During an emergency or disaster situation there is very little time to stop, plan, and prepare for your response.  You respond quickly, and you hope effectively, as you rely on what you know in that moment about emergency response.  All too often, volunteers, local leaders, and neighbors aren’t coordinated effectively or don’t know how to get in touch with relief organizations that can help them.  Training in emergency planning, disaster preparedness, and relief coordination is needed. World Cares Center was created to fill that very need.  Once a year, we gather the emergency response community together to have a spirited, competitive culinary cook off in which firehouse chefs and restaurant chefs battle it out for bragging rights (lots of bragging) and the title of Iron Skillet® Champion.  Emergency responders, community leaders, corporate sponsors, and everyday citizens gather for a festive night of food, drink, and merriment as they savor the dishes that flow freely throughout the night.  This year’s event on October 22, 2012 at Crimson restaurant from 6pm-10pm will bring down the house!  It’s World Cares Center’s way of giving back to the emergency response community, but it also allows us to thank those people who consistently get involved for the greater good.  With this one night, we stop time and enjoy ourselves.  World Cares Center also takes 100% of the proceeds and puts it to good use with its educational training programs and outreach efforts throughout the coming year. 

There’s still time to get a taste of these mouth-watering dishes.  For tickets, go to:  www.ironskilletcookoff.org. Come and join us for food, laughter, and a unique live auction as we take this moment in time to give back, and look forward. 

On the anniversary of 9/11, World Cares Center remembers the sacrifice and leadership that people across the country and world made as crisis forced them to become extraordinary first responders.  World Cares Center was formed in the aftermath of the September 11^th attacks to bring effective action to tackle the most formidable emergencies.   We continue to believe that the best action we can take, and help others take, is to be prepared for emergency response through training, organizational readiness, and coordination of volunteer manpower.  All this month, we’ve asked New Yorkers to pledge their partnership with the My Good Deed’s I Will Campaign.  This grassroots campaign asks all of us - individuals, family members, and neighborhood leaders – to take personal action steps to prepare for disasters and emergencies.

What action can you take this September 11^th to help you and your community move one step closer to being ready for an emergency?  Perhaps it’s creating a call tree to make sure older neighbors are in the loop for emergency notifications or taking a CPR class so you can help with medical needs that arise in a crisis or join us at Jersey Cares for a Disaster Volunteer Training. These small commitments add up and become powerful allies in the fight against disasters and crisis situations because they are planned and practiced before the crisis occurs.

Individual action is one of the cornerstones of the emergency response community.  It starts with one person, but that one person doesn’t work alone.  At World Cares Center, we train organizations and community leaders to mobilize all those individual efforts into a cohesive, response force that can be called upon when needed to effectively deal with emergencies.  Our organization’s action plan includes training, organizational preparedness and readiness assessment, and coordination efforts that all serve the same purpose – to make the most of individual, voluntary efforts during times of crisis.  We train community leaders who may one day emerge from their homes and businesses to spontaneously assist in a crisis.  We train professional emergency managers who will be charged with the overall coordination in a disaster.  We also train senior citizens and youth to be active neighbors ready to support their community in an emergency. 

As we remember the victims of 9/11 and their families, and as we pledge to do more, give more, let’s remember that all the individual efforts add up to something powerful when a whole community is trained and ready for the challenge. 

Today, let’s remember (and take ACTION)!

Kids have started or are getting ready for school this week.  By now, parents have purchased their annual long list of school supply essentials - new lunch boxes, notebooks, pencils, and glue sticks. But kids need to be just as prepared for emergency situations.  Since September is National Preparedness month, World Cares Center wants to help our kids get in the act.  World Cares Center helps youths and their families create emergency plans through our Individual and Family Preparedness for Youths training program.  During these trainings, we prepare kids and their families to understand the causes and impact of natural and man-made disasters.  We involve them in making informed decisions through active problem solving for readiness, response, and recovery.  Youth participants also prepare personal emergency plans. 

In addition to our training programs, we offer several kid-friendly guides that walk kids through the process of preparing for an emergency.  Our guide, Let’s Plan Together for Emergencies! is a handbook for children ages 5-11.  In this handbook, the WCC Superhero helps kids:

• Identify emergencies
• Create a family emergency plan
• Learn and organize family contact information
• Prepare a Go Bag
• Assess their risk from storms
• Have fun with engaging puzzles and short quizzes that build on their learning

Our other handbook, Prepare Today for Tomorrow, helps teens ages 11-18 prepare for an emergency by learning these best practices:

• Home Accident and Fire Prevention
• Identifying risk from large scale disasters including city emergencies, hurricanes and floods, and winter storms.
• Creating a Go Bag, organizing In Case of Emergency (I.C.E.) numbers, creating a Call Tree, and making an evacuation plan
• Testing knowledge with a round of “Disaster Jeopardy” and an emergency Word Search

For the month of September, and all year long, get your kids involved in emergency planning.  Remember, it’s best to be prepared for an emergency before it happens!

For more on the trainings, please visit www.worldcares.org or contact Marina Diaz, WCC Programs Manager at mdiaz@worldcares.org or call (212) 563-7570.

Q: The smartest way to prepare for a disaster?
A: Train for it well before it happens.

For many nonprofit organizations that help communities prepare for emergency response, volunteers are the lifeline for effective preparedness.  World Cares Center has an extensive offering of training programs that support volunteers at the grassroots level.  On September 12th, as part of their Grassroots Readiness and Response training series, World Cares Center will provide a disaster volunteer training for Jersey Cares’ staff and volunteers.  Through this training, leaders in emergency management prepare volunteers to:

• Understand the mindset and personal attributes most needed to be an effective disaster volunteer
• Assess which volunteer roles need to be filled in a particular disaster situation
• Learn about the core skills needed to be a disaster volunteer
• Learn self care practices that keep volunteers healthy throughout a crisis

The training is organized into 5 lessons that include:  disaster management concepts, centers of support (volunteer reception centers and points of distribution), volunteer roles, volunteering core competencies, and self care.  To learn more about this and other trainings offered by World Cares Center, see our website: www.worldcares.org.

World Cares Center is proud to partner with Jersey Cares on this important preparedness intiative that helps citizens mobilize quickly and effectively in times of disaster.

On Thursday, July 19^th, 2012 World Cares Center’s Programs Manager Marina Diaz, accompanied by 6 WCC volunteers and with the full support and encouragement of 27 Blackstone employees, actively participated in World Cares Center’s Mural Project. Adhering to World Cares Center’s mission of empowering individuals and strengthening communities, each mural represented emergency readiness initiatives.  The first mural illustrated Ralph the Ready Responder wearing all the necessary tools and equipment you might find in a Go-Bag during an emergency.  The second Mural was a local map depicting Flushing House as the center point and local emergency resource locations pinpointed on the Map, included Firehouse, Police Stations, and Flushing H.S. for Sheltering needs, as well as cooling stations.  Each Mural was 10’ x 5.5’ in length and will be hung in the Activities center for all residents of Flushing house to see.  Seniors and volunteers worked together to paint and bring the mural to life creating a fun interactive learning experience for everyone involved.

Interested in volunteering for a mural project? Contact Programs Manager Marina Diaz at 212-563-7570.  For additional pictures visit our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter. 

2011 has been a very busy year for World Cares Center as we’ve responded to emergencies both at home and abroad. In addition to our continuing work in Haiti following the 2010 earthquake, WCC responded to the Japanese tsunami that struck in March 2011. The Kids4Kids campaign connected US and Japanese students in a donation drive focused on helping Japanese families cope with the trauma of the year’s events. Back home, along with our safety and preparedness trainings, WCC took on a major coordinative role in the Hurricane Irene relief effort in New Jersey and we are eager to continue to serve the residents that need it most during the state’s long-term recovery.

As with any nonprofit organization, we cannot carry out our initiatives without the help of the businesses, groups, and individuals that so generously support us. During this holiday season, we ask you to consider donating to World Cares Center and our programs that directly benefit our neighbors on the grassroots level. Especially with the needs we are addressing with Hurricane Irene, your support will have a real and immediate impact on people who have lost their homes or are still unable to return to mold-infested houses. These needs are not stories passed along from far-away lands; they are present in our own backyard and are realities for people we see on a regular basis. The desire to help that we have already witnessed in individuals volunteering their time and services has left us hopeful that we will be able to continue our important work in the Tri-State area and beyond.

Thank you once again for all your help. World Cares Center wishes you a safe and restful holiday season as we all come together to create strong, resilient communities ready to face any future emergency.

When we think of disaster and emergency preparedness, youth aren’t the first to come to mind. Preparing young people for the possibility of a calamity can make a world of difference in the way they react to the unexpected by arming them with the tools they need to be responders.  Making sure your child knows what to do during an emergency or disaster not only empowers your child, but can be life saving for you and your family.  Children can plan for emergencies by practicing emergency drills at home and school and by knowing where the family meeting place is, how to call 9-1-1, who the out-of-town family contact is, and what to do during an emergency.

Even though children are at special risk for disasters, this does not necessarily mean they must remain passive victims. Programs stressing preparedness specifically for youth can offer child-friendly activities in their homes, schools, and communities that both educate children on preparedness measures and help mitigate disasters from occurring. In turn, children can then play a role in communicating preparedness information to their friends and family members.  Activities can include: practicing preparedness responses using simulations and experiential exercises; using mock scenarios to test children’s skill levels and reinforce those skills; offering opportunities for children to voice their opinions and concerns surround­ing disaster preparedness; and creating an environment within your community to be more open to al­lowing children to play a special role in planning for what actions to take in the event of an emergency.  WCC offers trainings specifically geared towards youth in Kitchen and Cooking Safety, as well as individual, household, and community preparedness.