American Red Cross
Trained disaster workers from the American Red Cross are working to provide disaster mass care and blood to victims and emergency workers in New York, Washington, DC, and Pennsylvania. In Los Angeles, the Red Cross set up two "Family Assistance Centers" to provide comfort to the families of passengers involved in the tragedy. And everywhere, the Red Cross is working around the clock to respond to the many Americans willing to give blood to help meet these urgent needs. 

Q & A from a Washington Post interview with Bill Blaul, senior vice president of communications and marketing for The American Red Cross, on how people can help.

America's Second Harvest
The America's Second Harvest network is working with its usual partners, the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, to begin supplying relief workers and feeding centers with food and water. America's Second Harvest affiliates in the neighboring areas of NY, DC, CT, MD, VA, and NJ will be used to collect and distribute food products from across the national network. In keeping with the recommendations of FEMA, America's Second Harvest asks that people who wish to get involved make cash donations, rather than in-kind donations.

National Puerto Rican Forum
The National Puerto Rican Forum (NPRF) is working with employers to recruit people to help clean "Ground Zero," the site of the World Trade Center bombing.  NPRF, in collaboration with other community-based organizations, will recruit individuals and provide intensive training in the removal of dangerous and hazardous material.  In addition, the organization is seeking to redirect some of its current funding, as well as raise new funds, to provide immediate job readiness training and job placement assistance to those affected by the attack, such as immediate relatives of those lost in the
attack who now need to replace the lost income, and service and other workers who have been laid off due to the economic repercussions of the attack.

NetAid
NetAid, the international nonprofit whose mission is to mobilize people to help end extreme poverty, encourages supporters to give to September 11 relief efforts in the U.S. by visiting helping.org, and on October 9 launched its response to the Afghan refugee crisis. The impact of the tragic events of September 11th is being felt around the world. Now, in Afghanistan, as conditions deteriorate, hundreds of thousands of people are fleeing their homes.

NetAid is working with local development partners in the region as they deliver water, shelter and health care to the most vulnerable families and will work with them to rebuild their communities.

New York Cares
In the weeks that have elapsed since September 11, New York Cares has deployed thousands of volunteers to assist with relief-related activities. These include staffing a hotline that provides information to families of the missing; preparing and distributing emergency relief checks to victims and their families; serving meals at a respite center for relief workers close to Ground Zero; and many others. Any nonprofit that requires volunteer assistance as a result of the September 11 tragedy should contact the organization directly.

For more information, please contact Chris Toward, Disaster Recovery Program developer, at 212-228-5000 or via email at Chris_Toward@nycares.org.

The Salvation Army
The Salvation Army has been working since the first moments of the attacks to provide emergency assistance to those caught in the midst of the disasters. The Salvation Army has provided seven mobile feeding units at the Pentagon, 18 mobile feeding units and one fixed kitchen at the World Trade Center, and mobile emergency centers at the crash site in Somerset, PA. Through donations, the Salvation Army was able to supply rescue workers, firefighters, military personnel, and families of the victims with the following items: cots, pillows, blankets, dry clothes, socks, shirts, underwear, snacks, bottled water, and Gatorade. The Salvation Army is also providing: assistance with hotel accommodations for those who need lodging, grief counseling to help relieve the pain of this tragic loss, and respite centers for rescue workers to rest, eat, and receive update news briefings on television.

Share America!
Share America! has established the Relief for America Fund to provide direct donations by its member charities in order to provide assistance to victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and their families.  The organization will direct 100 percent of the contributions to its charities participating in the fund.

Share America! charities participating in the Relief for America Fund include: Federal Employee Education and Assistance Fund, which has established a fund to assist federal families affected by the terrorist attacks; Feed The Children, which immediately began to mobilize truckloads of food, water and emergency relief supplies from their New Jersey warehouse; Children's Food Fund/World Emergency Relief, which is currently shipping identified truckloads of donated goods including beverages, snacks, batteries and blankets; Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, Inc., which will be using donations directly for funeral expenses for victim's families, medical expenses for injured parties and counseling materials and booklets for the families of victims; International Aid, which is sending a truckload of medical supplies and relief items to help in the devastated areas and collecting donations of new personal and comfort items for future relief shipments; and Miracle Flights for Kids, which is coordinating air transportation of donated blood from collection sites to regional testing facilities as requested by American Red Cross, United Blood Services and their affiliates.

WNET (Channel 13), New York City
Since the city's emergency response center was wiped out, Thirteen/WNET's pledge phone banks have been turned over for that purpose. Hundreds of volunteers and station staff are manning the phones, talking with survivors, and gathering information to identify remains. WNET lost all of its transmission antennas in the attack, but is finding ways to get its signal out to the community.