Trauma counseling for CFT members impacted by the LA fires
At last count over 200 CFT members have suffered damaged or lost homes from the LA fires, with many more having been forced to evacuate alongside tens of thousands of others in the community.
For those CFT members who have been impacted by the fires, there is an important resource available to you through our national union, the AFT, which provides all active, working members with counseling if they are injured or traumatized by natural disasters like fires.
This invaluable benefit offers one-to-one counseling sessions with a licensed therapist with a master’s degree or higher who has advanced training in post-traumatic incident recovery. To access this resource, go to the member benefits portal on the AFT website.
We are also continually updating our LA fires resources page for those impacted by the fires, including links to apply for the CFT Disaster Relief Fund, one-time FEMA relief of $770, and more. Thanks again to the many CFT members who have donated to the CFT Disaster Relief Fund. Donations of any amount are greatly appreciated.
Additional resources
Staying safe in wildfire regions – A resource page on the CFT website dedicated to air quality issues resulting from wildfires along with additional worker resources from Cal/OSHA.
Lesson plans on the LA fires – AFT’s Share My Lesson has two lesson plans available to help teach about the LA fires: Lesson 1 | Lesson 2.
CFT’s Climate Justice Campaign – The CFT Labor and Climate Justice Education Committee has put together excellent resources to teach about climate change through the lens of an education union. In our Climate Justice Toolkit you will find flyers to distribute to union members and at meetings and by email or text, resolutions and articles, and more resources for teaching and learning.
