Community Resources-American Red Cross
Clara Barton is the founder of the American Chapter of the Red Cross. She founded this organization in 1881 after visiting Geneva, Switzerland (American Red Cross, 2021). Since its inception, this organization has served many people in need. The organization received its first congressional charter in 1900 (American Red Cross, 2021). To date, it has been tasked federally to offer its services to members and families of the American military. In addition to this, it also provides disaster relief in the United States and other parts of the world. The Red Cross evolves to meet the ever-changing needs of the people it serves but always remains to its origin. Red Cross nurses helped American soldiers during the First World War. It also trains individuals on first aid certifications. The Red Cross has a blood donation drive countrywide and offers over 40% of blood products in America (American Red Cross, 2021). The fundamental public health principles that guide the American Red Cross include disease prevention, health promotion, community participation, internal collaboration, and reducing societal inequalities (Music, 2018). Since its inception, the American Red Cross has depended on contributions and volunteers from Americans to help them finance its programs.
The American Red Cross is one of the most known non-governmental organizations that protects health and life while respecting the cultures of the people they serve. This organization strives to remain neutral in any hostile areas or controversies. Public health professionals protect the population’s health by implementing solutions to prevent healthcare problems. They conduct research, formulate policies, and educate the general public (DeSalvo et al., 2017).
Mission and Vision
The American Red Cross offers compassionate care to people in need. It can achieve this through generous donations, employees, and volunteers who share its mission of preventing and alleviating suffering in America and globally. It donates blood, time, and money to accomplish its mission. They also teach lifesaving skills to communities to make them better prepared for disasters.
The mission statement of the American Red Cross is “The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.” (American Red Cross, 2021). It is a humanitarian non-governmental organization that tries to help those in need. The organization has five critical services which help it to achieve its mission. The services include lifesaving blood, disaster relief, training certification, helping military families, and international services and aid (American Red Cross, 2021).
The vision of the American Red Cross is to “turn compassion into action so that all people affected by disaster across the country and around the world receive care, shelter, and hope. Our communities are ready and prepared for disasters. Everyone in our country has access to safe, lifesaving blood and blood products. All members of our armed services and their families find support and comfort whenever needed; and in an emergency, there are always trained individuals nearby, ready to use their Red Cross skills to save lives” (American Red Cross, 2021).
Promoting Equal Opportunity and Improving Community of Life
Since its inception, the American Red Cross has helped individuals wounded in war while remaining impartial and not choosing sides in the war. This organization continues its mission to protect human life through its seven guiding principles. These principles include humanity, impartiality, neutrality, independence, voluntary service, unity, and universality (Owen, 2016). These principles guide it in its quest to alleviate human suffering. The American Red Cross keeps growing, adding biomedical services as one of its new services. This involves supplying, collecting, and distributing blood and blood products (American Red Cross, 2021). As we all know, disasters happen all the time without sending a warning. This results in human suffering, especially in the affected areas. The victims of these disasters may be left confused without being aware of how they should respond.
The American Red Cross is always available to help individuals and communities struck by disaster. It offers water, shelter, food, and psychosocial support. Its employees and volunteers offer these services. They respond to earthquakes, wildfires, floods, and hurricanes ( American Red Cross, 2021). American Red Cross also impacts communities by offering lifesaving first aid courses, which can help individuals in the case of emergencies and disasters such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation. These lessons can be offered to healthcare professionals and the general public. This organization also supports military services and assists them in coping and responding to any disasters. This organization has helped many military families in the United States by offering emergency communication, deploying soldiers, offering financial aid, referring them to community services, and volunteering in military hospitals (American Red Cross, 2021).
Legislation Impact on the Provision of Services, Funding, and Policies
The American Red Cross is a nonprofit organization, so it is exempt from paying taxes. They thus rely on donations from well-wishers and the financial proceeds they get from supplying their biomedical products and lifesaving training. Biomedical services collect and supply over 40% of the country’s blood supply. More than 90% of the American Red Cross’ finances are from biomedical services (Egan & Pravongviengkham, 2016). The American Red Cross should always inform the general public of their services. They must also appreciate the role of donors and well-wishers in ensuring they are also operational. Furthermore, they must seek more financial and blood donors to support their mission. Even though this organization does not receive federal funding, it understands the government and can use the legislative framework to request funding (Owen, 2016).
Organizational Impact on Health and Safety in Communities
An estimated 90% of people who work in the American Red Cross are volunteers (Owen, 2016). These volunteers help to ensure that this organization achieves its mission and objectives. Nurses are at the center of this organization. Since its inception, nurses have helped implement health interventions, creating a culture of health within communities and raising community awareness on health issues (Owen, 2016). At the international level, this organization has helped promote healthier communities by helping with HIV treatment and prevention, measles prevention, and disaster preparation (Owen, 2016). This organization is constantly updated on impending natural disasters, enabling them to prepare and be actively deployed in case of any disaster.
Conclusion
In conclusion, many public health organizations help promote public health and safety. American Red Cross is one such organization. Since its inception in 1881, this organization has helped people during disasters and times of war. It has also helped families of people in the military by providing emergency communication and rapid deployment. This organization also trains healthcare professionals in lifesaving first aid and CPR courses. Furthermore, they also have a biomedical services department that provides and supplies blood and blood products in the US. This organization is a nonprofit organization that depends on donations and volunteers to help it achieve its mission.
References
American Red Cross. (2021). Our history. American Red Cross | Help Those Affected by Disasters. https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/history.html
American Red Cross. (2021). Mission & values. American Red Cross | Help Those Affected by Disasters. https://www.redcross.org/about-us/who-we-are/mission-and-values.html
DeSalvo, K. B., Wang, Y. C., Harris, A., Auerbach, J., Koo, D., & O’Carroll, P. (2017). Public health 3.0: A call to action for public health to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Preventing Chronic Disease, 14. https://doi.org/10.5888/pcd14.170017
Egan, T. B., & Pravongviengkham, T. (2016). AMERICAN RED CROSS: A HISTORY AND ANALYSIS [Master’s thesis]. https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/1030846.pdf
Masic, I. (2018). Public health aspects of global population health and well-being in the 21st century regarding determinants of health. International Journal of Preventive Medicine, 9(1), 4. https://doi.org/10.4103/ijpvm.ijpvm_476_17
Owen, I. (2016). The American Red Cross: Background, federal coordination, and oversight issues.
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE
We’ll write everything from scratch
Question 
Research a selected local, national, or global nonprofit organization or government agency to determine how it contributes to public health and safety improvements, promotes equal opportunity, and improves the quality of life within the community. Submit your findings in a 3-5 page report.
Community Resources-American Red Cross
Completing the Nonprofit Organizations and Community Health activity would be an excellent choice as you begin preparing this assessment. Complete this activity to gain insight into promoting equal opportunity and improving the quality of life in a community. The information gained from completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment.
Professional Context
Many organizations work to better local and global communities’ quality of life and promote health and safety in times of crisis. As public health and safety advocates, nurses must know how such organizations help specific populations. As change agents, nurses must be aware of factors that impact the organization and its services. Familiarity with these organizations enables the nurse to offer assistance as a volunteer and source of referral.
This assessment lets you gain insight into a community services organization’s mission, vision, and operations.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Analyze health risks and health care needs among distinct populations.
Explain how an organization’s work impacts a local community’s health and safety needs.
Competency 2: Propose health promotion strategies to improve the health of populations.
Explain how an organization’s mission and vision enable it to contribute to public health and safety improvements.
Competency 3: Evaluate health policies based on their ability to achieve desired outcomes.
Assess the impact of funding sources, policy, and legislation on an organization’s provision of services.
Competency 4: Integrate principles of social justice in community health interventions.
Evaluate an organization’s ability to promote equal opportunity and improve the quality of life within a community.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication strategies to lead health promotion and improve population health.
Preparation
You are interested in expanding your role as a nurse. You are considering working in an area where you can help promote equal opportunity and improve the quality of life within the local or global community. You know several nonprofit organizations and government agencies whose work contributes to this effort somehow. You are particularly interested in one of these organizations but would like to know more about its contributions to public health and safety improvements. You would like to report the results of your research in a scholarly paper that you could submit for publication.
Research a selected local, national, or global nonprofit organization or government agency from the list provided. Determine how the organization or agency contributes to public health and safety improvements, promotes equal opportunity, and improves the quality of life within the community. Submit your findings in a 3-5 page report.
Choose the organization or agency you are most interested in researching:
American Red Cross.
Habitat for Humanity.
United Way.
Doctors Without Borders.
The Salvation Army.
United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
National Center for Transgender Equality.
National Resource Center on LGBT Aging.
Advocacy & Services for LGBT Elders.
Equal Justice Initiative.
National Alliance to End Homelessness.
Urban Triage.
World Health Organization.
The Arc: For People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.
Alliance for Retired Americans.
Futures Without Violence.
Blue Campaign: What Is Human Trafficking?
Covenant House.
Cultural Survival.