Our Name
The word compass comes from the latin words com – meaning “together” – and possus – meaning “pace or step”.
Combined, the word compass means to step together or journey together.
The number 82 is in honor of the community where we first began – off Exit 82 of the Garden State Parkway.
On October 29, 2012, Hurricane Sandy made landfall in New Jersey, causing loss of life and billions of dollars in property damage. Ocean County, New Jersey was the hardest hit area in the state, but was without an organization to lead recovery efforts. This is when Compass 82, originally established as the Ocean County Long Term Recovery Group (OCLTRG), was born. OCLTRG was established as a community-based Long Term Recovery Group to provide resources, information, and support to the tens of thousands of impacted residents in Ocean County.
For six years OCLTRG assisted the residents of Ocean County with their Hurricane Sandy recoveries – providing direct financial assistance, housing assistance, and disaster case management services. OCLTRG also provided volunteer management and interagency coordination across a network of nonprofits, voluntary agencies, and faith- and community-based organizations. This creative and collaborative approach to disaster recovery laid the groundwork for OCLTRG to become the most successful and longest-running Long Term Recovery Group in the state, eventually serving the entire state of NJ as the last remaining LTRG assisting Hurricane Sandy survivors.
From 2012 to 2018 OCLTRG assisted over 5,000 households with their recoveries from Hurricane Sandy. Having started from scratch in a community that had never experienced a large-scale natural disaster before, it was clear that the experiences of OCLTRG could benefit other communities – and perhaps shorten their learning curve following a disaster. In 2017 OCLTRG evolved into Compass 82 allowing us to expand our services nationwide while still honoring the local communities we were originally founded to serve.
Nationally, Compass 82 has served nearly 30 communities following a disaster, providing education, advocacy, materials, direct financial support, and mostly importantly… hope.