The American Red Cross of Upstate South Carolina serves Greenville, Abbeville, Anderson, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, and Pickens Counties.

Sunday, January 28, 2007

Red Cross Employee Dedicates Effort to Strengthening Community Preparedness

There is strength in the Greenville Community in the vast array of organizations that have the capabilities and resources to respond in times of disaster as well as the individual spirit of volunteerism among citizens to help those in need. The Upstate Red Cross Chapter employs the nations first and only Community Disaster Preparedness Specialist (CDPS) to ensure that the strength continues to grow and that our communities ability to respond to disaster becomes more efficient through the maximization of resources and manpower.

Evidence of this strength was shown in 2005 when our community hosted individuals and families at the Palmetto Expo Center who had been displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina. There are many organizations poised to offer assistance in times of disaster--working to create partnerships with those organizations maximizes the strength and effectiveness of disaster response.

The Community Disaster Preparedness Specialist is charged with assessing what disaster response programs are currently available in the Greenville community, determining community readiness for disaster response and working to create partnerships around this issue.

At the heart of the CDPS position is the revitalization of the Greenville County Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster. The VOAD movement is based on the values of cooperation, communication, coordination, and collaboration. The Greenville County VOAD brings together organizations in the community that will assist residents in the event of a disaster, coordinate service delivery planning, and reduce the duplication of services to victims of disaster.

The CDPS also supports the work of the local Citizen Corps, the Community Emergency Response Team (or CERT) program and the Local Emergency Planning Committee which all work to raise public awareness about disaster preparedness and trains ordinary citizens in how they can respond in their local area during times of disaster.

The CDPS is a partnership between the American Red Cross and local government. The hope of those at the Upstate Chapter is that as the benefits of this pilot position become evident through a well-oiled community disaster response, other chapters and communities across the nation will duplicate this effort, thereby helping countless thousands of Americans become better prepared to respond to, prevent, and survive any disaster that may strike there hometown.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Upstate Chapter Helped More Than 1,100 People Rebuild Their Lives

The core of Red Cross disaster relief is the assistance given to individuals and families affected by disaster to enable them to resume their normal daily activities independently. When a disaster threatens or strikes, the Red Cross provides shelter, food, clothing, health & mental health serivces to address basic human needs.

In addition to these services, the Red Cross also feeds emergency workers, handles inquiries from concerned family members outside the disaster area and helps those affected by disaster to access other available resources.

Over the past year, the Upstate Chapter responded to 268 local disaster and assisted 1,141 individuals in rebuilding their lives. The sole community provider of these types of services, the Upstate Chapter is a private, non-profit organization that depends primarily on local donations and volunteer support to meet its mission of disaster response and preparedness. Each year, the Chapter must anticipate the community's needs and budget its services accordingly.

The 2006-2006 fiscal year was a record for the Upstate Chapter in terms of supporting our communities and a record in terms of contributions.

Katrina was largely responsible for the record donations. When funds are sent for a specific disaster, they are forwarded to the Disaster Relief Fund-the funds do not stay in the local accounts. Nonetheless, the Chapter was able to commit more than $410,000 to local disaster response, which was nearly three times our budget. Without the generosity of the community-individuals, business leaders, and the United Way-over and above the Karina donations, this commitment would not have been possible.

In addition to the disaster response, the Red Cross also provides ongoing health and safety training and education in a number of specialized outreach efforts. These include programs for the Hispanic community, youth leadership, CPR and First Aid training, Certified Nurse Assistant training, water safety, and more.

It might have been a record year of need within our communities, but is was also a record year of volunteer and financial response.

Monday, January 22, 2007

"Gray Ladies" of the Upstate

As the Red Cross organization, and this chapter, grows and changes, it is important to remember our history. Even though the organization may change as it progresses, this article is reflective of our constant, long-standing commitment to the Upstate community and its health and welfare-a factor that will never change.

In 1919, the Upstate Red Cross pioneered the field of public health nursing by becoming the first to employ registered nurses (RNs) to teach home hygiene and maternity care. This eventually led to the formation of the Greenville City and County Health Departments and positioned the Upstate Red Cross Chapter in partnership with the city of Greenville and an important influence in the development of city services.

During the 1930s, Upstate Red Cross nurses led nutrition instructional programs in the schools, which was the forerunner of the School Lunch Program. Following the national mandate to create a cadre of hospital volunteers, in 1941, the Gray Lady Service was organized to serve the Greenville Army Air Base Hospital. By 1950, the Upstate Gray Ladies were serving in local civilian hospitals and institutions. The first Greenville County unit was formed at Allen Bennett Hospital. In the 1960s, Upstate nursing volunteers began to work in school health rooms; by 1970, Upstate Chapter volunteers served in 55 local school health rooms; and by the mid-1970s, blood pressure screenings were in full force at locations throughout the county. Through those placements, the Upstate Chapter could target young persons for blood pressure screenings with its award winning Student Hypertension and Risk Reduction Program (SHARRP) targeted.

In a similar growth pattern, the Red Cross nursing program—another historical national organization flagship program—has changed its focus in the Greenville community. Today, the Upstate Red Cross nurses help ease the shortage of qualified health care professionals in the Greenville community through its Vocational Health Care Training program.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Upstate Hispanic outreach has multi-cultural impact


Reaching out to a diverse community and delivering our vital programs and services effectively to all Upstate cultural communities is a goal of the Upstate Chapter. Catalina Solis, the chapters Hispanic Outreach Specialist, works hard to educate, train, and take the Red Cross mission into the Hispanic Community.

This Outreach Program, funded by BI-LO, LLC., educates the Hispanic community on HIV/Aids awareness, First Aid/CPR, and Disaster Services. Catalina is instrumental in translating materials into Spanish and recruiting volunteers to assist with service delivery. Currently, the program has 126 Hispanic volunteers! The Upstate Outreach Program has three bilingual instructors and 19 instructor in fire prevention and the Together We Prepare initiative.

Monday, January 08, 2007

Quality As Well As Quantity

Many of you may know that the way the American Red Cross does business is changing. From the top down, the organization is streamlining its board of directors, national offices, and field units (chapters) all in an effort to refocus the organization on its core commitment to the American Citizen, disaster relief.

On a local level, beginning January 1st, the Upstate Chapter became a Regional Chapter and accepted a degree of responsibility for six additional counties, thus expanding its area of service to the 11 counties that commonly comprise Upstate South Carolina. This may seem to conflict with my opening statement, but in actuality, it allows community chapters and service centers to concentrate their efforts on service delivery.

Prior to January 1st., there were four individual chapters in the Upstate. They all had the administrative responsibility of reporting its financial, disaster response, and Health & Safety numbers to the Service Area Headquarters in Raleigh. The Service Area Headquarters would then convey them to our National Office. Reporting requirements for larger chapters was no problem. For smaller chapters, compliance with the procedures was far too expensive and time consuming.

Since the change, smaller chapters became Community Chapters and shifted all of their administrative responsibilities, and its expense, to the Regional Chapter. The shift accomplishes a few things: first, fewer hands touching donor dollars increases accountability and accuracy in reporting to the Regional Headquarters. Second, the Community Chapters now have the opportunity to concentrate on delivering quality services tailored to meet the unique needs of the community it serves. This becomes more significant as we see a rise in disaster responses across the Upstate. Quality as well as quantity.

When the quality of Red Cross services rise, along with it occurs a rise in community awareness, community voluntarism, and donations to the local chapter. So, the American Red Cross making voluntary changes from the top down is a good thing, not only for the victims of disaster, but for the Red Cross itself.

By Brian Scoles