Volunteers Coming to Long Island to Prioritize Ongoing Needs Stemming from Storm’s Aftermath
(Bethpage, NY) A team of highly skilled disaster response experts from international relief organization World Renew will be on Long Island starting next week to assess the needs of those residents still struggling to recover from Superstorm Sandy. The 20-member team is being hosted by the Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster’s Long Term Recovery Group, which is a coalition of governmental and nonprofit organizations doing disaster relief work, including the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island and the Long Island Volunteer Center.
World Renew’s trained volunteers, known as the Green Shirts for their attire, will be collecting information through interviews with residents to create a comprehensive needs assessment, which will help local volunteer organizations as they work to address unmet storm-related needs, such as home repair, temporary housing, unpaid bills, and transportation.
The World Renew needs assessment is a key part of the Long Term Recovery Group’s coordinated disaster response plan for Long Island, not only providing service providers with information on the depth of the needs that remain among households, but also connecting disaster victims with New York State’s federally-funded Disaster Case Management program. It is through this $38.5 million program, a public-private partnership providing storm victims with a long-term case worker, that residents can access an array of disaster relief services. The Archdiocese of New York administers the program and works with local community-based non-profits, including FEGS, Catholic Charities, Family Service League and Lutheran Disaster Services, to provide services in the community.
Through World Renew’s comprehensive and private needs assessment, disaster agencies working as part of the Long Term Recovery Group will be able to identify those storm victims who are the most vulnerable and in need and then get assistance to them quickly. Residents who have applied for and received FEMA assistance can participate in the Disaster Case Management program, as can storm victims who were rejected or are ineligible.
“World Renew couldn’t come at a more critical time in Long Island’s recovery. Now six months since the storm, those who can help themselves are on the road to recovery. For those who are struggling to navigate this process alone, World Renew will identify and connect them with Disaster Case Management,” says Diana O’Neill, Executive Committee Member of Long Island Voluntary Organization’s Active in Disaster’s Long Term Recovery Group. “Their assistance in finding those falling through the cracks is invaluable to Long Island and these recovery efforts.”
Walk-in centers for World Renew needs assessments will be open from April 22 through May 2 at the following locations and times:
Freeport
Freeport Recreation Center (130 E. Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520)
April 22-26 from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Mastic-Shirley-Mastic Beach area
Jubilee Recovery Center/Episcopal Community Services (250 & 218 Neighborhood Road, Mastic Beach 11951)
April 27, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
April 29-May 2, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Long Islanders seeking more information about World Renew needs assessment should dial 211 or 1-888-774-7633.
Michigan-based World Renew, formerly known as Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, has done needs assessments and other disaster response work for more than 50 years, including after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and the severe flooding in Pakistan in 2010 and 2011. Additionally, World Renew completed an assessment on Long Island last year related to Hurricane Irene, identifying $7 million in unmet needs months after that disaster struck. Since Superstorm Sandy slammed into the Northeast, World Renew has been offering assistance in counties in New York, as well as New Jersey and Maryland.
About the Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster’s Long Term Recovery Group
Originally convened by the Health and Welfare Council of Long Island in response to 9/11, the Long Island Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (LIVOAD) is a collaborative effort of health and human service, religious, and government agencies who work in partnership on Long Island-focused disaster response and recovery. Based on a national model of disaster response, the LIVOAD has “stood up” since 9/11 in response to the economic disaster of 2007-08, after Tropical Storm Irene and now in response to Superstorm Sandy. LIVOAD immediately responded when the storm hit, coordinating efforts to ensure that victims had their basic necessities met, including food and shelter. Since that immediate rescue period, LIVOAD has grown to more than 100 agencies and convened the Long Term Recovery Group, which has a dozen subcommittees coordinating assistance related to housing, disaster case management, volunteer management, donation management and other critical pieces to recovery.
