Integrating Red Cross Volunteer Work into Professional Development: Lazarus’s Story as a Volunteer Screener
Written by: Rosalind SE Carney, volunteer
For much of his adult life, Lazarus Davis has always volunteered to help his local community. From the Boy Scouts to the DC Reserve Police Force, he has found a way to use volunteer work to learn new professional skills.
Since February 2017, Lazarus has been working as a Volunteer Screener in the National Capital Region. Screeners donate about 8 hours a week during a 6-month, renewable commitment period. This position involves reviewing applications and resumes, performing interviews and background checks, and matching skills with positions available. As a result of his work, Lazarus received training in specific software applications, enhanced his communication skills and broadened his knowledge in human resources.
Lazarus is motivated by his continuous desire to understand and address community needs. After 15 years as a Reserve Police Officer, he was promoted to Lieutenant, and retired from the police force 5 years later. During those two decades, Lazarus sought to understand the day-to-day activities of police officers to help facilitate community-oriented policing.
Lazarus is currently enrolled in the Emergency Management Program at Frederick Community College. The program teaches participants how to forecast threats, understand crises, and launch response and recovery efforts for communities. As part of the program, Lazarus is completing an internship, which he chose to complete with the Disaster Relief team at the Red Cross. Once he completes the Emergency Management Program, he hopes to work for FEMA or locally in Prince George’s County.
Lazarus says, “The American Red Cross offers many different opportunities. I appreciate how much I have learned from my Red Cross experiences while continuing to give back to the community.”
Are you ready to make a difference like Lazarus?
Written by: Stacy Ndlovu, volunteer
“The greatest challenge in mobilizing youth is that they have so many things vying for their attention, and you have to really connect with them to inspire them,” says Kenneth Bbosa, the Youth and Young Adult Program Manager for Prince George’s County. Kenneth’s background shows he’s the right person for this challenge.
Born and raised in Uganda, Kenneth was always interested in being involved with young people in his community. Although he studied business, his passions inspired him to get involved in politics and youth mobilization. After working as a member of parliament in Uganda for five years, Kenneth decided that he could contribute more with a technical skills set, and with that goal he moved to the United States to study electrical engineering at Montgomery County Community College.
As he struggled to get adjusted to life in a new country and community, Kenneth felt something was missing. He wanted to be more involved with his newly-adopted home and the Red Cross was the most obvious choice for him. Although he’s only been involved with the Red Cross for seven months, Kenneth has shown himself to be an invaluable member of the community, with a natural ability to talk to young people and inspire them to be responsive and more active in their communities.
Kenneth has also volunteered with other departments within the American Red Cross, particularly with Sound the Alarm, the nationwide smoke alarm installation and fire safety events. He has found it very rewarding to work with the team, installing free smoke alarms in high risk neighborhoods all over the region and making new friends along the way.
You can help save lives in your community!
This fall, Sound the Alarm installation and fire safety events will take place in more than 100 communities across the country, providing a lifesaving service in our quest to reduce death and injury from home fires.
Every day, seven people die in home fires, most in homes that lack working smoke alarms. Sadly, children and the elderly disproportionately lose their lives. That’s why the Red Cross rallied an army of volunteers and launched our Home Fire Campaign in 2014.
Register to volunteer at an upcoming event in the National Capital Region!
Written by: Reed Mszar, volunteer
The American Red Cross Ready 365 Giving Program is targeted to local corporations seeking to provide financial support to the Red Cross in the $25,000 - $75,000 (mid-level) giving range. Ready 365, not only standardizes the rights and benefits for corporate donors of the Red Cross, but it also highlights two valuable principles. The first is that in order to make a significant difference in the community, a certain level of give-and-take is necessary. The giving program helps bring in financial support from local businesses for the Red Cross to use when responding to local disasters like floods and home fires and also provides the same corporations and foundations an opportunity to gain a valued relationship with the Red Cross brand and thus, enhance their reputation in the community. Depending on the company’s giving level, ranging from Bronze all the way to Platinum, they will also be recognized in front of other Red Cross supporters.The second ideal that Ready 365 embodies is that no matter who you are or where you live, you can help your community and those in need. Prior to Ready 365, there was no consistent framework for annual corporate giving at the mid-level giving range specified above. This inevitably led to a great deal of variation in mid-level giving programs among different Red Cross chapters across the country. It is expected that not all businesses who wish to support the efforts of the American Red Cross can give to the same degree as others. Ready 365 takes this fact into consideration as the benefits of joining the program are flexible based on the market size of the region in which the company is located and the capacity at which they can give. Regardless of how big or small a corporation is, there are now clear guidelines on how they can best maximize their gifts to their local American Red Cross.The most recent company to join Ready 365 in the National Capital Region is Host Hotels and Resorts in Bethesda, Maryland. Without companies like Host Hotels and Resorts, we at the Red Cross would not have been able to respond to over 477 local disasters and teach 54,728 people lifesaving skills in an array of classes in the past year. Ready 365 provides the American Red Cross the flexibility to apply the gifts where the need is greatest.Companies and foundations who choose to join Ready 365 and develop a valuable relationship with the Red Cross will have the opportunity to enhance their existing reputation, deepen relationships within their community, generate donations to give back to vital markets, and have their gifts highlighted through high-traffic communication channels. A variety of specific benefits are also outlined in the local benefits matrix depending on a company’s particular giving level.Ready 365 certainly has the potential to build stable and lasting relationships between the American Red Cross and regional business looking to make a difference in the lives of many every day.
