An Analysis of the Red Cross

The Red Cross is an organization which has an interesting history. The founder of the international movement was Henry Dunant. Dunant was an affluent Swiss businessman headed to meet with the king of France in an attempt to gain a lucrative business deal. While on his way, Dunant witnessed the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino, where 40,000 French and Austrian soldiers were killed or wounded. Horrified by all the suffering and death, Dunant felt inspired to create an organization to relieve human suffering. This eventually led to the formation of the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1863 at the Geneva Convention held in Geneva, Switzerland. In the United States, Clara Barton shared similar concerns. Known as the "Angel of the Battlefield" for her relentless aid for the wounded in the Civil War, Clara had already established herself as a humanitarian leader in the United States. After the war, she learned about Dunant's movement, and in 1881 she founded the American Red Cross. In the early 1900's, services first expanded under the leadership of Mable Boardman, who directed aid workers to travel the United States by rail and teach first aid and injury prevention. Again, during the early 1900's, Jane Delano, appointed by Boardman as head nursing director of the Red Cross, helped to expand the services of the American Red Cross to include nursing services for medically undeserved populations in rural and remote areas of our country. In the 1960's, the Red Cross focused on encouraging youth to become involved as volunteers. In the 1980's, the Red Cross expanded its services once again, this time to include blood testing and education in relation to the AIDS epidemic. More recently, the Red Cross has been involved in relieving the tsunami that rocked Southeast Asia (The American Red Cross, 2008).

The goals of the Red Cross have not changed; becoming a humanitarian organization led by volunteers and helping people "prevent, prepare for," and "respond to emergencies" has always been its goal. However, the services that are actually delivered have changed over time because of the unique social conditions that created unique forms of emergencies. The theoretical goal has remained the same, but the means of reaching the goal have changed. In this case, this can clearly be declared to be a good thing.

The current mission of the Red Cross is that it "is a humanitarian organization, led by volunteers, that provides relief to victims of disasters and helps people prevent, prepare for and respond to emergencies" (The American Red Cross 2008). The seven principles upon which the Red Cross is founded are Humanity, Impartiality, Neutrality, Independence, Voluntary Service, Unity, and Universality. The most striking of these principles is Impartiality; Impartiality refers to the idea that people are not discriminated against on the basis of race, religion, age, or any other way one could imagine. The interesting part is that this was Henry Dunant's original idea in 1863 when first founding the organization, and for someone to respect diversity to such a high level is rare in our modern times, let alone in the time of Dunant (The American Red Cross, 2008).

The Red Cross is an agency in which social work is performed, but in reality, persons with social work backgrounds are not required, although my experience there has taught me that having a social work background does give this organization a unique look compared to that of others. Tony Gonzalez, Executive Director, is the only one with a social work degree. His role is primarily administrative and involves budget planning, fund raising, public relations, and the day-to-day running of the Chapter itself. Other social work roles include engaging clients in the Shopping & Errand program, and teaching CPR/First Aid/AED classes, as well as giving Community Disaster Education presentations. While the social work role is not explicitly stated, functions that social workers would carry out in a more traditional social work setting are carried out here every day.

The formal organizational structure is very horizontal, with the executive director at the top, all other chapter managers at the next level, and volunteer CNA and Health & Safety instructors at the final level (Information Services, 2008). The informal structure is even more horizontal; in fact, it comes across as nearly perfectly horizontal. Every person is treated with respect and each person acts with integrity; if this is considered a healthy functioning organization and is compared to the corporate environment from which I came, I am astounded that corporations actually manage to function well enough just to keep their own buildings standing!

The Red Cross is funded by grants from national organizations such as the United Way, fundraisers, private donations, and appropriations from the Federal Government (The American Red Cross - Outagamie Chapter, 2007). The funding seems to go straight to the services delivered; some funding from the United Way is for specific things such as materials for the Disaster Dudes program. One thing that may seem unusual is that some money is used towards the Shopping & Errand Program, which provides the homebound and disabled with volunteers who shop for them. This program does seem somewhat far from the Red Cross's mission statement of helping people in relation to disasters; on the other hand, the Red Cross is a humanitarian organization led by volunteers, and this program, while it has little to with disaster, is definitely a humanitarian effort. The rest of the money is used towards running the organization, and the other services provided such as teaching CPR/First Aid, blood donation, and community disaster education undoubtedly fall under Red Cross's mission statement (The American Red Cross - Crossnet, 2008).

In relation to the rest of the social welfare institution, the Red Cross is fairly independent, although it does have some partnerships. The Red Cross works closely with local police and fire departments, receives funding from local organizations, and may work with homeless shelters or food pantries to aid victims of disasters. In relation to the community, the Red Cross is a very proactive participant. The Red Cross offers CPR/First Aid training to the public and to organizations. The Red Cross also collaborates extensively with local elementary schools. Finally, the Red Cross is currently a very active participant with senior citizens; this group is often targeted for Shopping & Errand services, and also apartment and mobile home fire prevention.

The psychological and physical environment of the agency is laid-back and friendly. Clients, volunteers, and employees all seem to enjoy a sense of camaraderie; no one is placed above or below another in importance. For myself, this is an unusual experience, but it seems to me to be the most effective way to run an organization.

Finally, the agency evaluates its effectiveness by showing the number of people served annually. An example is that during fiscal year 2006-2007, the Red Cross "...dispatched 15 volunteers to 27 local disasters affecting 85 family members...," "[p]rovided 422 Automated External Difibrillator (AED) training courses, instructing 3,340 individuals...," and had "...9 volunteers..." present the Disaster Dudes "...program to a record 1,700 third graders at 27 area schools...," and "[c]onducted CNA testing for about 550 candidates yielding $24,996 revenue ..." (The American Red Cross Outagamie Chapter, 2007). From what I can see, this chapter of the Red Cross seems to be an effective one. Some data from past surveys regarding the Disaster Dudes program can be found, and I recall that in general, schools were overall pretty satisfied with the program. The employees are proactive, independent, and are doing all they can to strengthen the organization and community. I do not know the statistics at this point, but I do know that I will be involved in the analysis of some Health & Safety data, which will shed further light on the effectiveness of the Red Cross.

Information Services. (2008). "Organizational Chart." Microsoft Word [computer software].

The American Red Cross. (2008). NEVO Module 1 [New Employee Volunteer Orientation on-

line training video]. Available from http://www.redcross.org/flash/NEVO/NEVOMod1/player.html

The American Red Cross - Crossnet. (2008). Crossnet Home. Retrieved October 17, 2008 from

https://crossnet.redcross.org/news/every/081001_Appropriation.asp

The American Red Cross - Outagamie Chapter. (2007). FY07 Annual Report. Retrieved

October 31, 2008, from http://www.redcrossoutagamie.org/pdf/annualreportFY07.pdf