PRC Compassion
655 St. Ferdinand Street
Baton Rouge, LA 70802
225 490.9541

To read our Annual Report, click here.  For Staff Bios, click here.

To view our Congressional Commendation, click here.

PRC COMPASSION is an inter-denominational cooperative network of more than 500 churches and ministries that formed in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita from around the nation and world networked to address community needs, distribute relief, and to provide aid to the devastated regions along the gulf south. The organization is an outgrowth of Louisiana Family Forum’s Pastors Resource Council. Louisiana Family Forum was established in 1998 as a statewide non-profit working to promote traditional family values through education, networking, research and communication. In 2004, LFF passed a state constitutional amendment to protect traditional marriage.

In the face of crisis, the leadership of the Pastors Resource Council realized that they had been provided a most important and unprecedented opportunity - “To Serve Our Neighbors.” These leaders expanded on the networked groundwork that had already been laid by LFF and determined to make a difference in the lives of the millions of people affected by the storms. Since that time, the mission has been to coordinate local, state, and national, faith-based community organizations to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of those impacted by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The PRC COMPASSION team has fully engaged the tasks of Rescue (providing temporary shelters after the storms’ devastation); Relief (supplying food/water, facilitating medical assistance, providing various heavy equipment, directing volunteers to various locations, providing chaplains/counselors to affected evacuees); Relocation (connecting evacuees with churches willing to assist them); and Restoration (directing clean-up and construction crews for removal of debris).

PRC COMPASSION’s three-fold strategy of Communication, Connection, and Action has enabled us to channel an astounding volume of resources and volunteers into the hardest hit areas of the region, producing amazing results:

Starting on August 29, 2005 and for the following 200 days, PRC Compassion accomplished:

60 Churches reopened
500 Faith-based organizations networked
550 Evacuees given a fresh start
684 Counselors/Chaplains trained & ministering
1,587 Delivery trucks routed
5,952 Medical encounters facilitated
14,092 Volunteers deployed
59,200 Nights safely sheltered
490,379 Volunteer hours logged
2,853,100 People serviced at relief sites
61,260,000 Pounds of Resources distributed

From the beginning, PRC COMPASSION partnered with the United States Emergency Chaplains Corps and 15 national Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) teams to care for the emotional and spiritual needs of city including state law enforcement, First Responders, National Guard, Coastguard, and FEMA. We looked out for the leaders so that they could look out for those they serve. Our chaplain tents were an immediate anchor in hurricane-blasted communities, as people returned to their homes for the first time following the storms. Workers served hundreds of meals daily, listened with a compassionate ear, provided “coffee cup counseling” and conducted prayer with individuals and the masses. Within the first thirty days, PRC Compassion launched 520 ministry teams out to shelters across the three-state area. Our Chaplain teams have spent countless hours locating evacuated pastors and their families. Many displaced pastors are being “adopted” by churches from nearly every state in the Union. These pastors are receiving both financial as well as spiritual care. We continue to find and encourage pastors and church leaders who have been displaced by these horrific disasters to come back and become pillars of strength to their local communities.

PRC COMPASSION set up 84 faith based shelters and placed local and out-of-state volunteers in additional American Red Cross shelters across south Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. We were able to distribute food and water to thousands of families successfully. Nearly 200 churches in partnership with us opened their doors to house over 11,000 evacuees. We partnered and helped manage one of the largest Red Cross shelters in the nation, the Cajun Dome in Lafayette, Louisiana as well as other facilities including the River Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

We established relationships with local governments and relief organizations throughout the affected region to meet strategic needs: feeding evacuees and relief workers, clearing homes and roads of debris, assisting thousands of displaced people as they dealt with their losses, and supplying generators to individuals as well as local, state, and federal government agencies. In addition, a team of our volunteers helped find new beginnings for over 500 displaced victims with homes and jobs, while tending to their spiritual healing as well. Our team continues to look for volunteers interested in ministering the life, hope, and peace of Jesus by giving a glass of water, a plate of food, and a helping hand.

From the smallest of rural towns to the largest of cities, the words “help” and “donate” touched everyone’s heart. Since the inception of PRC, over 25 strategically located relief centers have been formed to distribute more than 1,587 trucks full of food and supplies (which is over 61 million pounds) to the greatest points of need spanning from Gulfport, Mississippi to the flooded streets of St. Bernard Parish, to wind-torn East Texas and Southwest Louisiana. We have experienced the awesome and deep, heartfelt compassion of men, women, and children as they have gathered their individual resources to help three southern states. In addition, our team has been able to generate resources from various state, nation, and international contacts, direct outside resources to areas that can accommodate those resources, integrate changing ideas and procedures with transportation efforts, manage transportation logistics both statewide and nationally.

PRC COMPASSION partnered with 22 doctors, 22 nurses, and many therapists, paramedics, and administrative volunteers from all over our nation helped us launch the initial mobile medical unit. To date, 5,952 one-on-one doctor consultations have occurred. With many of the medical clinics and buildings inoperable at the onset of this horrific disaster, it was of the utmost importance that medical teams reach the people via mobile clinics in order to treat the medical needs, administer vaccinations, and give various medical treatment.

When you look at the magnitude of the numbers of people that were impacted by the devastation of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, you can say that the PRC COMPASSION team has only touched the tip of the iceberg. As thousands of people continually return to their home areas, more and more assistance will be necessary. We are expanding our collaboration of efforts in order to forge deeper relationships and communication. This plan consists of establishing an infrastructure that helps direct energies, communication, and increases coordination efforts. Prayer teams have been focusing on elected officials, relief workers, military personnel, and all those people who are serving others.

PRC COMPASSION is bringing “Hope within Reach.”

Core Responsibilities:
Supplying food, water and other basic needs.
Providing various heavy equipment.
Sending laborers to work at cleaning up churches.
Providing counselors for the emotional needs of those effected by the Hurricane Katrina and the aftermath.

Our Mission
To coordinate national, state, and local faith and community-based organizations to meet the physical, emotional, and spiritual needs of people impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

Our Leadership
Pastoral Oversight Committee:

Dino Rizzo - Healing Place Church - Baton Rouge, LA
www.healingplacechurch.org

Jacob Aranza - Our Savior’s Church - Lafayette, LA
www.oursaviorschurch.com

Steve Robinson - Church of the King - Mandeville, LA
www.churchofthekinginfo.com

Gene Mills - Louisiana Family Forum - Baton Rouge, LA
www.lafamilyforum.org

Strategic Advisors
Tony Perkins - Family Research Council - Washington, DC
www.frc.org

Larry Stockstill - Bethany World Prayer Center - Baker, LA
www.bethany.com

Fred Luter - Franklin Avenue Baptist Church - New Orleans, LA
www.franklinabc.com

Dennis Watson - Celebration Church - Jefferson Parish, LA
www.celebrationchurch.org

Dr. Jere Mellili - Christian Life Fellowship - Baton Rouge, LA
www.christianlife-btr.com

Our Strategies
Communication – to establish communication among government entities and communities of compassion.
Connection – to serve as a connecting point among various agencies to meet the shelter, food and water, equipment, labor, and counseling needs of individuals and communities.
Action – to articulate a clear Plan of Action to coordinate government and faith-based congregations to meet the needs of people impacted by Hurricane Katrina. Our Procedures
PRC Compassion has been established as the central point for intake of donations and human resources. All organizations that wish to make donations should call 800 606-6470.

For specific questions, please email us.