Each year, the American Red Cross responds immediately to more than 67,000 disasters, including house or apartment fires (the majority of disaster responses), hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, tornadoes, hazardous materials spills, transportation accidents, explosions, and other natural and man-made disasters.

The Good News Is That We Can Help
Although the American Red Cross is not a government agency, its authority to provide disaster relief was formalized when, in 1905, the Red Cross was chartered by Congress to "carry on a system of national and international relief in time of peace and apply the same in mitigating the sufferings caused by pestilence, famine, fire, floods, and other great national calamities, and to devise and carry on measures for preventing the same." The Charter is not only a grant of power, but also an imposition of duties and obligations to the nation, to disaster victims, and to the people who generously support its work with their donations. 

Red Cross disaster relief focuses on meeting people's immediate emergency disaster-caused needs. When a disaster threatens or strikes, the Red Cross provides shelter, food, and health and mental health services to address basic human needs. In addition to these services, the core of Red Cross disaster relief is the assistance given to individuals and families affected by disaster to enable them to resume their normal daily activities independently. 

The Red Cross also feeds emergency workers, handles inquiries from concerned family members outside the disaster area, provides blood and blood products to disaster victims, and helps those affected by disaster to access other available resources. 

Blood Services 
The most visible division of Biomedical Services, Blood Services is touching more lives than ever before. We've provided the nation with the safest possible blood products for generations. And today, we continue setting new standards for safety and quality.

Tissue Services 
The Red Cross provides nearly one fifth of the nation's tissue for transplantation. Since 1982, the Red Cross has provided lifesaving and life-enhancing tissue (heart valve, skin, ligament, tendon, bone, major blood vessel, fascia- muscle covering) to more than 600,000 people.

Plasma Services
A leader in the plasma industry, the Red Cross provides more than one quarter of the nation's plasma products. Red Cross Plasma Services seeks to provide the American people with safe, reliable, cost-effective plasma products. 

Investing in the Future
Because the Red Cross never stops inventing new ways to care, the organization is looking far into the 21st century at the future of blood services. 

In February 1999, the Red Cross completed its "Transformation," a $287 million program that: 

• re-engineered Red Cross Blood Services' processing, testing and distribution system; 
• established a new management structure; and 
• positioned the Red Cross as a cutting-edge organization prepared to enter the 21st century. 

• a single, standardized computer system that efficiently maintains our blood donor database; 
• a network of eight, state-of-the-art National Testing Laboratories (NTLs) that test about 6 million units of blood collected by the Red Cross's 36 blood regions; 
• the Charles Drew Biomedical Institute, which allows for the Red Cross to provide training and other educational resources to Red Cross Blood Services' personnel; 
• a highly qualified Quality Assurance/Regulatory Affairs Department, which helps to ensure compliance with FDA regulations in every Red Cross Blood Services region; and, 
• a centrally managed blood inventory system to ensure the consistent availability of blood and blood components in every Red Cross Blood Services region throughout the country. 

The FDA has not approved the test; however, the Red Cross is studying NAT under an Investigational New Drug (IND) application submitted to the FDA. The test shows promise to detect the genetic material of a transfusion-transmitted virus like HIV without waiting for the body to form antibodies- potentially offering an important time advantage over current techniques. 

Leukoreduction
A person's own leukocytes (white blood cells) help fight off foreign substances such as bacteria, viruses and abnormal cells, to avoid sickness or disease. But when transfused to another person, these same leukocytes do not benefit the recipient. In fact, these foreign leukocytes in transfused red blood cells and platelets are often not well tolerated and have been associated with some types of transfusion complications. 

The Red Cross is moving toward system-wide universal prestorage leukocyte reduction to improve patient care. 

Research and Development
Our national research program makes significant contributions to biomedical science, blood safety, plasma-derived therapeutics and transfusion technology. 

The Red Cross operates one of the world's premier blood research facilities, the Jerome H. Holland Laboratory, based in Rockville, Md., where Red Cross researchers are engaged in cutting-edge research to develop the next generation of blood products and services. Each year, the Red Cross invests more than $25 million in research activities at the Holland Laboratory and in the field. This commitment to research allows the Red Cross to oversee dozens of scientific research projects seeking to improve the safety, purity and efficacy of blood.

Cellular Therapies 
One technique the Red Cross has identified that shows strong potential for treating people in new ways is through cellular therapies. This new method of treatment involves collecting and treating blood cells from a patient or other blood donor. The treated cells are then introduced into a patient to help revive normal cell function, replace cells that are lost as a result of disease, accidents or aging, or used to prevent illnesses from appearing. 

Cellular therapy may prove to be particularly helpful for patients who are being treated for illnesses such as cancer, where the treated cells may help battle cancerous cells. 

Today's American Red Cross is keeping pace with the changing military. Using the latest in computer and telecommunications technology, the Red Cross allows military members stationed all over the world to send messages to loved ones back home during an emergency or other important events. These communications are delivered around-the-clock, seven days a week, 365 days a year. 

While serving 1.4 million active duty personnel, the Red Cross also reaches out to the 1.5 million members of the National Guard and the Reserves who reside in nearly every local community in America. 

Hundreds of Red Cross chapters brief departing service members and their families regarding available support services and explain how the Red Cross may assist them during the deployment. Both active duty and community-based military can count on the Red Cross to provide emergency communications that link them with their families back home, access to financial assistance, counseling and assistance to veterans. 

Red Cross Armed Forces Emergency Services personnel serve in nearly 1,000 chapters in the United States, on 109 military installations around the world and alongside our troops in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kosovo and Afghanistan

The American Red Cross has provided health and safety services to the American public for almost a century. 

For more than a century, the American Red Cross has been saving lives with health and safety education programs. Red Cross training ranges from first aid, CPR and AED to swimming and lifeguarding; from HIV/AIDS education to caregiving programs like Babysitter’s Training. American Red Cross programs help people live safer and healthier lives. The Red Cross constantly strives to respond to the health and safety concerns of Americans at home, in school and in the workplace. Today’s innovative programs also include teaching lay persons and professionals how to use automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to save victims of sudden cardiac arrest. Last year, nearly 12 million people enrolled in American Red Cross health and safety courses. You can help the Red Cross save lives. Become an instructor or an Authorized Provider, take a course, or volunteer with your local chapter. 

American Red Cross chapters provide locally relevant humanitarian services that help people within the community be safer, healthier and more self-reliant. Chapters determine which programs to offer based on their community¹s needs.

Programs offered by Community Services are wide-ranging, touching the lives of young and old throughout neighborhoods across the country. The variety of services include home delivered meals, food pantries, rides to medical appointments, homeless shelters, transitional housing, caregiver education and support groups, friendly visitors, Lifeline®, hospital / nursing home volunteers, fuel assistance, HeadStart, latchkey programs, language banks and many more. 

Last year, Red Cross chapter Community Services provided almost 22 million services to individuals. 

Every day, the American Red Cross helps people in emergencies . . . whether it's half a million disaster victims or one sick child who needs blood. 

Our vital work is made possible by people like you, who learn how good it can feel to lend a helping hand. Red Cross "everyday heroes" come from all walks of life. They're all ages. Everyone has something special to offer . . . including you. 

You're needed by the Red Cross. Right now.

• Too busy? Your local Red Cross can work with you to provide rewarding experiences, whatever your schedule. 
• Think you don't have any skills to offer? You'd be surprised. And, if you need training, we'll provide it. 

We depend on volunteers, who constitute 97 percent of our total work force, to carry on our humanitarian work: 

• Every year, the Red Cross is there for hurricane, earthquake, and other disaster victims--including 150 families forced from their homes by fire every day. 
• 175,000 volunteers worked to prevent, prepare for and respond to nearly 64,000 disaster incidents last year. 
• Over 15 million Americans turn to us to learn first aid, CPR, swimming, and other health and safety skills. Last year, more than 230,000 people volunteered to teach those courses. 
• Half the nation's blood supply--six million pints annually--is collected by more than 190,000 Red Cross volunteers. 
• Among our emergency services for the men and women of the armed forces is the delivery of urgent family messages--one every 22 seconds. 
• Over 24,000 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 Movement, we work to ease human suffering on a global scale. 

Background
Since the founding of the Junior Red Cross in 1917, youth and the Red Cross have been partners. Today, the involvement of young people with the Red Cross is more important than ever. Our goal is to provide young people with meaningful opportunities for education, training, and volunteer/community service so that they remain a part of the Red Cross family throughout their lives. Young people up to age 24 make up 40 percent of all Red Cross volunteers. 

Disaster Services
Young people are trained to become involved in all areas of Red Cross Disaster Services, including community disaster education, disaster preparation in their local community, and disaster response through Red Cross disaster action teams and youth disaster corps. 

International Services
Young people learn about other cultures by assembling Red Cross school chests and by learning about international humanitarian law and its implications worldwide. 

Health and Safety Services
In Red Cross HIV/AIDS education, first aid, CPR, aquatics, and water safety classes, young people are being educated about leading healthier, safer lives as well as being trained to serve as instructors, lifeguards, and peer educators. 

Armed Forces Emergency Services
Young people provide volunteer service to the Armed Forces community in clinics, hospitals, and medical centers on military installations around the world, and at VA hospitals. 

Biomedical Services
Young adults ages 17 and older, donate blood. Red Cross youth volunteers help with blood drives by recruiting donors, arranging appointments, acting as escorts, and serving refreshments. Young people also assist with tissue and organ donor recruitment. 

Other Youth Opportunities
Young people are involved in other areas of the American Red Cross. There are opportunities that are related to school and college and Internships, as well as openings in Leadership Development and Community Services. 

• School-Related Activities:  Fund raising, organizing blood drives, providing international assistance, and learning about such things as disaster preparedness and HIV/AIDS prevention and education. 
• Leadership Development:  Participating in clubs, councils, and local boards as well as in leadership development camps or centers and on national Red Cross advisory and policy-making groups. 

Background
Nurses have always been a cornerstone for the provision of services by the American Red Cross. Historically, Red Cross nurses have provided their assistance during times of disaster and conflict beginning with the 1880 Johnstown floods and the 1888 Yellow Fever epidemic. The Red Cross Nursing Service was formally established by Jane Delano in 1909. Red Cross nursing has also had a major role in the historical evolution of nursing and nursing leadership in the United States with many Red Cross nurses, including Jane Delano, Clara Noyes, Julia Stimson and others playing strategic roles in the development of American nursing. 

Nurse Involvement Today
More than 40,000 nurses continue to be involved in paid and volunteer capacities at all levels and in all service areas throughout the American Red Cross. These activities consist of: 

• Providing direct services: e.g. local Disaster Action Teams (DAT), Health Fairs, volunteer in military clinics and hospitals, blood collection team, tissue donor recruitment 
• Teaching and developing courses: HIV/AIDS, CPR/First Aid, Automatic emergency Defibrillator(AED), Disaster Health Services, Nurse Assistant Training, Babysitting 
• Acting in management and supervisory roles: including Chapter and Blood region executives 
• Functioning in governance roles: local board member to national Board of Governors 

The Office is led by the Chief Nurse and the National Chairman of Nursing. It includes other paid and volunteer nursing and support staff including nursing student interns and a nurse historian.