Past U.S. disasters have left little doubt that when calamity strikes, government response and recovery is far from the only aid game in town. Although faith- and community-based organizations play an important role in cleaning up catastrophes, little has been done to assure these nongovernmental organizations are coordinated or equipped to roll up their sleeves and join forces with officials.

That trend is beginning to change, however, as state and local governments form coalitions that guide organizations providing emergency response. Missouri is the latest state—joining Florida, Texas, and a few others—in forming an alliance between emergency managers and NGOs, according to a recent article in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The Missouri Governor’s Faith-Based and Community Service Partnership for Disaster Recovery, created by executive order last month, joins 16 state departments with groups ranging from the Missouri Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster to the Missouri Catholic Conference in an attempt to more effectively respond to emergencies. The director of the Department of Homeland Security's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives—a federal group similar to the Missouri partnership—called the plan a model for other states, according to the Post-Dispatch article.

“Missouri has a long history focusing on liaisons with faith-based and community organizations specifically dedicated to disaster,” David Myers told the Post-Dispatch. “Missouri's footprint on this is visionary.”

It’s a vision, though, not shared by all. Although it’s hard to argue against better-prepared volunteers, many are worried about how the separation of church and state are handled in such alliances.

The concern of discrimination on religious grounds has been around since George Bush created his faith-based social initiative early in the decade. Although some have called for the initiative to be revamped so that religious organizations that receive federal money cannot hire or fire based on religion, that gap has yet to be closed.

In Missouri, where organizations won’t be funded by the state, the worry is that those stricken by disaster might endure unwanted religious enlistment—and while officials claim churches operate by a “gentleman’s agreement” not to preach to the disaster weary, they themselves suggest it.

“Send a youth group from your church out into the local community to hand out information," the Post-Dispatch quoted Jackson County Emergency Management Director Mike Curry as telling a group of church and government officials gathered at a Missouri State Emergency Management Meeting. “They'll appreciate it, and we're all interested in church growth.”

Religious issues aside, NGOs can often bring more to the human side of disaster recovery than government response, and a recent report, The Role of Nongovernmental Organizations in Long-Term Human Recovery after Disaster: Reflections from Louisiana Four Years After Hurricane Katrina, found that deploying them early could speed community recovery.

“Human recovery includes things like rebuilding people's social routines and a community's support networks—actions that help restore a community's physical and mental health,” said behavioral scientist and lead author Anita Chandra in a press release. “This is the kind of work nongovernmental organizations can do so well.”