Issues with Red Cross

[Hotspring 44]

I don't know if this link was posted somewhere in this thread or not but it seems to me that the (dated) info that is in it is still very relevant to this discussion.

https://socialistworker.org/2005-2/5...RedCross.shtml

[jesswolfe]

Interesting recent history with comments about their response to the Valley fire.

https://www.alternet.org/investigati...ter1047421&t=4

Jessica
Daughterofthediviners.com

[Shandi]

Jessica,

Thank you so much for sharing this in depth article. I hope that our community reads it. I read recently that a local real estate company collected and donated $40,000 to the ARC. I have to find the article. I believe it was for Valley Fire Victims, and we know that money will never help any of them.

I copied this from the Alternet.org article, since it's one more reason to shun the ARC:

"When a wildfire swept through three Northern California counties in September, the Red Cross showed up but provided shelter to just 25 of 1,000 victims at one site. Because of the charity’s strict rules and disorganization, many evacuees slept outside for over a week, even when the weather turned bad. “These families were sleeping in the rain with their children,” said Wendy Lopez, a local volunteer.

Local officials were so angry they relieved the Red Cross of its duties.

The Red Cross had closed chapters in the area last year. “You’re seeing a huge loss of experienced staff,” said John Saguto, a 15-year Red Cross volunteer in Northern California.

Interesting recent history with comments about their response to the Valley fire...

[Barry]

Here's another expose about the Red Cross

WHEN GAIL MCGOVERN WAS PICKED to head the American Red Cross in 2008, the organization was reeling. Her predecessor had been fired after impregnating a subordinate. The charity was running an annual deficit of hundreds of millions of dollars.

A former AT&T executive who had taught marketing at Harvard Business School, McGovern pledged to make the tough choices that would revitalize the Red Cross, which was chartered by Congress to provide aid after disasters. In a speech five years ago, she imagined a bright future, a “revolution” in which there would be “a Red Cross location in every single community.’’

It hasn’t worked out that way.

McGovern and her handpicked team of former AT&T colleagues have presided over a string of previously unreported management blunders that have eroded the charity’s ability to fulfill its core mission of aiding Americans in times of need.

Under McGovern, the Red Cross has slashed its payroll by more than a third, eliminating thousands of jobs and closing hundreds of local chapters. Many veteran volunteers, who do the vital work of responding to local fires and floods have also left, alienated by what many perceive as an increasingly rigid, centralized management structure.

Far from opening offices in every city and town, the Red Cross is stumbling in response to even smaller scale disasters.

When a wildfire swept through three Northern California counties in September, the Red Cross showed up but provided shelter to just 25 of 1,000 victims at one site. Because of the charity’s strict rules and disorganization, many evacuees slept outside for over a week, even when the weather turned bad. “These families were sleeping in the rain with their children,” said Wendy Lopez, a local volunteer.

Local officials were so angry they relieved the Red Cross of its duties.

Continues here