History

1989 Origin

The Santa Clara County Collaborating Agencies’ Disaster Relief Effort (CADRE) emerged from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. One of the primary goals of CADRE was to create a support system to better serve the many vulnerable populations in Santa Clara County and create a system to organize the different types of CBOs who may help with response and recovery in a disaster. CADRE formed an “umbrella” organization to identify and bring together these different groups. Once the groups were defined, each group designated a lead agency.

The CADRE Network was initially funded from the Northern California Disaster Preparedness Network with money donated to the American Red Cross from the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake. CADRE was able to hire staff to manage the network and its related projects with these funds. In the mid 1990’s, the Loma Prieta funds were no longer available, and CADRE existed primarily on the dedication and commitment of its member agencies.

2004 Revitalization

In the post 9/11 period during 2004, the Santa Clara County Emergency Managers’ Association decided to designate Homeland Security Grant Program project funds to serve the needs of vulnerable populations. These funds helped renew CADRE’s efforts and committed a limited amount of staff and consultant time to the CADRE Network under the leadership of the Volunteer Center Silicon Valley.

This emerging CADRE Network was activated for both the 2005 Hurricane Katrina evacuees who arrived in Santa Clara County and the Cold Weather emergency of 2007 (see Attachment 2: CADRE Katrina Executive Summary and Attachment 3: CADRE Cold Weather Alert). CADRE’s response in these two events helped to further support the re-emergence of the Network and define its operational abilities. In 2007, CADRE was awarded grant funding for 2008 to further develop its written operational protocols to support Santa Clara County response and recovery efforts.

2010 CADRE 3.0

CADRE 3.0 emerged in 2010, following the demise of the Volunteer Center Silicon Valley in 2009. Led by a partnership of American Red Cross Silicon Valley, United Way Silicon Valley and Swardenski Consulting, the efforts focused on stabilizing the CADRE Network, developing a three-year Strategic Plan to guide future program and planning efforts and continued education and training for CADRE member agencies.

In October 2019, CADRE received its 501(c)3 tax exempt nonprofit status and, in the midst of COVID 19, began to build an organization to address the unique needs of our county.