American Red Cross Northern Minnesota Region - Annual Report FY13 | Page 9

Serving Those Who Serve Our Country
For more than a century, the Red Cross has been dedicated to meeting the needs of
military members, their families and veterans.
Each stage of military life has its unique challenges, and coming home from a deployment
is no different. The Red Cross provides several educational programs and resources to
make this adjustment easier, including Reconnection Workshops, which focus on topics
that military members and their families have found relevant to their experience as they
transition home.
The Red Cross is also doing its part to provide employment development programs and
ensure that valuable skills are not wasted. Hundreds of dental and medical assistants
were trained on military installations and at local Red Cross chapters last year, and more
than 2,600 veterans and family members received help in developing resumes and honing
their interview skills.

A Red Cross worker talks with military
members in Norfolk, Va., about resources
available to them.

The Red Cross made a commitment in 2012 to hire 1,000 veterans by the end of 2014,
so we have partnered with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) on VA for Vets,
a career management program that enables veterans to successfully join the civilian
workforce. By June 2013, the Red Cross was already more than halfway to its goal.
The rising suicide rate among both active-duty military members and veterans has been
a source of concern in recent years, so the Red Cross is working with the Veterans Crisis
Line to ensure that both these groups get the help they need. Last year, the Red Cross
intervened in nearly 400 incidents involving someone threatening to harm himself or
herself or commit suicide.

New Tools to Help America Prepare
Red Cross training has helped countless people learn how to respond and save lives.
And as more information is available digitally, the Red Cross has kept pace by introducing
apps that provide critical help at the touch of a screen, along with online courses and
preparedness programs.
The Red Cross has developed a series of award-winning, disaster-specific apps that put
lifesaving information in the palm of a hand. Joining the Red Cross First Aid App—which
was released in June 2012—the free Hurricane, Tornado, Wildfire and Earthquake apps
were created and launched over the past fiscal year to deliver useful, and sometimes
lifesaving, information to mobile devices.
During FY13, the apps collectively issued 47 million customized, real-time weather alerts
to users for multiple natural disasters, including tornadoes, hurricanes and floods.
Over the past year, the Red Cross has introduced several courses that can be taken online,
and at the student’s own pace. Babysitting Basics, for example, trains youth on skills such
as providing care for infants and children and how to handle an emergency. The course
was promoted in a new way through the Web ad “The Babysitter You Don’t Want to Be,”
which gave a funny, don’t-try-this-at-home look ]