items could move in a day without a procurement budget behind them.
The day at a glance
- Date
- January 18, 2025
- Hours
- 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, twelve hours of continuous service
- Assisted
- 120 individuals and families
- Households
- 78 required immediate relief items
- Organizations
- 36 nonprofit and community organizations coordinated distribution
- Volunteers
- 198, contributing 1,540 hours
- Deliveries
- 16, to displaced individuals and to distributing organizations
- Items
- 980 essential items distributed
- In-kind
- Donations exceeded $200,000
What was donated
- Hygiene kits, more than 280
- PPE supplies, more than 285 masks, hand sanitizers, and first aid supplies
- Clothing and blankets, more than 700 items
- Baby and child essentials, more than 3,000 items including diapers, clothing, toys, food, and wipes
- Hot meal vouchers, 25
- Gift cards, more than 20
Who was reached
- 120 individuals and families sought support
- 78 households required immediate relief items
- 36 nonprofit and community organizations coordinated distribution
- Homebound residents, including seniors with no way to reach a relief center, were served by delivery
Why partners mattered
- One distribution site cannot cover Los Angeles County
- Partner organizations already hold the trust of the neighborhoods they serve
- Onward distribution reached people who never came to the site
- Gift cards let families buy what their own situation actually required
Partners named in the response report
The impact report names the following organizations alongside Health Matters Clinic, and notes that others contributed beyond this list.
- L.A. Care Health Plan
- Blue Shield Promise Community Resource Centers
- Center of Hope Church
- Council of Black Nurses
- Alzheimer's Association, California Southland Chapter
- Cooking with Gabby
- UC Irvine Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health
- UC Irvine Center for Environmental Health Disparities Research
- Advocates for African American Elders
- Jenesse Center
- Second Baptist Church
Photography needed
Sorting and staging, volunteers at work
A working shot of the distribution line, supply staging, or a delivery loadout would carry this section. Anyone identifiable needs a signed media release on file before publication.
Recovery continues
The distribution day ended. The recovery did not.
A household that received supplies on January 18 was not finished with the fire on January 19. Displacement, lost work, insurance disputes and the mental health load of all three continue long after the last box is handed over.
Health Matters Clinic keeps its doors open to wildfire-affected communities through the programs it already runs. What follows describes what is on offer. No participation counts are published for this work yet, so none are claimed here.
Unstoppable programming
HMC's flagship curriculum for people rebuilding after disruption. Open to residents affected by the wildfires.
Mental health workshops
Group workshops addressing stress, grief, and the aftermath of displacement, run by HMC's mental health team.
Wellness events
Screenings, resources, and community events across Los Angeles County that anyone can attend without insurance, referral, or identification.
Digital tools
HMC's free digital wellness tools stay available between events, for people who cannot get to one or are not ready to.
Join the work
The next response is staffed before it is needed.
198 volunteers turned out on one day in January because a volunteer program already existed to turn out. The way to be useful in the next emergency is to be trained and on the roster before it starts.
Become a volunteer
Every HMC volunteer completes Community Mental Health Worker training, parts one and two. That onboarding is what makes a rapid call-up possible, because the training is already done when the call goes out.
- Training tracked in your volunteer record
- Roles for clinical and non-clinical volunteers
- Ongoing deployments across HMC programs, not disaster response alone
Take the tour
New to Health Matters Clinic and not sure where you would fit? The tour walks through how volunteering works, what training involves, and which programs need which skills, before you commit to anything.
Donate
In-kind donations exceeding $200,000 carried the January response. Cash keeps supplies stocked between emergencies and keeps the recovery programming running after the news cycle moves on.
What the survey said to stock
- Baby wipes and disinfectant wipes
- Cleaning supplies
- Bottled water
- Toilet paper and paper towels
- Feminine hygiene products
- Deodorant, soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toothbrushes
- Diapers
Also ranked highly
- Pillows, blankets, and towels
- Luggage or duffel bags
- Children's clothing and shoes
- Toys for children
- Women's and men's clothing
- Nonperishable food
- Pet food and supplies
Coordinate with us first
- Anything requiring a prescription or a license to distribute
- Perishable food
- Bulk pallets or anything needing storage
- Gift cards, which are handled directly rather than shipped
Email contact@healthmatters.clinic before sending any of the above, so it matches what is needed and there is somewhere to put it.
Where to send supplies
Ship or drop off during business hours. Tell us it is coming so someone is there to receive it.
Health Matters Clinic
Attention: Disaster Relief
1360 S Figueroa St, Suite D390
Los Angeles, CA 90015
Questions: contact@healthmatters.clinic