|
Getting Started
The Red Cross is always looking for individuals who have a strong desire to help those at the times they need it most. Volunteers are the heart of the Greater Kansas City Chapter of the American Red Cross and are an important part of everything we do.
Volunteers provide disaster assistance, educate the community in disaster preparedness, teach health and safety classes and jump in wherever there’s a need. But we must warn you … volunteering can be an addiction of the heart.
To begin your volunteer career, please review the following opportunities to serve. The first step to becoming a volunteer is to fill out a Volunteer Application which is located on a link to the left. Once we receive your application you will be contacted by e-mail with the dates of the upcoming Volunteer Information Sessions. Attending a Volunteer Information Session is the second step to becoming a volunteer.
We Depend on Volunteers
Volunteers constitute 96 percent of our total work force to carry on our humanitarian work:
- Every year the Red Cross responds to more than 70,000 disasters—including approximately 150 home fires every day.
- About 11 million Americans turn to us to learn first aid, CPR, swimming, and other health and safety skills. Last year, more than 158,000 people volunteered to teach those courses.
- Half the nation's blood supply— six million pints annually—is collected by more than 155,000 Red Cross volunteers .
- Among our emergency services for the men and women of the armed forces is the delivery of urgent family messages—around the clock and around the globe.
- More than 30,900 volunteers serve as chairs, members of boards of directors, or on advisory boards for local Red Cross units - chapters, Blood Services regions, and military stations.
- As part of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, Red Cross reconnects more than 8,000 families separated by conflicts and disasters around the world through international tracking services and Red Cross messages.
|
