April 13, 2025 • 15 mins
Original Air Date: April 13, 2025
With expected cuts to FEMA, World Cares Center (dedicated to hyper local disaster response while keeping 1st responders safe) will become an even more critical service. Lisa Orloff founded this great group after she volunteered in the days after 9/11 24 years ago.
With expected cuts to FEMA, World Cares Center (dedicated to hyper local disaster response while keeping 1st responders safe) will become an even more critical service. Lisa Orloff founded this great group after she volunteered in the days after 9/11 24 years ago.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to reintroduce you to a longtime friend, Lisa
Orloff is the founder of Worldcare Center. And the reason
Lisa is joining us this morning is because there have
been so many changes in terms of what's happening with
FEMA and what is going to happen when we have
(00:32):
the next disaster, which we know is right around the corner.
So first of all, just briefly, Lisa, thank you for
coming on, but briefly explain what Worldcare Center does and
how your focus has completely shifted because of rapidly changing
events in DC.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thank you, Shelly, Thank you always for having us on
and being able to highlight these important issues. Worldcare Center
was founded during the nine to eleven with effort, and
over the course of almost twenty five years now, the
way we've delivered our programs have evolved, but our mission
has always been hyper focused on empowering and protecting hyperlocal communities,
(01:15):
individuals and local leaders to be able to respond to
and help their communities recover from disasters. So individuals are
always the first unseen, not because they're going to the disaster,
but because the disaster has happened to them, and we
work with them to train them to protect, provide personal
(01:39):
protective equipment, and to help to coordinate response on that
hyperlocal level. So we like to say everybody can be
a ready responder, and we put those words into action
through our programming.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Now, what's going on with FEMA, because again there's so
much coming out of decent. See, the people actually don't
know everything that's happening, but this is your area of expertise.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Well, as you well know, things change on a dime.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And right now we are hearing that FEMA is going
to be defunded or significantly their their funding is going
to be absolutely significantly reduced, which means that there's a
leaning towards having local municipalities be more responsible for their preparedness, response,
(02:41):
and recovery of their communities. This is something that we
agree that communities need to be empowered to to respond.
They need to be given the trainings, the tools, the resources,
the financial resources to do this. This does happen without
the need for money to hire proper managers to get
(03:06):
the proper equipment.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
All of that. However, this is happening so quickly.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
The concern is that repeated and consistent, increased disasters happening
all the time, and this sudden and abrupt shift leaving
us all scrambling to know where our resources are going
to be in order to respond to the needs of
(03:36):
disaster stricken communities. So we not only have the reduced
funding of FEMA, we have also other funding sources like
nih n I, ehs OSHA. Those funds are being looked
at as well. About a month ago, we had our
(03:57):
reimbursement portal closed off, so we apply for a grant.
A grant is like a contract. You're going to do
this service and you're going to be in reimburse this
money to do this service. This particular service for a
World Care Center was to train our frontline workers on
(04:20):
how to respond to disasters.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
So when they shift from one job which.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Has nothing to do with disaster response, to a job
that puts them on the front line and at risk,
they know how to protect themselves. Well, we've done that,
we want to get reimbursed for that work to pay
our staff.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
And the portal was.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Shut down, so was shut down nationally so everybody was
at a standstill, shocked for several days trying to figure
out what was going to happen. Now, luckily that portal
reopened and we are not one of the organizations who
got our go rescinded. But this is the environment that
(05:04):
we're in where we know that there's a shift and
looking at anybody's organizational structure and the strategy and where
funds are being spent.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Is never a bad thing.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
However, we need to be able to respond to these
crisis and these crises and these disasters, and to take
away funding from organizations that are doing that work across
the board, in my perspective, is a very dangerous thing.
(05:42):
And right now, even if our funds haven't been taken away,
we are all very much wondering when the next show
is going to drop. So our own internal strategy, you know,
we're looking at that as well. So now we're not
(06:03):
focusing so much on you know, we're trying to maintain
our programs, but we're also scrambling to look at how
we or we've got to change.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
How we do what we do.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I mean, we Worldcare Center very small organization, as you know, Shelley,
I work about eighty hours a week for World Care Center.
But that's all donated time. I donate my time to
the organization. We're very small. We repeatedly applied for this
this grant through Ocean about after about eight years of
(06:33):
attempting to do so, we got the grant and which
was a huge win for us and we were able
to do so much more. But we're in our second
year of that grant. We've done quite well in delivering
our programs, but now that's at threat. So you can imagine,
you build, you build, you plan, you you look to
(06:59):
what the next step are, but now the next steps
are very uncertain.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But your organization does exactly what the White House is
saying should be happening, which is putting local people on
the ground where these local disasters happen. So how is
that going to happen?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yes, without that help, that's the conundrum.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So, you know, we know that tem is going to
be cut for more than thirty million dollars they're cutting.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And when do we think this is happening Because we're
just beginning, you know, where we're going to be entering
hurricane season and of course those are the you can't
even you know, really forecast that next catastrophe, but there
are other catastrophes that could happen in the meantime. I mean,
(07:55):
that's this is what you do, you respond to urgencies.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yes, I don't know when this is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
There have been articles that have just come out about
FEMA cutting an important program which is building resilient infrastructure
and communities brick. Now, fortunately, we've never for us personally,
we've never gotten funding from that entity, so it's not
going to impact us. The the other grants that we
get will impact us drastically.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
What we're turning to is.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Our corporate partners, our individual funders, family foundations, and we're
hoping that they're going to really step up and look
at the need and and fill those gaps. And I
(08:50):
will say I always like to look at silver linings,
because you have to in the work that we do.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
We are we are we are going to all of.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Our partners, all of the organizations that that work together,
and we are looking at, Okay, how do we band
together more closely, how do we look at our gaps
and fill each other's gaps and support each other uh
in these uncertain times. And I think that that's a
positive to what's happening.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
We are we are being.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Forced to explore what those partnerships will look like in
this new normal. But listen, disasters are increasing, They're increasing
in frequency, they're increasing in in magnitude. It's not only
natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding, fires, but we're also seeing
(09:51):
an increase in active shooter events.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
You know, at our schools.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
And UH and the the the implication of that, and
those are all programs that we have and that we
deliver free of charge to those that can't afford it,
you know, And so.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
You know, we're looking.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
At what we can do with what we have, looking
at our partners how can we partner and keeping our
fingers crossed that you know that somehow we will be
able to find a decision maker or someone that we
can connect with to better understand what's happening, to make
(10:40):
our case for why we should exist, and maybe even
highlight that what we do do is exactly what this
overall strategy is. So how do we make sure that
that doesn't get overlooked in the cuts?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
What can our listeners do and what kind of involvement
do you need from them?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
At Worldcare Center?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Thank you of course, and always we do need funding,
you know, whether it be individual donations to.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Our programs we have.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
We have art art healing programs for survivors of disaster.
We have our training programs that prepare citizens to become
ready responders and local leaders to become disaster managers. So
think that hyper local faith based organization that's always there
in the community, Well, we're training them to be hubs,
(11:49):
to deploy teams to help the community right away. So
funding is always always a need, but volunteers are also needed.
If individuals wanted to come and volunteer for some of
our programs and help us deliver them. And you know,
we really want to look to our corporate partners and
(12:13):
have them look to us as a resource. You know.
Part of our initiative is to go and look at
employee teams as well, you know, and what they can
deliver in the communities that they work in, but also
bring the initiatives back home.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
You know, it strikes me as an irony, and it's
a terrible irony. The reason you founded Worldcare Center is
because you were a volunteer after September eleventh, and look
what happened after you saw what happened after September eleventh,
when people were not wearing masks, they were not instructed
(12:55):
to wear masks, They did not have the systems in
place to protect the first responders who we desperately needed
in those opening days and months. And now one of
the programs that has been slashed is the nine to
eleven World Trade Center Healthcare Program, which was formed to
(13:20):
protect to respond to these very these very first responders
who are falling ill and dying so many years after
September eleventh. Yes, I mean, it's just to me, it's
just a cruel, cruel irony.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
And we relived that, Shelley.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
We relived that, we relived that same exact ex the
same exact result. Maybe it wasn't the same exact experience,
but we relived that during COVID nineteen when our frontline
workers did not have N ninety five respirators, and believe
it or not, and it's crazy to think of this,
you know, our small organization was distributing N ninety five
(14:03):
respirators to hospitals, to the grassroots groups that were going
in delivering meals to homebound seniors. We were out there
and we were going and delivering these respirators to firehouses.
To think that we had that experience during nine to
(14:24):
eleven again, that that lack of protective gear, that lack
of understanding of how to use it, why to use it,
all of that.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Then years later we have COVID.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Nineteen and again we don't have enough of the protective equipment.
We have to we have to retrain people on extended
use and reuse of an N ninety five respirator. So nurses, doctors,
first responders are putting this disposable respirator that's meant to
(14:55):
be used once after an event, and they're putting it
in a paper bag in there, storing it and reusing
it for a week at a time. You know, that's
again what we've gone through. And now here we are
and the situation.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Is actually a little bit even more scary. Now I'm
gonna have to cut you off.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I just want you to, Lisa Orloff, tell people how
they can volunteer or how they can get donations to
Worldcare Center because we're out of time.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Please us visit us at Worldcarees dot org.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Okay, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
Welcome to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, Conversations about issues that matter.
Here's your host, three time Gracie Award winner, Shelley Sunstein.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
I want to reintroduce you to a longtime friend, Lisa
Orloff is the founder of Worldcare Center. And the reason
Lisa is joining us this morning is because there have
been so many changes in terms of what's happening with
FEMA and what is going to happen when we have
(00:32):
the next disaster, which we know is right around the corner.
So first of all, just briefly, Lisa, thank you for
coming on, but briefly explain what Worldcare Center does and
how your focus has completely shifted because of rapidly changing
events in DC.
Speaker 3 (00:52):
Thank you, Shelly, Thank you always for having us on
and being able to highlight these important issues. Worldcare Center
was founded during the nine to eleven with effort, and
over the course of almost twenty five years now, the
way we've delivered our programs have evolved, but our mission
has always been hyper focused on empowering and protecting hyperlocal communities,
(01:15):
individuals and local leaders to be able to respond to
and help their communities recover from disasters. So individuals are
always the first unseen, not because they're going to the disaster,
but because the disaster has happened to them, and we
work with them to train them to protect, provide personal
(01:39):
protective equipment, and to help to coordinate response on that
hyperlocal level. So we like to say everybody can be
a ready responder, and we put those words into action
through our programming.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
Now, what's going on with FEMA, because again there's so
much coming out of decent. See, the people actually don't
know everything that's happening, but this is your area of expertise.
Speaker 4 (02:07):
Well, as you well know, things change on a dime.
Speaker 3 (02:12):
And right now we are hearing that FEMA is going
to be defunded or significantly their their funding is going
to be absolutely significantly reduced, which means that there's a
leaning towards having local municipalities be more responsible for their preparedness, response,
(02:41):
and recovery of their communities. This is something that we
agree that communities need to be empowered to to respond.
They need to be given the trainings, the tools, the resources,
the financial resources to do this. This does happen without
the need for money to hire proper managers to get
(03:06):
the proper equipment.
Speaker 4 (03:07):
All of that. However, this is happening so quickly.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
The concern is that repeated and consistent, increased disasters happening
all the time, and this sudden and abrupt shift leaving
us all scrambling to know where our resources are going
to be in order to respond to the needs of
(03:36):
disaster stricken communities. So we not only have the reduced
funding of FEMA, we have also other funding sources like
nih n I, ehs OSHA. Those funds are being looked
at as well. About a month ago, we had our
(03:57):
reimbursement portal closed off, so we apply for a grant.
A grant is like a contract. You're going to do
this service and you're going to be in reimburse this
money to do this service. This particular service for a
World Care Center was to train our frontline workers on
(04:20):
how to respond to disasters.
Speaker 4 (04:21):
So when they shift from one job which.
Speaker 3 (04:23):
Has nothing to do with disaster response, to a job
that puts them on the front line and at risk,
they know how to protect themselves. Well, we've done that,
we want to get reimbursed for that work to pay
our staff.
Speaker 4 (04:38):
And the portal was.
Speaker 3 (04:39):
Shut down, so was shut down nationally so everybody was
at a standstill, shocked for several days trying to figure
out what was going to happen. Now, luckily that portal
reopened and we are not one of the organizations who
got our go rescinded. But this is the environment that
(05:04):
we're in where we know that there's a shift and
looking at anybody's organizational structure and the strategy and where
funds are being spent.
Speaker 4 (05:16):
Is never a bad thing.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
However, we need to be able to respond to these
crisis and these crises and these disasters, and to take
away funding from organizations that are doing that work across
the board, in my perspective, is a very dangerous thing.
(05:42):
And right now, even if our funds haven't been taken away,
we are all very much wondering when the next show
is going to drop. So our own internal strategy, you know,
we're looking at that as well. So now we're not
(06:03):
focusing so much on you know, we're trying to maintain
our programs, but we're also scrambling to look at how
we or we've got to change.
Speaker 4 (06:11):
How we do what we do.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
I mean, we Worldcare Center very small organization, as you know, Shelley,
I work about eighty hours a week for World Care Center.
But that's all donated time. I donate my time to
the organization. We're very small. We repeatedly applied for this
this grant through Ocean about after about eight years of
(06:33):
attempting to do so, we got the grant and which
was a huge win for us and we were able
to do so much more. But we're in our second
year of that grant. We've done quite well in delivering
our programs, but now that's at threat. So you can imagine,
you build, you build, you plan, you you look to
(06:59):
what the next step are, but now the next steps
are very uncertain.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But your organization does exactly what the White House is
saying should be happening, which is putting local people on
the ground where these local disasters happen. So how is
that going to happen?
Speaker 4 (07:22):
Yes, without that help, that's the conundrum.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
So, you know, we know that tem is going to
be cut for more than thirty million dollars they're cutting.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
And when do we think this is happening Because we're
just beginning, you know, where we're going to be entering
hurricane season and of course those are the you can't
even you know, really forecast that next catastrophe, but there
are other catastrophes that could happen in the meantime. I mean,
(07:55):
that's this is what you do, you respond to urgencies.
Speaker 4 (08:01):
Yes, I don't know when this is going to happen.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
There have been articles that have just come out about
FEMA cutting an important program which is building resilient infrastructure
and communities brick. Now, fortunately, we've never for us personally,
we've never gotten funding from that entity, so it's not
going to impact us. The the other grants that we
get will impact us drastically.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
What we're turning to is.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Our corporate partners, our individual funders, family foundations, and we're
hoping that they're going to really step up and look
at the need and and fill those gaps. And I
(08:50):
will say I always like to look at silver linings,
because you have to in the work that we do.
Speaker 4 (09:00):
We are we are we are going to all of.
Speaker 3 (09:02):
Our partners, all of the organizations that that work together,
and we are looking at, Okay, how do we band
together more closely, how do we look at our gaps
and fill each other's gaps and support each other uh
in these uncertain times. And I think that that's a
positive to what's happening.
Speaker 4 (09:23):
We are we are being.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Forced to explore what those partnerships will look like in
this new normal. But listen, disasters are increasing, They're increasing
in frequency, they're increasing in in magnitude. It's not only
natural disasters like hurricanes, flooding, fires, but we're also seeing
(09:51):
an increase in active shooter events.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
You know, at our schools.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
And UH and the the the implication of that, and
those are all programs that we have and that we
deliver free of charge to those that can't afford it,
you know, And so.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
You know, we're looking.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
At what we can do with what we have, looking
at our partners how can we partner and keeping our
fingers crossed that you know that somehow we will be
able to find a decision maker or someone that we
can connect with to better understand what's happening, to make
(10:40):
our case for why we should exist, and maybe even
highlight that what we do do is exactly what this
overall strategy is. So how do we make sure that
that doesn't get overlooked in the cuts?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
What can our listeners do and what kind of involvement
do you need from them?
Speaker 4 (11:06):
At Worldcare Center?
Speaker 3 (11:12):
Thank you of course, and always we do need funding,
you know, whether it be individual donations to.
Speaker 4 (11:22):
Our programs we have.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
We have art art healing programs for survivors of disaster.
We have our training programs that prepare citizens to become
ready responders and local leaders to become disaster managers. So
think that hyper local faith based organization that's always there
in the community, Well, we're training them to be hubs,
(11:49):
to deploy teams to help the community right away. So
funding is always always a need, but volunteers are also needed.
If individuals wanted to come and volunteer for some of
our programs and help us deliver them. And you know,
we really want to look to our corporate partners and
(12:13):
have them look to us as a resource. You know.
Part of our initiative is to go and look at
employee teams as well, you know, and what they can
deliver in the communities that they work in, but also
bring the initiatives back home.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
You know, it strikes me as an irony, and it's
a terrible irony. The reason you founded Worldcare Center is
because you were a volunteer after September eleventh, and look
what happened after you saw what happened after September eleventh,
when people were not wearing masks, they were not instructed
(12:55):
to wear masks, They did not have the systems in
place to protect the first responders who we desperately needed
in those opening days and months. And now one of
the programs that has been slashed is the nine to
eleven World Trade Center Healthcare Program, which was formed to
(13:20):
protect to respond to these very these very first responders
who are falling ill and dying so many years after
September eleventh. Yes, I mean, it's just to me, it's
just a cruel, cruel irony.
Speaker 4 (13:39):
And we relived that, Shelley.
Speaker 3 (13:41):
We relived that, we relived that same exact ex the
same exact result. Maybe it wasn't the same exact experience,
but we relived that during COVID nineteen when our frontline
workers did not have N ninety five respirators, and believe
it or not, and it's crazy to think of this,
you know, our small organization was distributing N ninety five
(14:03):
respirators to hospitals, to the grassroots groups that were going
in delivering meals to homebound seniors. We were out there
and we were going and delivering these respirators to firehouses.
To think that we had that experience during nine to
(14:24):
eleven again, that that lack of protective gear, that lack
of understanding of how to use it, why to use it,
all of that.
Speaker 4 (14:32):
Then years later we have COVID.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
Nineteen and again we don't have enough of the protective equipment.
We have to we have to retrain people on extended
use and reuse of an N ninety five respirator. So nurses, doctors,
first responders are putting this disposable respirator that's meant to
(14:55):
be used once after an event, and they're putting it
in a paper bag in there, storing it and reusing
it for a week at a time. You know, that's
again what we've gone through. And now here we are
and the situation.
Speaker 4 (15:11):
Is actually a little bit even more scary. Now I'm
gonna have to cut you off.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
I just want you to, Lisa Orloff, tell people how
they can volunteer or how they can get donations to
Worldcare Center because we're out of time.
Speaker 3 (15:24):
Please us visit us at Worldcarees dot org.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Okay, fantastic.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
You've been listening to Sunstein Sessions on iHeartRadio, a production
of New York's classic rock Q one O four point
three
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