Florida’s much-criticized Project H.O.P.E. (Helping Our People in Emergencies) gave the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) its $22 million worth, according to a recent report from Department of Homeland Security’s Office of the Inspector General. Inquiry into the now-defunct project, which was charged with providing crisis counseling to victims of Hurricanes Wilma and Katrina, was sparked by a series of Florida Sun-Sentinel reports claiming project counselors were unqualified, counseling techniques were unorthodox and wasteful, and program workers violated federal fundraising restrictions.

Despite the 2006 articles, the Inspector General report found the project “provided a wide range of crisis counseling services, reached a substantial portion of the Florida survivors of Hurricanes Wilma and Katrina, and used a variety of accepted, long standing and professionally approved methods….”

In conjunction with the investigation into possible mismanagement of the program, funded by a FEMA Crisis Counseling Training and Assistance Program grant, the report also examined the overall performance of the Crisis Counseling program. Recommendations for FEMA included:

  • Work with grant recipients and government agencies to exchange survivor information, publicize available services, and identify those in need of counseling;
  • Increase oversight by requiring on-site observation of counseling services; and
  • Develop measurements of project effectiveness and requiring recipients to provide a strategy to measure behavioral and emotional progress.

For the full text of the 40-page report, visit the Department of Homeland Security website.