Analyze

A recent article was published about the technologies that the American Red Cross relies on and offers. Red Cross offers a free mobile app that provides lifesaving information on anyones phone who wants and needs it. Many volunteers utilize this information to be able to respond on scene when necessary. Their national shelter system and home fire geographic information system also helps them map out the best escape routes and prevention methods utilizing technology as well as providing them with fast response alarm times. The American Red Cross also depends on other organizations as well as technologies to help transport people, volunteers, medicine, etc to areas in need. They also depend on other organizations for response orders and collaboration of technologies, resource, hospitals and knowledge. 

The American Red Cross is heavily based off team work and altruism. As stated earlier, those that respond are volunteers, they are not obligated to help but they want to. The Red Cross volunteers work together as a team for the goal of aiding and tending to those in need, to the best of their ability. Their volunteering shows they perceive disaster as an unpredictable thing, but something that other members of the community can help those devastated get through. 

A main concern is the fact that no disaster will ever be the same. A hurricane in one area will be very different in another area, despite the same source of destruction. This is because each areas has a different population, different needs  and different services available in each area. The most challenging part is the ability to foresee what might be good resources or equipment or forms of medical care and best to supply at each different disaster since each one is unique. 

American Red Cross is an organization that learns and advances as new technologies relating to medicine and disease come out, but also an organization that learns from experience. As stated earlier, the organization began with assisting with war related needs and grew from that. Due to what they learned about medical needs of the Army, they were able to flourish and grow rapidly during America's actively military war time. Attending disaster areas such as, for one example, hurricanes such as Katrina, gave volunteers an experience working with that type of disaster. Next time when an area is afflicted with a similar disaster, the organization and its members are now better equipped to handle it. 

The American Red Cross is an organization that seeks to alleviate human suffering at the hands of emergencies by utilizing volunteerism. The organization focuses on domestic disaster response and support for the responders to those disasters, such as the armed forces.

The membership is mostly volunteers. Anyone who volunteers to donate blood, work at a center, or provide care is automatically a member of the organization as a whole. Of course, they have employees as well to provide professional care services and the organization is governed by a board as well as a CEO and President. 

The American Red Cross has created a number of structures that contribute to disaster response. Its contributions to the National Response Framework and its close ties with FEMA make it a large player in the national emergency response network. The ARC provides guidelines on subjects like CPR that play into the emergency response of individuals and agencies. Overall, the ARC approaches disaster response with an "all in it together" view, with volunteers being the backbone of all its efforts. 

The ARC is almost like the founding group in diaster response. Its policies and guidelines are the framework for many organizations in the United States and abroad. So, it doesn't really promote a new way of addressing emergency response, as it is the original. 

Funding for the ARC comes from donations, selling of health and safety products designed by the red cross, and the selling of blood products collected by the red cross. 

The American Red Cross uses the gold-standard products for most of its research and service. For disaster response, the ARC utilizes the good-will of its volunteers to address needs such as shelter, food, and health services. On the local level, chapters of the ARC have disaster action teams that respond to smaller emergencies and provide transition services to the victims of such emergencies. They also have a larger wokforce of volunteers to pull from and use for support services.