On Wednesday, August 7, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM, Sheila Birnbaum, the Special Master appointed to manage the distribution of the Federal 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund (VCF), will speak at an educational seminar in Brooklyn. The Special Master and her staff will give a presentation to clarify the VCF, which re-opened under the James Zadroga 9/11 Health & Compensation Act to compensate responders and survivors who developed health problems related to 9/11. The VCF staff will answer questions about registering and making claims to the VCF. With the first deadline to register only two months away (October 3, 2013), this session is aimed at reaching 9/11 responders, workers and volunteers from the Brooklyn area.
Hosted by the WTC Health Program’s Long Island Clinical Center of Excellence (LI-CCE), in partnership with the FealGood Foundation, this seminar is part of the LI-CCE’s educational service to the 9/11 community. The LI-CCE, directed by Stony Brook Medicine’s Benjamin Luft, MD, provides integrative health services to over 7,000 9/11 responders, workers and volunteers in Brooklyn and in Nassau and Suffolk counties. The health program under Dr. Luft’s leadership provides not only excellence in patient care, but also in 9/11 health research, and in public education on the 9/11 response effort and its long-term impact through his collection of oral histories, the film “9/11: An American Requiem”, and the book “We are Not Leaving!”. Recently, the LI-CCE expanded to Brooklyn to ensure that the 9/11 community there has adequate access to 9/11 healthcare through the WTC Health Program (a federal benefit administered by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health).
The FealGood Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing aid to 9/11 responders and their families, was founded by 9/11 responder John Feal.
This seminar will be at the Knights of Columbus in Dyker Heights Brooklyn (1305 86th Street). It marks the first time the Special Master will speak in Brooklyn at an educational seminar. Anyone who is sick or may be sick because of exposure to the 9/11 toxins is eligible to register. Several thousand 9/11 responders live in Brooklyn. They, like many other New Yorkers, worked or volunteered at the 9/11 sites and because of that work, could now be sick – even those who may only have been exposed briefly. The fund also covers people who lived and worked in lower Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn in the year following 9/11.
Seating is limited. To attend, you must register by calling Sonia Fore at 631-855-1207, on or before August 5.
For more information about the seminar, please contact Dr. Luft’s LI-CCE office at 631-855-1207. For more information about the NIOSH’s WTC Health Program, please visit www.cdc.gov/WTC. If you would like more information about the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, please visit www.VCF.gov or call the VCF helpline at 1-855-885-1555.
Contacts
Julie Broihier, Long Island Clinical Center of Excellence, 631-855-1208
John Feal, FealGood Foundation, 631-724-3320
Christy Spring, National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, 202-245-0633
