The problem in my community is that people are not informed of many disasters and how to be prepared. I think the way to solve the problem is educate the community about preparing for disasters, recruiting volunteers for The American Red Cross Disaster Team, and training more volunteers for disasters.
Raise Awareness of Disaster to the Community
The Red Cross Myrtle Beach Disaster Team
tries to educate children and young adults about the importance of being ready
for disasters. They visit Horry County Schools to teach elementary to high
school students about having a safety kit in case of a hurricane or fire. Also,
children quite often pass forward this information to their families. “Therefore, the best
way to make your family and your home safer is to be prepared before disaster
strikes” (The American Red Cross.org).
Recruiting more volunteers for The American Red Cross Disaster Team
Wendy Spring, (office manager of The American Red Cross Coastal Chapter) stated that,"There is a high need for many volunteers at The American Red Cross, because without volunteers there is no way we can help the people." She recruits people from a registry of volunteer applicants. In conclusion, they train volunteers to be be first responders of multiple types of disasters.
Training volunteers for Disasters
The author, Jeff Tucker, explains in his article, (“The Red Cross conditioning training for volunteers,”) that volunteers at the Red Cross are being trained regularly and are taking many classes to prepare themselves for disasters. Recently, the Red Cross Disaster Team had 160 volunteers in Myrtle Beach, and they trained on March 14, 2012. The volunteers participated in a hurricane exercise in which they reenacted a real disaster. They started 8:00 AM that morning and broke into teams in their emergency operation center. The teams consisted of supply, damage assessment, shelter, feeding, and client case work. These are needed when a disaster occurs and are important to the process of dealing with a disaster. The exercise ended at 4:00 PM, and I had a chance to see what would happen when a disaster occurs and they reported about whom they helped and their progress.
Spring, Wendy. Personal Interview. March 14. 2012.
Tucker. Jeff. “Red Cross Conducting Training for Volunteers”. EBSCO HOST.com. 22 May 2010. 10 March 2012. < http://www.chieftain.com.>
Educate the Community about Disasters
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