In this episode of There's a Lesson in Here Somewhere, we speak with Lisa Orloff, Founder of World Cares Center, about helping people in high stress work environments develop emotional resilience, and how that can apply to any individual and workplace. We also discuss the work that Lisa and her team does to train citizens to be Ready Responders and help people and organizations develop disaster preparedness programs, as well as World Cares Center’s extraordinary disaster response efforts around the world over the past 23 years. Join us as we highlight adaptability, agility, and empowerment in a world where everyone needs to be prepared for the unexpected.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro (00:06):
You're listening to.
There's a Lesson in here,Somewhere, a podcast featuring
compelling conversations withexceptional people.
Whether it's an inspirationalachievement, a hardship overcome
or simply a unique perspective,these are stories we can all
learn from.
Here are your hosts, JamieSerino and Carlos Arcila.
Jamie Serino (00:30):
Hello and welcome to.
There's a Lesson in hereSomewhere.
I'm Jamie Serino and we're heretoday with Lisa Orloff, the
founder of World Care Center.
I've known Lisa for about 20years and Lisa was the person
who taught me about a go bag.
Lisa was the person who taughtme about the phrase first
responder, and she was usingthat phrase, I think, long
(00:52):
before the rest of us startedusing it.
So I've always had this senseof if my go bag wasn't up to
date, or if it wasn't up to date, or if it wasn't quite the way
it should be, lisa's voice wouldbe in my head Like Jamie, your
go bag, you know.
So she's had a very strongimpact on me and has taught me
(01:17):
so much about disasterpreparedness, disaster response
and a lot of the nuances that wedon't normally think about.
And between when I met Lisa andtoday, the world has changed
right and so much has changed.
And the education now is we'rejust becoming better educated,
(01:41):
naturally, but I think whatyou're doing is pushing it.
You know to where we need toknow more and we need to be
personally responsible.
So I'll leave it at that andI'll turn it over to you for a
more complete introduction andI'll say that you can go to.
Worldcaresorg is the website,but we'll mention it a couple
(02:03):
more times.
Okay, lisa, please a morecomplete introduction.
Lisa Orloff (02:09):
Thanks, jamie.
I didn't realize that I was inyour head.
I'm sorry for that, and Ishould make note that you helped
us a lot years ago with ourmarketing and the way to
succinctly communicate what wedo, which is always an issue,
(02:29):
and you're going to find thatout during this podcast.
But thank you so much.
So World Care Center was foundedduring the 9-11 relief effort,
and anybody that was in New YorkCity or in the other areas that
were hit realized that therewas an outpouring of people that
wanted to help, not onlylocally, but people were
(02:51):
converging from different partsof the world to help, and that
was wonderful to see.
We needed that support.
We needed that outpouring ofhope and help, but our
traditional systems wereoverwhelmed.
They didn't know how to handleall of these volunteers.
Traditionally, it was Office ofEmergency Management, the Fire
(03:14):
Department, the PoliceDepartment and the Red Cross,
and that was it.
And if you weren't one of thoseentities, then there was really
no room for you and we neededthis support coming in.
We were completely overwhelmed.
Maybe people don't realize it,but Office of Emergency
(03:34):
Management's headquarters werein the Twin Towers, and so they
were struggling as much asanyone else.
You know, we didn't realizethat when we were working with
them, but when we found outlater on it was like, oh okay,
that was why certain people werereacting in a certain way.
(03:54):
That was unexpected, becausethey were grieving horribly as
well.
So there was no managementstructure.
There was an outpouring of allthis help.
People were not trained.
They had skills, but theyweren't trained specifically on
disaster response.
They were going down workingside by side with the fire
department, not wearing thecorrect personal protective
(04:18):
equipment, not wearing their N95respirators, exposed to a lot
of emotional trauma, withoutpre-training.
Did they do good work?
Absolutely.
Did our firefighters do a lotof work trying to recover their
fellow firefighters?
Absolutely, but at what cost?
(04:38):
Today we've lost morefirefighters to the cancer that
they have succumbed to becauseof their work in and around
Ground Zero than we lost on theactual day of the event.
So, long story short, ourmission has been, and always
(05:00):
will be, to train, support andprotect ready responders, and
that's just the group of peoplethat come out to help.
They can be someone who hasexperience say, they're
experienced firefighter,volunteer firefighter out on
Long Island, but they're in NewYork City and they're doing some
(05:21):
work.
Well, they have experiences tobring to the table.
Or it could be a citizen thatsteps out to help and just
doesn't realize they're going toplug in.
But we want all of them to betrained on the same credential.
(05:42):
So we're talking the samelanguage.
We have an understanding ofwhat is required.
We also have an understandingof what these ready responders
should not do, should not takeon because there's too much of a
risk, and basically how to worktogether safely.
Jamie Serino (05:56):
Yeah, yeah.
So if you can maybe dive intothat a little bit more, because
I think people generally feellike, oh, a disaster happens,
people are going to come in andhelp, right, and here comes the
Red Cross or here comes the firedepartment, and that's true,
right, but you've shown thatsometimes there's a gap between
(06:19):
the event and when those peoplecan come and help, and other
times, like you're pointing out,people want to run in and try
to help and they might not betrained.
So if you could talk a littlebit about that, I think you know
, for people to understand boththat gap and this sense of like
you know what?
I think we've seen that peopleare put in positions sometimes
(06:41):
where I have to take care ofmyself and my family and my
community it's me, you know, andthen like so, then how, and so
it's it's.
It's like preventing chaos,right, and people running in and
doing the wrong thing, lettingpeople know and be educated,
like, okay, this thing justhappened.
What do I do now?
(07:02):
As you know, the professionalsare coming.
Okay, this thing just happened.
What do I do now, as theprofessionals are coming?
Lisa Orloff (07:07):
So I wonder if you could talk a little bit more
about that.
Sure, where to start?
So, first of all, when you'reeffective and you're efficient
and you're doing a good job,everybody assumes you're with an
agency and they just don't ask,right?
And so there was a disbeliefwhen we were volunteering during
the 9-11 relief effort that wewere just spontaneous volunteers
(07:29):
and we would say they're likeokay, what agency are you from?
We're like we're just NewYorkers and they're like just
New Yorkers.
I've never heard of that agencybefore.
So you know this phenomenon,we've learned this spontaneous
volunteerism, this communityaction, right, not not new.
(07:51):
It's human nature.
It should be and protected,right.
So disasters there is a.
There are many different waysof volunteers.
Volunteer groups will come fromother parts of the country and
they will converge upon thisarea and they will begin to help
.
But they often need guidance.
They may need housing, they mayneed to be fed, they may need
(08:15):
to understand the difference ofour community versus the
community they come from.
But the thing that people don'treally talk about is that
disasters happen to communitiesand within those communities,
there are leaders that areworking in that community every
(08:38):
day.
They're not converging upon thedisaster, the disaster has
converged upon them and they'rejust doing what they would do,
naturally.
So if you talk aboutfaith-based leaders caring for
their community, of coursethey're going to either do one
of two things.
Their constituents are eithergoing to call them and say I
need help, what are you going todo for me?
(08:59):
Or we need to help other people.
What are we going to dotogether?
And that local leader needs tobe prepared to lead their
constituents safely andeffectively with the
capabilities that they currentlyhave, or maybe increasing surge
(09:19):
capacity, but staying with whatthey know.
So, for instance, duringSuperstorm Sandy, we went to a
church on Staten Island and theyfelt very passionately about
providing hot meals for thoseimpacted by disaster, right by
(09:40):
Sandy.
And what ended up happening wasI went there and I'm like, okay
, great, you want to providehalf meals?
Let's take a look at yourkitchen.
We don't have a kitchen, okay.
Let's look at your food pantry.
Well, we don't have a foodpantry.
Okay, how many people in yourconstituents have, you know,
food handling certificates?
Well, none.
We've never done this before.
(10:01):
And I said, okay, let's back upa little bit.
What do you have?
What do you do?
What are your assets?
What is your constituent.
What are they capable of doing?
And it turned out that they hada huge warehouse.
They had a pallet jack, theyhad the capability to actually
run a supply depot out of theirchurch, which, in fact, is what
(10:22):
we did with them out of theirchurch, which, in fact, is what
we did with them.
Right, we got them the sleepingbags and the supplies that were
needed and they ended updistributing them.
So it's really looking forthose local leaders, looking at
what their capacity is, theirability, and really building
(10:42):
from there.
Local leaders are naturalcoordinators, they're natural
caregivers.
They don't need to be taughthow to do that.
We just need a layer on top,the disaster management
component, and then, equally asimportant, we need to connect
them with the resources thatthey traditionally are never
(11:05):
connected with.
Jamie Serino (11:06):
Right.
Lisa Orloff (11:06):
You know there are resources out there.
There are government donations,there are individual donations
of resources, so it's not onlythe training and the protecting,
but it's also the connection tothe resources that are
available to them.
Jamie Serino (11:24):
Yep, and so how does World Cares then play a
role?
Like with all that going on?
How do you guys come in andaddress that?
Lisa Orloff (11:40):
So with the training we've developed the
collaborative disaster volunteercredential.
And what that is is we'vepulled together about 45
grassroots leaders and who don'thave a standing disaster
volunteer training and we'vesaid what do you want your
disaster volunteer to look likeIn your experience and response?
What do they need to know?
(12:00):
What's the basic training?
And we've taken from all ofWorld Care Center's training
topics and pulled together threelevels that we've all agreed
upon is the standard that wewill use.
So when we say muck and gutoperation, everybody knows what
that is.
(12:21):
When one group says I needvolunteers to muck and duck my
community, while the groupthat's going to say I'm going to
help, the expectation isthey've taken the training.
But the expectation also is isthe group that's requesting help
is going to provide them withthe agreed upon personal
protective equipment?
So that's a respirator, youknow goggles a list of things
(12:45):
are going to be provided forthem, right?
So it's really laying a commonfoundation.
This is built upon the conceptof what incident command is all
about and what our governmentfollows and these mutual aid
agreements and these commonstandards.
Disaster volunteers have tohave that as well.
(13:06):
Yeah.
And it shouldn't be specific toagency to agency right.
All the agencies that do muckand gut operations should have a
common standard to follow andagree upon right, and we should
also agree upon how we'reprotecting our volunteers, not
only physically but emotionally.
So the first thing that we'redoing is training and
(13:27):
credentialing through theCollaborative Disaster Volunteer
Credential, and we invite localleaders and volunteer groups to
join our advisory board andagree that this would be their
foundational training,skills-based training, and help
to shape this and move thisforward.
The second thing we do is wehave become known as the
(13:52):
organization that redistributespersonal protective equipment.
So we're grateful to our donorsfor donating N95 respirators,
tyvek suits, gloves and thingslike that, which we then
redistribute to the grassrootsgroups that need them to protect
their volunteers.
(14:12):
And we did a lot of that duringCOVID-19.
We, the small organization thatwe are, we were very lucky to
have a stock of N95 respiratorsthat we were actually using for
training and we were able toredistribute them to those on
the front line.
We distributed to the firedepartment, we distributed to
(14:36):
hospitals, we distributed tograssroots groups.
It's amazing, the people thatdid not have PPE compared to
little old us that had PPE.
It was kind of like the littleengine that could, and so we
remain that resource.
And then the third thing that wedo is really work to connect
(14:59):
and coordinate.
So when it's in our living roomlike Sandy was in our living
room, superstorm Sandy was inour living room we opened up
volunteer reception centers andwe coordinated physically on the
ground.
When it's in somebody else'sliving room or backyard, we'll
be invited in to support them sothat we can help them.
(15:22):
We like to say we stand eitherbeside them or behind them,
helping them, because the localleader should always be in the
front.
And we also have some otherinitiatives that are launching
in the fall that are veryexciting, that will help us
coordinate and connect people toresources exciting that will
(15:46):
help us coordinate and connectpeople to resources.
Jamie Serino (15:49):
Okay, yeah, so I like that idea of the
credentialing and it goes backto what you're saying about
speaking a common language andeveryone sort of being on the
same page and so creating thiscredential.
It then, you know, createsalmost like a standard and that
doesn't really exist, right, sothat's a part of the issue.
Lisa Orloff (16:05):
Yeah, it doesn't not across the board for these
grassroots organizations, right,it's always been a push.
Well, if you want to volunteer,you should go to this big agency
, you know, and there are greatinitiatives, those there are
great groups.
There's also CERT, which is agovernment initiative.
(16:25):
There's also CERT, which is agovernment initiative.
The one difference there aremany differences, but the one
(16:50):
big difference is that our goalis training the local groups,
the hyper grassroots groups, tobe able to stay within their
community and meet theircommunity needs while accessing
resources from others.
When you join another agency'sorganization and become a
singular volunteer, you're goingwhere they send you right and
that may not be your community.
It may not be where the urgentneed is, where you actually know
Mrs Jones needs this or Bobdown the road needs that.
(17:10):
So ours is really and not to becliche, but it's an empowerment
initiative, it's a capacitybuilding initiative and it's
building the capabilities fromwithin the community to stay in
the community and take care oftheir own, while also connecting
(17:32):
to the resources that areavailable to them.
Jamie Serino (17:36):
Yep, or should be available to them.
It's fantastic.
So, going back to when youstarted World Cares it was
actually September space, and Iwonder if you could talk a
little bit about that and thenthat transition when you
realized this needs to besomething more.
Lisa Orloff (17:56):
Sure.
So, um, you know, some peopleask like, well, what was your
five-year strategic plan whenyou started the organization?
I'm like what?
There was your five-yearstrategic plan when you started
the organization.
I'm like what?
There was no five-yearstrategic plan.
It really was.
You know, it was just I don'teven know what to call it.
(18:20):
You know fate, just, you knowdivine guidance.
I think it was like just acollective effort.
And so, yeah, we began doing.
After the literal andfigurative dust settled, we
started working and integratingin with FEMA and doing some
(18:43):
activities for FEMA.
Started working and integratingin with FEMA and doing some
activities for FEMA and theysaid you need to incorporate and
you need to join this networkof voluntary organizations.
And so we did.
We incorporated as World CareCenter, with our first program
(19:07):
being September Space, which wasa four volunteer bi-volunteer
community center offering aholistic menu of services to
ready responders and survivors,because nobody was looking at
what.
Nobody at that point in timewas looking at what was
happening to the caregiversright, yeah, that's true.
And also, at that time,survivors were being told you
(19:30):
survived.
What are you complaining about?
Yeah, you know what do you haveto complain about?
And they're like are youkidding?
There are people that I'vespent more time with than my
family that have justdisappeared from this earth.
Of course, I'm struggling, yes,I'm grateful to be alive, but I
also have a tremendous amountof guilt.
So these are the types ofpeople, these underserved people
(19:54):
, that we developed a centerwhere they could drop in and
access services, everything fromart therapy, from play therapy
for their children, toacupuncture and EMDR and talk
therapy with their peers,because firefighters didn't want
(20:14):
to come in and talk to amarriage counselor that's now
doing grief counseling which wasthe reality back then, because
we just didn't know they wantedto come in and talk to a
seasoned firefighter who hadbeen through something like that
.
And that's actually where ourpartnership with Oklahoma City
(20:35):
came in.
Oklahoma City came and startedto help us with these
peer-to-peer groups because theyhad been through the Murrah
building bombing right.
Jamie Serino (20:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Lisa Orloff (20:46):
So people from around the world started to come
in and provide support and thenstarted to talk about how this
phenomenon was nothing new.
It was new to New York City,but it was nothing new and that,
historically, time after time,when something of this magnitude
happens, that people are goingto come out of their homes and
(21:06):
their jobs and from around thecommunity to help.
But there was no playbook.
Right.
There was no playbook theentities in charge of managing
the scene.
There was no playbook on how tomanage spontaneous volunteers
or community volunteers, andthere was no playbook on how to
manage spontaneous volunteers orcommunity volunteers and there
(21:27):
was no playbook for thosevolunteers.
And so we quickly began towrite a field guide which we
published so that everybodycould benefit from our lessons
learned.
And we created a curriculum One.
We went around the country andprovided training for offices of
(21:50):
emergency management on how toset up programs to manage these
types of volunteers.
And then the second is thewhole credentialing initiative
that's evolved over time.
Jamie Serino (22:04):
Yep, where can people find that guide?
Is it on the website?
Lisa Orloff (22:10):
So the guide is actually a published hardcover
book and the information is onthe website, which is
worldcaresorg.
Jamie Serino (22:21):
And, yes, Okay and , yes, good.
So, jumping off of that,another program that you're
involved with now is aroundemotional resiliency, and you
touched upon that.
You know the feelings thatpeople had, the loss you know,
and there's, you know, a sort ofresiliency that firefighters
(22:43):
have and and you know firstresponders, and then there's,
you know, just general workplace, um, people that work in maybe
high stress environments, um,and so there's this emotional
resiliency that people build up,um, but also that a lot of
times doesn't get talked about,right, and so your program kind
(23:04):
of seeks to just sort of let'shave the discussion and let's
talk about, you know, bestpractices, let's talk about ways
to help yourself, help peoplethat work for you.
Could you talk a little bitmore about that program?
Lisa Orloff (23:16):
Sure.
So emotional resiliency hasalways been a threat, you know,
from from 9-11 all the waythrough, because we see that
people you know go and they'revery excited to respond to a
crisis, and then they come backfrom helping and what do you
(23:37):
think the first thing they sayis this is a test.
Jamie Serino (23:45):
I mean the first thing that they would say,
coming back from responding yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I would imagineyou're coming down from this
sort of like adrenaline and youknow, maybe they say what's next
, what's the next crisis to runto?
Lisa Orloff (24:03):
So what they say is I didn't do enough, I have left
and there's so much more to do.
It's not, it's not all of thegreat things that they did, it's
not all of the people that theyhelped.
It's I didn't do enough.
And I will tell you in 22 years, that is predominantly the the
(24:24):
response that we get when wedebrief volunteers after
deployment.
And you know, not only do theyhave that feeling, but they also
had connected with the groupand groups and people.
Right, there was thatconnection.
That connection is no longerthere.
Jamie Serino (24:42):
Right.
Lisa Orloff (24:43):
So the there's all of these things that contribute
to what one might think is avery um fulfilling experience
that ends up being, um, not sofulfilling if it's, if it's
something where they'reseparating themselves from and
it's a one-time experience.
So we've always addressedemotional resiliency.
(25:08):
We most recently got a verysubstantial grant where we can
provide emotional resiliency andsuicide prevention training to
at-risk workers and volunteers,so people that are in high risk,
underserved positions and roles, and one of our target
(25:33):
audiences for this is theconstruction industry.
They have the highest rate ofsuicide of most of the
industries for many differentreasons a variety of reasons,
not the least of which is it's ahighly physical job and if you
get injured, that's a really bigdeal.
You can no longer perform oryou're now taking pain
(25:55):
medications and maybe thosemedications run out and lead to
other things.
And the other interesting thingabout construction workers is
they are often the first onesthat are asked to deploy
post-disaster to do cleanup workand things like that, so they
might be volunteering.
they might be doing it as a job,but still it's.
(26:17):
They're running across the samethings and we've seen that work
side by side with majorconstruction industries who have
their people donate their time.
So we are we have launched thisemotional resiliency and
suicide prevention training.
We have two trainings for theworkers and then two trainings
for managers excited about theprogram where we help managers
(26:48):
of smaller businesses develop aresiliency program or at least
insert resiliency practices tokeep their team emotionally okay
.
So we've been that programlaunched in September and it's
just amazing to work with reallygood people that you know just
(27:08):
need to know it's okay, likethis is normal.
This is not something unusual.
There's nothing wrong with you.
This is your human being andthese are exceptional
circumstances and it's perfectlynormal to be responding and
having these emotions.
The best thing you can do isequip yourself with the
(27:30):
information, knowing, before youeven get into it, that you're
going to come across thesethings, knowing there's a simple
of steps that you can take,such as journaling the positive
right down every day, thepositive impact that you've made
, and revisit that simple stepand then to know that there are
resources should it becomeoverwhelming.
Jamie Serino (27:52):
Yeah, and so it's.
It's great that it is for, like, the construction industry, the
first responders, people inhigh, high stress environments,
but you know, from what I saw inthe curriculum, it can also
just be for really every company.
Lisa Orloff (28:08):
Absolutely.
Jamie Serino (28:09):
And I like what's in there for managers to try to
recognize signs within your teamlike maybe there's something
wrong with this person, thatmaybe there's something
happening in their family orwhatever's happening and it's
throwing them off, and to pickup on those signs is, I think,
really important.
So, even just being in aregular company, I think the
(28:31):
training is worthwhile.
Lisa Orloff (28:33):
Certainly, certainly yeah.
Jamie Serino (28:37):
So you have a lot of experience also responding
right.
So I think it would be great todive into that responding right
.
So I think it would be great todive into that.
And you know, really, everymajor disaster over the past 20
something years that I can thinkof.
You've gone, you've been thereand you've recently been in
Ukraine.
So I wonder if you could, youknow, tell us a little bit about
(29:00):
that, that the feeling of goingand even the feeling of coming
back that you were just talkingabout, um, being there, being in
those environments and doingwhat you do.
I wonder if you could tell us acouple of stories from from
that part of World Cares.
Lisa Orloff (29:16):
Ah, stories, sure, Um.
So stories, um, yeah, I thinkour, our first major deployments
, um to really that validatedthe, the book that I had just
written, the field guide I hadjust written, the training
(29:38):
curriculum that we had launched.
Um, uh, we had done some workpost Katrina, withatrina, with
FEMA helping, helping themdevelop the welcome home centers
modeled after September space.
But the first real deploymentother than 9-11 was the, the
(29:58):
Haitian earthquake, andeverybody was urging us to
respond and I kept on sayingwe're not a response agency, you
know.
And they're like no, you needto go, you need to.
I have, I'm supporting thisorphanage, I'm supporting this
school, I'm supporting thisgroup and you need to go and you
need to help them coordinate.
(30:19):
And so we deployed and wecontinued to deploy for a good
three years.
It went from the earthquake tothe cholera outbreak, which was
a whole other kind of dynamic.
But the consistencies are thisthe consistencies are is there's
(30:40):
always local leaders who havebeen doing good in their
community for a lifetime and arecontinuing to do good when
crisis happens, but their systemis overwhelmed so that they
need support.
They don't need to be taughthow to capacity build, because
(31:00):
they do that every day.
They don't need to be taughthow to organize their community
and they don't have to buildtrust, because they have the
trust of the community.
They need a layer of disastermanagement, they need access to
resources and they need someoneor a group of people that have
(31:23):
capacity to come in to work withthem until they can get on
their feet and train their ownconstituents to take over these
roles.
And that's common.
So when we respond to disaster,we are not going in with
hundreds of volunteers, it's agroup of three and, by the by,
(31:46):
it's a group of three women.
You know, over the years wehave, I have had, I've deployed
with, with some of my, my boardmembers and my colleagues John
Trotman, who happens to be aninspector with Fort Meade Fire
Department, and and others, fortMeade Fire Department and
others.
But over the last few years inHaiti and Ukraine, it's been
(32:08):
myself and these two PAs who arejust, you know, butt kicking
women in the medical field, whoare willing to do a lot of
different things.
And you know and understand theconcept of we're not coming in
to take over, we're coming in tosupport your needs with what we
(32:28):
know, and that's the winningcombination.
So during the Haitian earthquake.
We went in.
We found one or two localleaders, and then we found our
volunteer lead, who was Haitian,who had a connection with other
Haitians who wanted help, andwe still have that team.
We've trained them.
(32:50):
We've gone across Haiti helpingthem with their needs.
During the earthquake, it wassetting up tents and making sure
that they had provisions.
During the cholera outbreak, itwas medical clinics helping
fortify the medical clinics.
And then we were called backwhen there was Hurricane Matthew
(33:17):
that struck another part ofHaiti, and that was a really
proud moment because I got acall from the team lead
basically saying we followedprotocol.
Our team leads have gone to thearea hit by the hurricane,
(33:41):
they've done the assessmentThey've taught us to do.
They've gathered the localleaders, just like you gathered
us before.
We know exactly what the needsare and do.
We just need help finding theresources.
So the most urgent need thatthey assessed was the need for
water filters, and so we wereable to get a grant to provide
(34:06):
those water filters and trainthe team, to put them together,
to train the community and todistribute them, and so that was
, you know.
Really, for us, that was proofof concept.
It took years.
Right.
We went in and we delivered.
Initially, we delivered what wesaid we were going to do, but
then, years later, to see thisthe team still, you know,
(34:31):
providing the service, and we'retalking about all volunteers.
We're not talking about a teamof employees that's supported
with a paycheck in an office andsomeone ensuring that they're
coming and doing what they'redoing.
We're talking about a group ofHaitian citizens that are
volunteering their time to dothis and that, years later, they
were still proactive and stillable to help, so that was very
(34:56):
successful for us, veryvalidating proof of concept Um
no, go, go ahead yeah.
We can carry that forward with.
You know, responding, we werethe lead um for the state of um,
new Jersey.
When hurricane Irene struck, weactually managed all of the
(35:17):
incoming groups to do muck andgut operations in New Jersey.
And then, when um and then werealized that protocols were
missing safety protocols weremissing right and began to work
on that.
And then, when Superstorm Sandystruck, we stood up volunteer
reception centers and managed40,000 volunteers mucking and
(35:39):
gutting and preparing 14,000homes for rebuild.
A lot of disasters in betweenmaria harvey, um, the japanese
tsunami and nuclear disaster,which we were involved in in the
emotional resiliencyperspective.
And then then, most recently,oh, covid, we really um really
(36:03):
so proud of that effort becauseit was pretty amazing that we
were able to support such largeinstitutions and small
grassroots groups at the sametime, with the provision of N95
respirators and what they neededto stay safe.
(36:33):
And actually during COVID, isreally when we fortified our
online training and our onlineroundtable discussions to and
our online emotional support forthe leaders who were so
fatigued.
So we really expanded ouronline programming and and then,
of course, our deployment toUkraine, to, to help the, the
survivors and the internalrefugees.
Jamie Serino (36:50):
Could you talk a little bit more about that,
about your work in Ukraine?
Lisa Orloff (36:53):
Sure, so normally here's how it goes there's an
immediate need, right, and inparticular, what we had learned
through working groups,attending UN meetings, talking
to Ukrainian diaspora that arehere telling us what they're
(37:14):
hearing on the ground, and thatneed that we, you know, became
more aware of was that thehospitals were overwhelmed with
handling the medical needs ofthe soldiers and those injured
closer to the front line and thepeople that are the internally
(37:37):
displaced, people that are nowbeing housed in these small
container shelters, had nomedical care whatsoever, right,
so they're not getting theirmedications, the children are
not being treated, no medicalcare.
So we came in again with ourteam, our small team, and led by
(38:02):
Patty Alfieri, and we startedto do mobile medical clinics and
at the same time, this buildstrust.
At the same time, we knew thatthere was this huge emotional
need, right, but an extremelystoic population.
(38:25):
So during September space, 22years ago, we developed
something called bandaid forhealing, which was a guide for
children and adults.
The guide for children was likea journal that also had the
opportunity for younger ones todraw in what they're feeling,
(38:45):
and then there was a guide forthe parents to interpret some of
the behavior and some of thethings that the children were
expressing verbal and nonverbal,and we, over the years, have
modified this for the disasterand we modified this for the
Ukrainian population and wemodified this for the Ukrainian
(39:06):
population and we translated itinto Ukraine.
And so we again contacted acouple of local leads.
One organization was ourpartner organization.
It's actually one of the peoplethat are very heavily involved
(39:27):
with Dancing with the Stars.
That was our lead organizationover there and there was no
dancing, but their programmanager over there met with us
and we worked with them veryclosely and we hired locally to
be a part of the team anddelivered the medical clinics
(39:48):
first and then returned todeliver the emotional resiliency
workshops.
And it took that because we hadto build trust right, and so by
the end of our time there, youknow that trust had been built,
and then when we returned again,it was.
We were very, very welcome andpeople were coming back with how
(40:12):
they were doing medically andhow they were doing with their
children, and so that became avery successful program that we
ended up delivering as a trainthe trainer.
So it's a leave behind.
We had trained the volunteergroups that we had gone to visit
.
We now took their volunteersand trained them to deliver this
(40:35):
program, left the workbooksbehind.
We also trained them in firstaid and CPR and donated
defibrillators Cause.
Unfortunately, one of ourgroups lost someone because
their defibrillator um broke inthe middle of a resuscitation.
So these are the types ofthings that were um.
(40:59):
You know, we always know thatyou need food, shelter, you need
to be safe and secure, and andthen there's always that
emotional component.
So you have to make sure thattheir physical needs are.
They have to feel safe, theyhave to be physically okay, and
then you can go and address theemotional needs.
Begin to address the emotionalneeds.
Jamie Serino (41:20):
Yeah, and when you were mentioning the stoic
population, it was making methink also, you know, when we
were sort of piloting theemotional resiliency program and
getting feedback from formerfirefighters and you know it's
(41:44):
okay, so the yeah, so the stoicpopulation of you know people in
the Ukraine, firefighters, youknow construction workers, you
know, because you know kind ofmental health is is talked about
so much.
Now I think everyone justassumes that everyone is sort of
(42:06):
on the same page with it.
But yet when we were gettingthis feedback, the feedback from
the former firefighters, theywere saying, oh, you should
frame it this way or that way,because they're probably not
gonna go for this or they're notgonna go for that or it's just
gonna depend on what the chiefof the house is like and that's
gonna set the tone and this isso much to think about there.
(42:28):
And, of course, recommendingprofessional help if there are
larger issues or deeper trauma.
And so I wonder if you couldtalk a little bit about that
work with those populations andtalking about emotional
resiliency and bringing thatkind of message into those
environments where people arestoic or maybe the sort of tough
(42:51):
guy, tough gal kind of attitude, you know yeah.
Lisa Orloff (42:57):
So, um, as you know , I probably fall into that
category.
Um and um, yeah, I'm not onlythe deployment lead, but I also
(43:18):
am a volunteer firefighter.
Um, and definitely um, reallycame to the self-realization
maybe 10 years ago that I'm notsoft and fuzzy, and even though
I thought I was, um, but um,yeah, people that are watching
this are like you're crazy.
(43:38):
If you ever thought you weresoft, um, I yeah, and, and it's,
and it's evolved Right.
So when I first began teachingthis, you know I was all cursing
and tough and talking the lingo, and you know um and I, I think
(43:59):
we've evolved, um, andsometimes when I curse,
everybody's like Ooh, but Ithink, um, the most important
thing is to understand thepeople that you're trying to
serve and the way that you dothat is to engage local
(44:21):
leadership to educate you.
I've been working with the fire,with firefighters, cops, emts
all of that for 22 years, rightSide by side, and um, you, you
understand where they're comingfrom.
(44:42):
You begin to be able to talkthe language.
You have shared experiences, um, and soon that trust is built
because there's a commonexperience, right, and they know
that you understand wherethey're coming from.
The most important and the mosteffective times are those that
(45:07):
are authentic.
So when you catch people in amoment where they're feeling a
certain way and they can speakto you about it.
Or maybe you've given theworkshop and it's after the
workshop that individuals willcome up to you and express maybe
some challenges or how theworkshop has helped them or
(45:30):
validated that they were feelinga certain way that they didn't
really know was a thing.
I use air quotes a lot.
I noticed that.
But, yeah, so you know, I thinkthe most important thing about
the training and with thatpopulation is you may not know
that how much, what an impactyou're making while you're
(45:52):
delivering it and these guys maygive you a hell of a hard time
and bust your chops, but in theend you may get an email later.
You may get them pulling youaside and saying, hey, listen,
you know, I know I was hard onyou during the training, but
what you've said reallyresonates.
Or, hey, I, you know I didn'treally realize that was a thing,
(46:14):
and and and that I'm normal.
You know, and I think you knowthat's that's so important, you
know is that you're normal andyou're a human being and um, but
that codes cuts both ways,right, like we want.
We want for our firstresponders to be strong, right.
(46:40):
We want them to be stoic.
We don't want them to breakdown on the job.
We don't want them to to havethat emotional vulnerability
right.
Jamie Serino (46:49):
Yeah.
Lisa Orloff (46:49):
We want them to be okay.
Jamie Serino (46:51):
Yeah.
Lisa Orloff (46:53):
And so that when they do show vulnerability, you
know we need to accept that andapplaud that, and understand
that everybody's human and thatit's okay.
I know for myself, people wantme to be strong.
They don't want me to beoverwhelmed or to be sad by
(47:20):
something or to be thrown off.
They want me to be that leader,you know, and sometimes that's
hard and sometimes that's hard,but to know that it's okay and
to know that there are groups ofpeople that are going to be
understanding and compassionateand help you get through it,
(47:41):
without being judgmental or takethat role away from you, which
is super important.
God forbid.
You're put on desk duty becauseyou say you're having a hard
time with something.
That's important.
So the dynamic is changing.
We used to rely on the medicalmodel where oh my gosh, lisa
(48:02):
broke down, something's wrongabout it with her.
Who knew she was weak?
Who knew that she couldn'thandle it?
And now we're away from thatmedical model and we're now more
on that, thinking that, okay,well, this is part of life, and
(48:23):
one thing I always say is thatlife is a journey, and so is
being resilient.
You're never resilient all thetime.
Right, you can build resiliencyby the network that you
surround yourself with, by yourhabits, by the way that you
think, the way you control yourthoughts, the way you control
(48:47):
exposure to certain things, youcan develop resiliency and you
can be resilient.
However, there are going to betimes where maybe that support
group isn't there.
You know, maybe you're thrown in, you have to deal with more
than is your comfort zone, right, and so you're not as resilient
, but it's okay and theunderstanding and the
(49:10):
self-compassion and buildingcompassion you know around you
is critically important.
Jamie Serino (49:19):
Yeah, you know it's also helping, I think, the
people in those roles that needto have a defense because
they're seeing, maybe, loss oflife and you know, catastrophe
and they're they're rushing intothose situations, um, but it's
helping them also understand thepatterns and how.
(49:43):
I remember discussing this thatthey may end up bringing their
anger or sadness back to theirspouse and family and so you
start to see that get infected,or they may start to turn to
alcohol or substances.
There's a statistic I cameacross recently said 57.7% of
people with PTSD also have analcohol or a substance use issue
(50:09):
.
It's a high number.
So can they recognize, can theybe emotionally strong and rush
into that fire or that situationbut yet come back and
understand, like the peoplearound them and where they're
channeling all of that stress?
You know, and I think that youknow your program helps to point
(50:30):
that out, because they need to,like you said, they need to
have a strong sort of armor, butthen they need to also.
It's difficult to do, but thenthey need to take the armor off
at some point, you know.
Lisa Orloff (50:42):
And you know, the, the network that you have around
you is critically important andthe more acceptance we bring to
this topic and the more we tryto build that within, within the
community of responders.
You know, this is, uh, this iscertainly a topic that's near
and dear um to to me.
We, as you know, we we used tohost something called the iron
(51:05):
skillet cookoff, which was fivefirehouse chefs against two,
five top chefs, and over thecourse of years we've lost two
of our chefs, two of ourfirehouse chefs, beautiful
people, you know both, bothoutward and about, both outside
(51:30):
and inside, like you know.
Again, they're volunteeringtheir time, um, we've lost them
to suicide, you know, and that's.
And you look at them from theoutside and they're, you know
they're, they're handsome,physically fit, gregarious,
they're, they're, they're firstresponders and they're
volunteering their time fortheir cook off and for the cook
(51:51):
off and to volunteer for a cause.
And yet the support mechanismwas not there for them.
Yeah, in one case for sure, I'mnot sure about the second one
there was definitely, you know,an injury and then subsequent
opioid abuse and addiction.
And you know an injury and thensubsequent um, opioid abuse and
(52:13):
addiction, um, and you know,we've got to.
We've got to be better.
We've got to be better at that.
You know, we've got to bebetter at this.
Um, we can't expect for eitherfirst responders or ready
responders to be going in andmaking these types of sacrifices
(52:34):
without providing support.
Jamie Serino (52:39):
Yeah, I agree.
So is there anything you wouldleave people with?
You know?
Just, we'll say again, peoplecould go to wellcaresorg and
contact you, interact with a lotof the material that's there.
If you are an organization,whether it is a first responder
(53:01):
or in the construction industryor any type of company, they
could engage and get that freeemotional resiliency training.
So any company, big or small,can contact you and get
resiliency training.
Um, so any, any company, big orsmall, can can contact you and
get that training.
There's four differenttrainings Um, the credentialing
is available.
All this stuff's available andthey can just reach out to you
(53:21):
also, uh, to ask questions andstuff.
Um, is there anything else thatyou would want to leave people
with you know?
Lisa Orloff (53:30):
you know, in the last few minutes here, yeah, I
would just say that in myexperience that people are good
and people are going to step outand they're going to help
somebody, they're going to helpa neighbor, they're going to
help a stranger, they're goingto do good and we want to.
You know, we applaud you forthat, we champion you, we think
(53:53):
you should be acknowledged and Ithink you know, and we know,
that the local leaders need tohave a seat at the table you
know, not only to beacknowledged for what they do,
but to have access to the sametype of resources that others
have.
You know, if you think you'regoing to step out and help in
disaster, get trained.
Please get trained.
(54:15):
Go to our website.
There's a contact us form.
There's online training.
There's in-person training.
It is free.
We will come to your locationfor a group of 12 or more and
deliver it.
We can deliver it on Zoom oryou can can take it self-paced,
but this is a movement.
(54:36):
Empower yourselves, protectyourselves.
If you think you're going tohelp, if your child is going on
a volunteer group and deployingsomewhere to do some volunteer
work, get them trained.
There's no downside to it.
Right, the first training iseight hours out of your day.
(54:57):
You can take it at night, youcan section it off, but what you
know and what can save a lifeis a matter of eight hours of
your time.
So, whether you're thinkingyou're going to deploy, whether
you're a disaster volunteer,whether your child is going on a
high school trip or your kid isgoing on one of those college
(55:19):
experiences, get them trained.
You know, and stay and checkout our website.
There's more to come.
Trust me, we're always lookingat ways we can help community
leaders and those that want tohelp others.
Jamie Serino (55:35):
Yeah, you guys have certainly grown and you
guys pivoted and you guys reallyagile and it's just great.
So, yeah, more to come, I'msure.
So, lisa, thank you.
Lisa Orloff (55:45):
Us guys, Jamie, us guys.
Jamie Serino (55:48):
I pop in and out.
It's my pleasure and privilege.
I've learned so much and, lisa,thank you for your time today
and look forward to continuingto work with you.
Lisa Orloff (56:00):
Thanks, jamie, take care.
You're listening to.
There's a Lesson in here,Somewhere, a podcast featuring
compelling conversations withexceptional people.
Whether it's an inspirationalachievement, a hardship overcome
or simply a unique perspective,these are stories we can all
learn from.
Here are your hosts, JamieSerino and Carlos Arcila.
Jamie Serino (00:30):
Hello and welcome to.
There's a Lesson in hereSomewhere.
I'm Jamie Serino and we're heretoday with Lisa Orloff, the
founder of World Care Center.
I've known Lisa for about 20years and Lisa was the person
who taught me about a go bag.
Lisa was the person who taughtme about the phrase first
responder, and she was usingthat phrase, I think, long
(00:52):
before the rest of us startedusing it.
So I've always had this senseof if my go bag wasn't up to
date, or if it wasn't up to date, or if it wasn't quite the way
it should be, lisa's voice wouldbe in my head Like Jamie, your
go bag, you know.
So she's had a very strongimpact on me and has taught me
(01:17):
so much about disasterpreparedness, disaster response
and a lot of the nuances that wedon't normally think about.
And between when I met Lisa andtoday, the world has changed
right and so much has changed.
And the education now is we'rejust becoming better educated,
(01:41):
naturally, but I think whatyou're doing is pushing it.
You know to where we need toknow more and we need to be
personally responsible.
So I'll leave it at that andI'll turn it over to you for a
more complete introduction andI'll say that you can go to.
Worldcaresorg is the website,but we'll mention it a couple
(02:03):
more times.
Okay, lisa, please a morecomplete introduction.
Lisa Orloff (02:09):
Thanks, jamie.
I didn't realize that I was inyour head.
I'm sorry for that, and Ishould make note that you helped
us a lot years ago with ourmarketing and the way to
succinctly communicate what wedo, which is always an issue,
(02:29):
and you're going to find thatout during this podcast.
But thank you so much.
So World Care Center was foundedduring the 9-11 relief effort,
and anybody that was in New YorkCity or in the other areas that
were hit realized that therewas an outpouring of people that
wanted to help, not onlylocally, but people were
(02:51):
converging from different partsof the world to help, and that
was wonderful to see.
We needed that support.
We needed that outpouring ofhope and help, but our
traditional systems wereoverwhelmed.
They didn't know how to handleall of these volunteers.
Traditionally, it was Office ofEmergency Management, the Fire
(03:14):
Department, the PoliceDepartment and the Red Cross,
and that was it.
And if you weren't one of thoseentities, then there was really
no room for you and we neededthis support coming in.
We were completely overwhelmed.
Maybe people don't realize it,but Office of Emergency
(03:34):
Management's headquarters werein the Twin Towers, and so they
were struggling as much asanyone else.
You know, we didn't realizethat when we were working with
them, but when we found outlater on it was like, oh okay,
that was why certain people werereacting in a certain way.
(03:54):
That was unexpected, becausethey were grieving horribly as
well.
So there was no managementstructure.
There was an outpouring of allthis help.
People were not trained.
They had skills, but theyweren't trained specifically on
disaster response.
They were going down workingside by side with the fire
department, not wearing thecorrect personal protective
(04:18):
equipment, not wearing their N95respirators, exposed to a lot
of emotional trauma, withoutpre-training.
Did they do good work?
Absolutely.
Did our firefighters do a lotof work trying to recover their
fellow firefighters?
Absolutely, but at what cost?
(04:38):
Today we've lost morefirefighters to the cancer that
they have succumbed to becauseof their work in and around
Ground Zero than we lost on theactual day of the event.
So, long story short, ourmission has been, and always
(05:00):
will be, to train, support andprotect ready responders, and
that's just the group of peoplethat come out to help.
They can be someone who hasexperience say, they're
experienced firefighter,volunteer firefighter out on
Long Island, but they're in NewYork City and they're doing some
(05:21):
work.
Well, they have experiences tobring to the table.
Or it could be a citizen thatsteps out to help and just
doesn't realize they're going toplug in.
But we want all of them to betrained on the same credential.
(05:42):
So we're talking the samelanguage.
We have an understanding ofwhat is required.
We also have an understandingof what these ready responders
should not do, should not takeon because there's too much of a
risk, and basically how to worktogether safely.
Jamie Serino (05:56):
Yeah, yeah.
So if you can maybe dive intothat a little bit more, because
I think people generally feellike, oh, a disaster happens,
people are going to come in andhelp, right, and here comes the
Red Cross or here comes the firedepartment, and that's true,
right, but you've shown thatsometimes there's a gap between
(06:19):
the event and when those peoplecan come and help, and other
times, like you're pointing out,people want to run in and try
to help and they might not betrained.
So if you could talk a littlebit about that, I think you know
, for people to understand boththat gap and this sense of like
you know what?
I think we've seen that peopleare put in positions sometimes
(06:41):
where I have to take care ofmyself and my family and my
community it's me, you know, andthen like so, then how, and so
it's it's.
It's like preventing chaos,right, and people running in and
doing the wrong thing, lettingpeople know and be educated,
like, okay, this thing justhappened.
What do I do now?
(07:02):
As you know, the professionalsare coming.
Okay, this thing just happened.
What do I do now, as theprofessionals are coming?
Lisa Orloff (07:07):
So I wonder if you could talk a little bit more
about that.
Sure, where to start?
So, first of all, when you'reeffective and you're efficient
and you're doing a good job,everybody assumes you're with an
agency and they just don't ask,right?
And so there was a disbeliefwhen we were volunteering during
the 9-11 relief effort that wewere just spontaneous volunteers
(07:29):
and we would say they're likeokay, what agency are you from?
We're like we're just NewYorkers and they're like just
New Yorkers.
I've never heard of that agencybefore.
So you know this phenomenon,we've learned this spontaneous
volunteerism, this communityaction, right, not not new.
(07:51):
It's human nature.
It should be and protected,right.
So disasters there is a.
There are many different waysof volunteers.
Volunteer groups will come fromother parts of the country and
they will converge upon thisarea and they will begin to help
.
But they often need guidance.
They may need housing, they mayneed to be fed, they may need
(08:15):
to understand the difference ofour community versus the
community they come from.
But the thing that people don'treally talk about is that
disasters happen to communitiesand within those communities,
there are leaders that areworking in that community every
(08:38):
day.
They're not converging upon thedisaster, the disaster has
converged upon them and they'rejust doing what they would do,
naturally.
So if you talk aboutfaith-based leaders caring for
their community, of coursethey're going to either do one
of two things.
Their constituents are eithergoing to call them and say I
need help, what are you going todo for me?
(08:59):
Or we need to help other people.
What are we going to dotogether?
And that local leader needs tobe prepared to lead their
constituents safely andeffectively with the
capabilities that they currentlyhave, or maybe increasing surge
(09:19):
capacity, but staying with whatthey know.
So, for instance, duringSuperstorm Sandy, we went to a
church on Staten Island and theyfelt very passionately about
providing hot meals for thoseimpacted by disaster, right by
(09:40):
Sandy.
And what ended up happening wasI went there and I'm like, okay
, great, you want to providehalf meals?
Let's take a look at yourkitchen.
We don't have a kitchen, okay.
Let's look at your food pantry.
Well, we don't have a foodpantry.
Okay, how many people in yourconstituents have, you know,
food handling certificates?
Well, none.
We've never done this before.
(10:01):
And I said, okay, let's back upa little bit.
What do you have?
What do you do?
What are your assets?
What is your constituent.
What are they capable of doing?
And it turned out that they hada huge warehouse.
They had a pallet jack, theyhad the capability to actually
run a supply depot out of theirchurch, which, in fact, is what
(10:22):
we did with them out of theirchurch, which, in fact, is what
we did with them.
Right, we got them the sleepingbags and the supplies that were
needed and they ended updistributing them.
So it's really looking forthose local leaders, looking at
what their capacity is, theirability, and really building
(10:42):
from there.
Local leaders are naturalcoordinators, they're natural
caregivers.
They don't need to be taughthow to do that.
We just need a layer on top,the disaster management
component, and then, equally asimportant, we need to connect
them with the resources thatthey traditionally are never
(11:05):
connected with.
Jamie Serino (11:06):
Right.
Lisa Orloff (11:06):
You know there are resources out there.
There are government donations,there are individual donations
of resources, so it's not onlythe training and the protecting,
but it's also the connection tothe resources that are
available to them.
Jamie Serino (11:24):
Yep, and so how does World Cares then play a
role?
Like with all that going on?
How do you guys come in andaddress that?
Lisa Orloff (11:40):
So with the training we've developed the
collaborative disaster volunteercredential.
And what that is is we'vepulled together about 45
grassroots leaders and who don'thave a standing disaster
volunteer training and we'vesaid what do you want your
disaster volunteer to look likeIn your experience and response?
What do they need to know?
(12:00):
What's the basic training?
And we've taken from all ofWorld Care Center's training
topics and pulled together threelevels that we've all agreed
upon is the standard that wewill use.
So when we say muck and gutoperation, everybody knows what
that is.
(12:21):
When one group says I needvolunteers to muck and duck my
community, while the groupthat's going to say I'm going to
help, the expectation isthey've taken the training.
But the expectation also is isthe group that's requesting help
is going to provide them withthe agreed upon personal
protective equipment?
So that's a respirator, youknow goggles a list of things
(12:45):
are going to be provided forthem, right?
So it's really laying a commonfoundation.
This is built upon the conceptof what incident command is all
about and what our governmentfollows and these mutual aid
agreements and these commonstandards.
Disaster volunteers have tohave that as well.
(13:06):
Yeah.
And it shouldn't be specific toagency to agency right.
All the agencies that do muckand gut operations should have a
common standard to follow andagree upon right, and we should
also agree upon how we'reprotecting our volunteers, not
only physically but emotionally.
So the first thing that we'redoing is training and
(13:27):
credentialing through theCollaborative Disaster Volunteer
Credential, and we invite localleaders and volunteer groups to
join our advisory board andagree that this would be their
foundational training,skills-based training, and help
to shape this and move thisforward.
The second thing we do is wehave become known as the
(13:52):
organization that redistributespersonal protective equipment.
So we're grateful to our donorsfor donating N95 respirators,
tyvek suits, gloves and thingslike that, which we then
redistribute to the grassrootsgroups that need them to protect
their volunteers.
(14:12):
And we did a lot of that duringCOVID-19.
We, the small organization thatwe are, we were very lucky to
have a stock of N95 respiratorsthat we were actually using for
training and we were able toredistribute them to those on
the front line.
We distributed to the firedepartment, we distributed to
(14:36):
hospitals, we distributed tograssroots groups.
It's amazing, the people thatdid not have PPE compared to
little old us that had PPE.
It was kind of like the littleengine that could, and so we
remain that resource.
And then the third thing that wedo is really work to connect
(14:59):
and coordinate.
So when it's in our living roomlike Sandy was in our living
room, superstorm Sandy was inour living room we opened up
volunteer reception centers andwe coordinated physically on the
ground.
When it's in somebody else'sliving room or backyard, we'll
be invited in to support them sothat we can help them.
(15:22):
We like to say we stand eitherbeside them or behind them,
helping them, because the localleader should always be in the
front.
And we also have some otherinitiatives that are launching
in the fall that are veryexciting, that will help us
coordinate and connect people toresources exciting that will
(15:46):
help us coordinate and connectpeople to resources.
Jamie Serino (15:49):
Okay, yeah, so I like that idea of the
credentialing and it goes backto what you're saying about
speaking a common language andeveryone sort of being on the
same page and so creating thiscredential.
It then, you know, createsalmost like a standard and that
doesn't really exist, right, sothat's a part of the issue.
Lisa Orloff (16:05):
Yeah, it doesn't not across the board for these
grassroots organizations, right,it's always been a push.
Well, if you want to volunteer,you should go to this big agency
, you know, and there are greatinitiatives, those there are
great groups.
There's also CERT, which is agovernment initiative.
(16:25):
There's also CERT, which is agovernment initiative.
The one difference there aremany differences, but the one
(16:50):
big difference is that our goalis training the local groups,
the hyper grassroots groups, tobe able to stay within their
community and meet theircommunity needs while accessing
resources from others.
When you join another agency'sorganization and become a
singular volunteer, you're goingwhere they send you right and
that may not be your community.
It may not be where the urgentneed is, where you actually know
Mrs Jones needs this or Bobdown the road needs that.
(17:10):
So ours is really and not to becliche, but it's an empowerment
initiative, it's a capacitybuilding initiative and it's
building the capabilities fromwithin the community to stay in
the community and take care oftheir own, while also connecting
(17:32):
to the resources that areavailable to them.
Jamie Serino (17:36):
Yep, or should be available to them.
It's fantastic.
So, going back to when youstarted World Cares it was
actually September space, and Iwonder if you could talk a
little bit about that and thenthat transition when you
realized this needs to besomething more.
Lisa Orloff (17:56):
Sure.
So, um, you know, some peopleask like, well, what was your
five-year strategic plan whenyou started the organization?
I'm like what?
There was your five-yearstrategic plan when you started
the organization.
I'm like what?
There was no five-yearstrategic plan.
It really was.
You know, it was just I don'teven know what to call it.
(18:20):
You know fate, just, you knowdivine guidance.
I think it was like just acollective effort.
And so, yeah, we began doing.
After the literal andfigurative dust settled, we
started working and integratingin with FEMA and doing some
(18:43):
activities for FEMA.
Started working and integratingin with FEMA and doing some
activities for FEMA and theysaid you need to incorporate and
you need to join this networkof voluntary organizations.
And so we did.
We incorporated as World CareCenter, with our first program
(19:07):
being September Space, which wasa four volunteer bi-volunteer
community center offering aholistic menu of services to
ready responders and survivors,because nobody was looking at
what.
Nobody at that point in timewas looking at what was
happening to the caregiversright, yeah, that's true.
And also, at that time,survivors were being told you
(19:30):
survived.
What are you complaining about?
Yeah, you know what do you haveto complain about?
And they're like are youkidding?
There are people that I'vespent more time with than my
family that have justdisappeared from this earth.
Of course, I'm struggling, yes,I'm grateful to be alive, but I
also have a tremendous amountof guilt.
So these are the types ofpeople, these underserved people
(19:54):
, that we developed a centerwhere they could drop in and
access services, everything fromart therapy, from play therapy
for their children, toacupuncture and EMDR and talk
therapy with their peers,because firefighters didn't want
(20:14):
to come in and talk to amarriage counselor that's now
doing grief counseling which wasthe reality back then, because
we just didn't know they wantedto come in and talk to a
seasoned firefighter who hadbeen through something like that
.
And that's actually where ourpartnership with Oklahoma City
(20:35):
came in.
Oklahoma City came and startedto help us with these
peer-to-peer groups because theyhad been through the Murrah
building bombing right.
Jamie Serino (20:45):
Yeah, yeah.
Lisa Orloff (20:46):
So people from around the world started to come
in and provide support and thenstarted to talk about how this
phenomenon was nothing new.
It was new to New York City,but it was nothing new and that,
historically, time after time,when something of this magnitude
happens, that people are goingto come out of their homes and
(21:06):
their jobs and from around thecommunity to help.
But there was no playbook.
Right.
There was no playbook theentities in charge of managing
the scene.
There was no playbook on how tomanage spontaneous volunteers
or community volunteers, andthere was no playbook on how to
manage spontaneous volunteers orcommunity volunteers and there
(21:27):
was no playbook for thosevolunteers.
And so we quickly began towrite a field guide which we
published so that everybodycould benefit from our lessons
learned.
And we created a curriculum One.
We went around the country andprovided training for offices of
(21:50):
emergency management on how toset up programs to manage these
types of volunteers.
And then the second is thewhole credentialing initiative
that's evolved over time.
Jamie Serino (22:04):
Yep, where can people find that guide?
Is it on the website?
Lisa Orloff (22:10):
So the guide is actually a published hardcover
book and the information is onthe website, which is
worldcaresorg.
Jamie Serino (22:21):
And, yes, Okay and , yes, good.
So, jumping off of that,another program that you're
involved with now is aroundemotional resiliency, and you
touched upon that.
You know the feelings thatpeople had, the loss you know,
and there's, you know, a sort ofresiliency that firefighters
(22:43):
have and and you know firstresponders, and then there's,
you know, just general workplace, um, people that work in maybe
high stress environments, um,and so there's this emotional
resiliency that people build up,um, but also that a lot of
times doesn't get talked about,right, and so your program kind
(23:04):
of seeks to just sort of let'shave the discussion and let's
talk about, you know, bestpractices, let's talk about ways
to help yourself, help peoplethat work for you.
Could you talk a little bitmore about that program?
Lisa Orloff (23:16):
Sure.
So emotional resiliency hasalways been a threat, you know,
from from 9-11 all the waythrough, because we see that
people you know go and they'revery excited to respond to a
crisis, and then they come backfrom helping and what do you
(23:37):
think the first thing they sayis this is a test.
Jamie Serino (23:45):
I mean the first thing that they would say,
coming back from responding yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I would imagineyou're coming down from this
sort of like adrenaline and youknow, maybe they say what's next
, what's the next crisis to runto?
Lisa Orloff (24:03):
So what they say is I didn't do enough, I have left
and there's so much more to do.
It's not, it's not all of thegreat things that they did, it's
not all of the people that theyhelped.
It's I didn't do enough.
And I will tell you in 22 years, that is predominantly the the
(24:24):
response that we get when wedebrief volunteers after
deployment.
And you know, not only do theyhave that feeling, but they also
had connected with the groupand groups and people.
Right, there was thatconnection.
That connection is no longerthere.
Jamie Serino (24:42):
Right.
Lisa Orloff (24:43):
So the there's all of these things that contribute
to what one might think is avery um fulfilling experience
that ends up being, um, not sofulfilling if it's, if it's
something where they'reseparating themselves from and
it's a one-time experience.
So we've always addressedemotional resiliency.
(25:08):
We most recently got a verysubstantial grant where we can
provide emotional resiliency andsuicide prevention training to
at-risk workers and volunteers,so people that are in high risk,
underserved positions and roles, and one of our target
(25:33):
audiences for this is theconstruction industry.
They have the highest rate ofsuicide of most of the
industries for many differentreasons a variety of reasons,
not the least of which is it's ahighly physical job and if you
get injured, that's a really bigdeal.
You can no longer perform oryou're now taking pain
(25:55):
medications and maybe thosemedications run out and lead to
other things.
And the other interesting thingabout construction workers is
they are often the first onesthat are asked to deploy
post-disaster to do cleanup workand things like that, so they
might be volunteering.
they might be doing it as a job,but still it's.
(26:17):
They're running across the samethings and we've seen that work
side by side with majorconstruction industries who have
their people donate their time.
So we are we have launched thisemotional resiliency and
suicide prevention training.
We have two trainings for theworkers and then two trainings
for managers excited about theprogram where we help managers
(26:48):
of smaller businesses develop aresiliency program or at least
insert resiliency practices tokeep their team emotionally okay
.
So we've been that programlaunched in September and it's
just amazing to work with reallygood people that you know just
(27:08):
need to know it's okay, likethis is normal.
This is not something unusual.
There's nothing wrong with you.
This is your human being andthese are exceptional
circumstances and it's perfectlynormal to be responding and
having these emotions.
The best thing you can do isequip yourself with the
(27:30):
information, knowing, before youeven get into it, that you're
going to come across thesethings, knowing there's a simple
of steps that you can take,such as journaling the positive
right down every day, thepositive impact that you've made
, and revisit that simple stepand then to know that there are
resources should it becomeoverwhelming.
Jamie Serino (27:52):
Yeah, and so it's.
It's great that it is for, like, the construction industry, the
first responders, people inhigh, high stress environments,
but you know, from what I saw inthe curriculum, it can also
just be for really every company.
Lisa Orloff (28:08):
Absolutely.
Jamie Serino (28:09):
And I like what's in there for managers to try to
recognize signs within your teamlike maybe there's something
wrong with this person, thatmaybe there's something
happening in their family orwhatever's happening and it's
throwing them off, and to pickup on those signs is, I think,
really important.
So, even just being in aregular company, I think the
(28:31):
training is worthwhile.
Lisa Orloff (28:33):
Certainly, certainly yeah.
Jamie Serino (28:37):
So you have a lot of experience also responding
right.
So I think it would be great todive into that responding right
.
So I think it would be great todive into that.
And you know, really, everymajor disaster over the past 20
something years that I can thinkof.
You've gone, you've been thereand you've recently been in
Ukraine.
So I wonder if you could, youknow, tell us a little bit about
(29:00):
that, that the feeling of goingand even the feeling of coming
back that you were just talkingabout, um, being there, being in
those environments and doingwhat you do.
I wonder if you could tell us acouple of stories from from
that part of World Cares.
Lisa Orloff (29:16):
Ah, stories, sure, Um.
So stories, um, yeah, I thinkour, our first major deployments
, um to really that validatedthe, the book that I had just
written, the field guide I hadjust written, the training
(29:38):
curriculum that we had launched.
Um, uh, we had done some workpost Katrina, withatrina, with
FEMA helping, helping themdevelop the welcome home centers
modeled after September space.
But the first real deploymentother than 9-11 was the, the
(29:58):
Haitian earthquake, andeverybody was urging us to
respond and I kept on sayingwe're not a response agency, you
know.
And they're like no, you needto go, you need to.
I have, I'm supporting thisorphanage, I'm supporting this
school, I'm supporting thisgroup and you need to go and you
need to help them coordinate.
(30:19):
And so we deployed and wecontinued to deploy for a good
three years.
It went from the earthquake tothe cholera outbreak, which was
a whole other kind of dynamic.
But the consistencies are thisthe consistencies are is there's
(30:40):
always local leaders who havebeen doing good in their
community for a lifetime and arecontinuing to do good when
crisis happens, but their systemis overwhelmed so that they
need support.
They don't need to be taughthow to capacity build, because
(31:00):
they do that every day.
They don't need to be taughthow to organize their community
and they don't have to buildtrust, because they have the
trust of the community.
They need a layer of disastermanagement, they need access to
resources and they need someoneor a group of people that have
(31:23):
capacity to come in to work withthem until they can get on
their feet and train their ownconstituents to take over these
roles.
And that's common.
So when we respond to disaster,we are not going in with
hundreds of volunteers, it's agroup of three and, by the by,
(31:46):
it's a group of three women.
You know, over the years wehave, I have had, I've deployed
with, with some of my, my boardmembers and my colleagues John
Trotman, who happens to be aninspector with Fort Meade Fire
Department, and and others, fortMeade Fire Department and
others.
But over the last few years inHaiti and Ukraine, it's been
(32:08):
myself and these two PAs who arejust, you know, butt kicking
women in the medical field, whoare willing to do a lot of
different things.
And you know and understand theconcept of we're not coming in
to take over, we're coming in tosupport your needs with what we
(32:28):
know, and that's the winningcombination.
So during the Haitian earthquake.
We went in.
We found one or two localleaders, and then we found our
volunteer lead, who was Haitian,who had a connection with other
Haitians who wanted help, andwe still have that team.
We've trained them.
(32:50):
We've gone across Haiti helpingthem with their needs.
During the earthquake, it wassetting up tents and making sure
that they had provisions.
During the cholera outbreak, itwas medical clinics helping
fortify the medical clinics.
And then we were called backwhen there was Hurricane Matthew
(33:17):
that struck another part ofHaiti, and that was a really
proud moment because I got acall from the team lead
basically saying we followedprotocol.
Our team leads have gone to thearea hit by the hurricane,
(33:41):
they've done the assessmentThey've taught us to do.
They've gathered the localleaders, just like you gathered
us before.
We know exactly what the needsare and do.
We just need help finding theresources.
So the most urgent need thatthey assessed was the need for
water filters, and so we wereable to get a grant to provide
(34:06):
those water filters and trainthe team, to put them together,
to train the community and todistribute them, and so that was
, you know.
Really, for us, that was proofof concept.
It took years.
Right.
We went in and we delivered.
Initially, we delivered what wesaid we were going to do, but
then, years later, to see thisthe team still, you know,
(34:31):
providing the service, and we'retalking about all volunteers.
We're not talking about a teamof employees that's supported
with a paycheck in an office andsomeone ensuring that they're
coming and doing what they'redoing.
We're talking about a group ofHaitian citizens that are
volunteering their time to dothis and that, years later, they
were still proactive and stillable to help, so that was very
(34:56):
successful for us, veryvalidating proof of concept Um
no, go, go ahead yeah.
We can carry that forward with.
You know, responding, we werethe lead um for the state of um,
new Jersey.
When hurricane Irene struck, weactually managed all of the
(35:17):
incoming groups to do muck andgut operations in New Jersey.
And then, when um and then werealized that protocols were
missing safety protocols weremissing right and began to work
on that.
And then, when Superstorm Sandystruck, we stood up volunteer
reception centers and managed40,000 volunteers mucking and
(35:39):
gutting and preparing 14,000homes for rebuild.
A lot of disasters in betweenmaria harvey, um, the japanese
tsunami and nuclear disaster,which we were involved in in the
emotional resiliencyperspective.
And then then, most recently,oh, covid, we really um really
(36:03):
so proud of that effort becauseit was pretty amazing that we
were able to support such largeinstitutions and small
grassroots groups at the sametime, with the provision of N95
respirators and what they neededto stay safe.
(36:33):
And actually during COVID, isreally when we fortified our
online training and our onlineroundtable discussions to and
our online emotional support forthe leaders who were so
fatigued.
So we really expanded ouronline programming and and then,
of course, our deployment toUkraine, to, to help the, the
survivors and the internalrefugees.
Jamie Serino (36:50):
Could you talk a little bit more about that,
about your work in Ukraine?
Lisa Orloff (36:53):
Sure, so normally here's how it goes there's an
immediate need, right, and inparticular, what we had learned
through working groups,attending UN meetings, talking
to Ukrainian diaspora that arehere telling us what they're
(37:14):
hearing on the ground, and thatneed that we, you know, became
more aware of was that thehospitals were overwhelmed with
handling the medical needs ofthe soldiers and those injured
closer to the front line and thepeople that are the internally
(37:37):
displaced, people that are nowbeing housed in these small
container shelters, had nomedical care whatsoever, right,
so they're not getting theirmedications, the children are
not being treated, no medicalcare.
So we came in again with ourteam, our small team, and led by
(38:02):
Patty Alfieri, and we startedto do mobile medical clinics and
at the same time, this buildstrust.
At the same time, we knew thatthere was this huge emotional
need, right, but an extremelystoic population.
(38:25):
So during September space, 22years ago, we developed
something called bandaid forhealing, which was a guide for
children and adults.
The guide for children was likea journal that also had the
opportunity for younger ones todraw in what they're feeling,
(38:45):
and then there was a guide forthe parents to interpret some of
the behavior and some of thethings that the children were
expressing verbal and nonverbal,and we, over the years, have
modified this for the disasterand we modified this for the
Ukrainian population and wemodified this for the Ukrainian
(39:06):
population and we translated itinto Ukraine.
And so we again contacted acouple of local leads.
One organization was ourpartner organization.
It's actually one of the peoplethat are very heavily involved
(39:27):
with Dancing with the Stars.
That was our lead organizationover there and there was no
dancing, but their programmanager over there met with us
and we worked with them veryclosely and we hired locally to
be a part of the team anddelivered the medical clinics
(39:48):
first and then returned todeliver the emotional resiliency
workshops.
And it took that because we hadto build trust right, and so by
the end of our time there, youknow that trust had been built,
and then when we returned again,it was.
We were very, very welcome andpeople were coming back with how
(40:12):
they were doing medically andhow they were doing with their
children, and so that became avery successful program that we
ended up delivering as a trainthe trainer.
So it's a leave behind.
We had trained the volunteergroups that we had gone to visit
.
We now took their volunteersand trained them to deliver this
(40:35):
program, left the workbooksbehind.
We also trained them in firstaid and CPR and donated
defibrillators Cause.
Unfortunately, one of ourgroups lost someone because
their defibrillator um broke inthe middle of a resuscitation.
So these are the types ofthings that were um.
(40:59):
You know, we always know thatyou need food, shelter, you need
to be safe and secure, and andthen there's always that
emotional component.
So you have to make sure thattheir physical needs are.
They have to feel safe, theyhave to be physically okay, and
then you can go and address theemotional needs.
Begin to address the emotionalneeds.
Jamie Serino (41:20):
Yeah, and when you were mentioning the stoic
population, it was making methink also, you know, when we
were sort of piloting theemotional resiliency program and
getting feedback from formerfirefighters and you know it's
(41:44):
okay, so the yeah, so the stoicpopulation of you know people in
the Ukraine, firefighters, youknow construction workers, you
know, because you know kind ofmental health is is talked about
so much.
Now I think everyone justassumes that everyone is sort of
(42:06):
on the same page with it.
But yet when we were gettingthis feedback, the feedback from
the former firefighters, theywere saying, oh, you should
frame it this way or that way,because they're probably not
gonna go for this or they're notgonna go for that or it's just
gonna depend on what the chiefof the house is like and that's
gonna set the tone and this isso much to think about there.
(42:28):
And, of course, recommendingprofessional help if there are
larger issues or deeper trauma.
And so I wonder if you couldtalk a little bit about that
work with those populations andtalking about emotional
resiliency and bringing thatkind of message into those
environments where people arestoic or maybe the sort of tough
(42:51):
guy, tough gal kind of attitude, you know yeah.
Lisa Orloff (42:57):
So, um, as you know , I probably fall into that
category.
Um and um, yeah, I'm not onlythe deployment lead, but I also
(43:18):
am a volunteer firefighter.
Um, and definitely um, reallycame to the self-realization
maybe 10 years ago that I'm notsoft and fuzzy, and even though
I thought I was, um, but um,yeah, people that are watching
this are like you're crazy.
(43:38):
If you ever thought you weresoft, um, I yeah, and, and it's,
and it's evolved Right.
So when I first began teachingthis, you know I was all cursing
and tough and talking the lingo, and you know um and I, I think
(43:59):
we've evolved, um, andsometimes when I curse,
everybody's like Ooh, but Ithink, um, the most important
thing is to understand thepeople that you're trying to
serve and the way that you dothat is to engage local
(44:21):
leadership to educate you.
I've been working with the fire,with firefighters, cops, emts
all of that for 22 years, rightSide by side, and um, you, you
understand where they're comingfrom.
(44:42):
You begin to be able to talkthe language.
You have shared experiences, um, and soon that trust is built
because there's a commonexperience, right, and they know
that you understand wherethey're coming from.
The most important and the mosteffective times are those that
(45:07):
are authentic.
So when you catch people in amoment where they're feeling a
certain way and they can speakto you about it.
Or maybe you've given theworkshop and it's after the
workshop that individuals willcome up to you and express maybe
some challenges or how theworkshop has helped them or
(45:30):
validated that they were feelinga certain way that they didn't
really know was a thing.
I use air quotes a lot.
I noticed that.
But, yeah, so you know, I thinkthe most important thing about
the training and with thatpopulation is you may not know
that how much, what an impactyou're making while you're
(45:52):
delivering it and these guys maygive you a hell of a hard time
and bust your chops, but in theend you may get an email later.
You may get them pulling youaside and saying, hey, listen,
you know, I know I was hard onyou during the training, but
what you've said reallyresonates.
Or, hey, I, you know I didn'treally realize that was a thing,
(46:14):
and and and that I'm normal.
You know, and I think you knowthat's that's so important, you
know is that you're normal andyou're a human being and um, but
that codes cuts both ways,right, like we want.
We want for our firstresponders to be strong, right.
(46:40):
We want them to be stoic.
We don't want them to breakdown on the job.
We don't want them to to havethat emotional vulnerability
right.
Jamie Serino (46:49):
Yeah.
Lisa Orloff (46:49):
We want them to be okay.
Jamie Serino (46:51):
Yeah.
Lisa Orloff (46:53):
And so that when they do show vulnerability, you
know we need to accept that andapplaud that, and understand
that everybody's human and thatit's okay.
I know for myself, people wantme to be strong.
They don't want me to beoverwhelmed or to be sad by
(47:20):
something or to be thrown off.
They want me to be that leader,you know, and sometimes that's
hard and sometimes that's hard,but to know that it's okay and
to know that there are groups ofpeople that are going to be
understanding and compassionateand help you get through it,
(47:41):
without being judgmental or takethat role away from you, which
is super important.
God forbid.
You're put on desk duty becauseyou say you're having a hard
time with something.
That's important.
So the dynamic is changing.
We used to rely on the medicalmodel where oh my gosh, lisa
(48:02):
broke down, something's wrongabout it with her.
Who knew she was weak?
Who knew that she couldn'thandle it?
And now we're away from thatmedical model and we're now more
on that, thinking that, okay,well, this is part of life, and
(48:23):
one thing I always say is thatlife is a journey, and so is
being resilient.
You're never resilient all thetime.
Right, you can build resiliencyby the network that you
surround yourself with, by yourhabits, by the way that you
think, the way you control yourthoughts, the way you control
(48:47):
exposure to certain things, youcan develop resiliency and you
can be resilient.
However, there are going to betimes where maybe that support
group isn't there.
You know, maybe you're thrown in, you have to deal with more
than is your comfort zone, right, and so you're not as resilient
, but it's okay and theunderstanding and the
(49:10):
self-compassion and buildingcompassion you know around you
is critically important.
Jamie Serino (49:19):
Yeah, you know it's also helping, I think, the
people in those roles that needto have a defense because
they're seeing, maybe, loss oflife and you know, catastrophe
and they're they're rushing intothose situations, um, but it's
helping them also understand thepatterns and how.
(49:43):
I remember discussing this thatthey may end up bringing their
anger or sadness back to theirspouse and family and so you
start to see that get infected,or they may start to turn to
alcohol or substances.
There's a statistic I cameacross recently said 57.7% of
people with PTSD also have analcohol or a substance use issue
(50:09):
.
It's a high number.
So can they recognize, can theybe emotionally strong and rush
into that fire or that situationbut yet come back and
understand, like the peoplearound them and where they're
channeling all of that stress?
You know, and I think that youknow your program helps to point
(50:30):
that out, because they need to,like you said, they need to
have a strong sort of armor, butthen they need to also.
It's difficult to do, but thenthey need to take the armor off
at some point, you know.
Lisa Orloff (50:42):
And you know, the, the network that you have around
you is critically important andthe more acceptance we bring to
this topic and the more we tryto build that within, within the
community of responders.
You know, this is, uh, this iscertainly a topic that's near
and dear um to to me.
We, as you know, we we used tohost something called the iron
(51:05):
skillet cookoff, which was fivefirehouse chefs against two,
five top chefs, and over thecourse of years we've lost two
of our chefs, two of ourfirehouse chefs, beautiful
people, you know both, bothoutward and about, both outside
(51:30):
and inside, like you know.
Again, they're volunteeringtheir time, um, we've lost them
to suicide, you know, and that's.
And you look at them from theoutside and they're, you know
they're, they're handsome,physically fit, gregarious,
they're, they're, they're firstresponders and they're
volunteering their time fortheir cook off and for the cook
(51:51):
off and to volunteer for a cause.
And yet the support mechanismwas not there for them.
Yeah, in one case for sure, I'mnot sure about the second one
there was definitely, you know,an injury and then subsequent
opioid abuse and addiction.
And you know an injury and thensubsequent um, opioid abuse and
(52:13):
addiction, um, and you know,we've got to.
We've got to be better.
We've got to be better at that.
You know, we've got to bebetter at this.
Um, we can't expect for eitherfirst responders or ready
responders to be going in andmaking these types of sacrifices
(52:34):
without providing support.
Jamie Serino (52:39):
Yeah, I agree.
So is there anything you wouldleave people with?
You know?
Just, we'll say again, peoplecould go to wellcaresorg and
contact you, interact with a lotof the material that's there.
If you are an organization,whether it is a first responder
(53:01):
or in the construction industryor any type of company, they
could engage and get that freeemotional resiliency training.
So any company, big or small,can contact you and get
resiliency training.
Um, so any, any company, big orsmall, can can contact you and
get that training.
There's four differenttrainings Um, the credentialing
is available.
All this stuff's available andthey can just reach out to you
(53:21):
also, uh, to ask questions andstuff.
Um, is there anything else thatyou would want to leave people
with you know?
Lisa Orloff (53:30):
you know, in the last few minutes here, yeah, I
would just say that in myexperience that people are good
and people are going to step outand they're going to help
somebody, they're going to helpa neighbor, they're going to
help a stranger, they're goingto do good and we want to.
You know, we applaud you forthat, we champion you, we think
(53:53):
you should be acknowledged and Ithink you know, and we know,
that the local leaders need tohave a seat at the table you
know, not only to beacknowledged for what they do,
but to have access to the sametype of resources that others
have.
You know, if you think you'regoing to step out and help in
disaster, get trained.
Please get trained.
(54:15):
Go to our website.
There's a contact us form.
There's online training.
There's in-person training.
It is free.
We will come to your locationfor a group of 12 or more and
deliver it.
We can deliver it on Zoom oryou can can take it self-paced,
but this is a movement.
(54:36):
Empower yourselves, protectyourselves.
If you think you're going tohelp, if your child is going on
a volunteer group and deployingsomewhere to do some volunteer
work, get them trained.
There's no downside to it.
Right, the first training iseight hours out of your day.
(54:57):
You can take it at night, youcan section it off, but what you
know and what can save a lifeis a matter of eight hours of
your time.
So, whether you're thinkingyou're going to deploy, whether
you're a disaster volunteer,whether your child is going on a
high school trip or your kid isgoing on one of those college
(55:19):
experiences, get them trained.
You know, and stay and checkout our website.
There's more to come.
Trust me, we're always lookingat ways we can help community
leaders and those that want tohelp others.
Jamie Serino (55:35):
Yeah, you guys have certainly grown and you
guys pivoted and you guys reallyagile and it's just great.
So, yeah, more to come, I'msure.
So, lisa, thank you.
Lisa Orloff (55:45):
Us guys, Jamie, us guys.
Jamie Serino (55:48):
I pop in and out.
It's my pleasure and privilege.
I've learned so much and, lisa,thank you for your time today
and look forward to continuingto work with you.
Lisa Orloff (56:00):
Thanks, jamie, take care.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Ridiculous History
History is beautiful, brutal and, often, ridiculous. Join Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown as they dive into some of the weirdest stories from across the span of human civilization in Ridiculous History, a podcast by iHeartRadio.