At the national level VOAD is a consortium of recognized national voluntary organizations
active in disaster relief. Its mission is to foster more effective service to people affected by
disasters.

Kentucky VOAD is the Kentucky state chapter of National VOAD. It consists of
organizations active in disaster response throughout the state of Kentucky.

After Hurricane Camille in 1969, it became clear to several of the national organizations who
regularly helped disaster victims that their services were frequently duplicated and
uncoordinated. For example, two organizations would be feeding disaster victims on opposite
corners. Representatives from seven organizations began to meet on a regular basis to share
their respective activities, concerns, and frustrations in disaster response. This developed into
the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster or National VOAD, which now has
more than thirty member organizations, including the American Red Cross, the Salvation
Army, the disaster relief programs of most major religious organizations, and many others.
VOAD is committed to the idea that the best time to train, prepare, and become acquainted
with each other is prior to the actual disaster response.
VOAD bases its mission on these four values:

1)Cooperation. By this we mean that we need each other, that no member organization has all
the answers for the challenges we face. We treat members as partners.

2)Communication. Here we mean the regular sharing of information about our member
organizations – their capacities, accomplishments, and commitments. We try to maintain good
channels for sharing information, listen carefully to each other, and deal openly with
concerns.

3)Coordination. We commit ourselves to work together and not competitively toward our goal
of effective service to disaster victims. We seek to match services to need. Through planning
and preparation, we equip our organizations to behave in a coordinated fashion in time of
disaster.

4)Collaboration. We dedicate ourselves to work together to achieve specific goals and to
undertake specific projects at disaster sites. We form partnerships during the disaster
response.

VOAD itself is never a service-delivery organization – all disaster response services are
provided by the member agencies, under their own organization structure and policies.