Beast Blog

Oakland Red Cross Volunteers for Katrina

From Gwen, a Beast Blog reader:

I went to a training session at the Red Cross today and wanted to share some information, in case readers are interested in volunteering:

The Red Cross needs all the volunteers they can get to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. They will continue to need help at least through the beginning of 2006. Even if you can only come in a couple hours a month, that's a couple less hours they need to fill.

** They have extended hours and are open seven days a week due to the crisis.
Most of the work requires minimal skills (if you are able to view this on your computer, you are skilled enough).

Oakland in particular needs help, as they're one of the eleven call centers in the country that field calls to the national toll-free number from people affected by the hurricane who need assistance finding water, food, shelter, medicine, etc.

General volunteer intake is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily; times for phone training sessions for local and national response are also offered in the evening and listed below.

You DO NOT NEED TO REGISTER to attend a training session, just show up.

The Oakland Red Cross offices are at 3901 Broadway @ 40th Street in Oakland, near MacArthur BART station and on the 51 line.
1. Response center training (fielding calls to the national toll-free number from clients in the south who need immediate referrals to ground support) is daily at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., and 6 p.m.
** There is special need for volunteers who are fluent in Spanish or French.

2. Local phone bank training (answering calls from locals who want to make donations or volunteer) is daily at 8 a.m., noon, and 4 p.m.

3. They also need help around the office -- data entry and standard administrative work, copying and whatever else needs doing -- to fill in for the regular staff and volunteers who've gone down south. There is currently no training or organized intake for this; I was told that the best way to help with this is to go down there and make yourself useful.

4. If you are interested in on-site work in the affected regions, more information about conditions and a self-assessment are available at:
http://www.bayarea-redcross.org/topnav/vol/volkatrina.htm
[scroll down to 'Disaster Assignment work']

Elsewhere: there are 10 chapters within the SF Bay Area chapter alone [mostly central/east Bay Area] and from what I understand, all chapters nation-wide need help with their local phone banks and office work, contact them directly:

SF Bay Area chapter
http://www.bayarea-redcross.org/topnav/about/offices.htm

Chapters throughout US:
http://www.redcross.org/where/chapts.asp
[Many of these comprise several member chapters, find the location closest to you, then click 'About Us' then 'Locations']