CORE has been a central figure is helping the world rebuild after natural disasters for 16 years now, and their mission remains as strong as ever.
Founded by Sean Penn and Ann Lee following the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010, the global humanitarian organization has grown to impact more than 14.9 million people across the planet. The non-profit is currently helping people in Venezuela after back-to-back earthquakes in June, and continues to support Los Angeles after the 2025 wildfires, as well as Georgia, North Carolina, Hawaii, Jamaica, Syria and Sudan, just to name a few.
Community Organized Relief Effort debuted its Afterglow live music series with a benefit event held in Hollywood on Tuesday night, hosted by Garcelle Beauvais. The evening featured a stellar performance from Foreigner, along with Stella Lefty and DJ sets from Two Friends and Nikki Kynard.
“Afterglow is a reflection of what has always been at the heart of CORE — the belief that lasting recovery is only possible when we come together as a community,” CORE CEO Lee shared in a statement. “We are incredibly grateful to everyone who joined us in Los Angeles and lent their voice and support to this work. We’re excited to carry the momentum from this incredible evening forward as Afterglow continues to Miami, bringing even more people together in support of communities on the long road to recovery.”
“We are in a real rough bit right now,” she added. “This administration has not been easy, with USAID disappearing; with a lot of support on a day-to-day basis, we don’t know if it’s going to continue. That’s why it was really important for us to have a group called Foreigner perform for us tonight. Because all of us at some time have been in a foreign place and we just want to underline how important it is — especially coming from a family who were foreigners at some point — how important it is to support all of the foreigners, not just outside of the United States, but here; especially the ones who are getting attacked and are at risk.”
Patricia Velasquez, the Venezuelan actress and founder of the Wayuu Taya Foundation, also shared a particularly impactful story of experiencing CORE’s expertise at emergency response first-hand.
“When the earthquake happened, we froze; I didn’t know what to do. But CORE, the day after, they were on the plane. Before anybody got there, they flew to Colombia and we waited for them at the border,” she recalled. “We were petrified, but they knew exactly what to do … no organization in the world does the work that CORE does.”
The CORE Afterglow series will pick up in Miami in December, tied to Miami Art Basel.
