Recent Achievements

Here Are Some Achievements Made Possible by Donations to the American Red Cross, Santa Barbara County Chapter Between July 1, 2007 and June 30, 2008

Disaster Response

• Made plans to help evacuate up to 200,000 people from South County and shelter and feed up to 20,000 residents from the Zaca Fire.
• Assisted 66 families devastated by loss of housing, clothing, furnishings and other personal possessions due to home fires, motel fires or other local disasters.
• Trained more than 200 local disaster volunteers in how to help the Red Cross respond to local and national disasters.
• Made contact and updated over 100 emergency shelter agreements with area schools, faith communities and other local groups.
• Held over 80 disaster training courses with almost 500 participants.

Emergency Preparedness

• Enrolled over 7,750 people in lifesaving skills courses such as CPR and First Aid.
• Gave over 293 Community Disaster Education presentations to the community, reaching over 4,430 people.
• Delivered Emergency Preparedness materials to more than 1,500 homes in wildfire risk areas and 150 homes in Flood prone areas.
• Partnered with the City of Goleta and the Chamber of Commerce to launch the “Partnership for Preparedness” to provide two new Shelter Trailers for Goleta.
• Participated in nine multi-agency drills to improve the county’s readiness.
• Certified six new Instructors to train employees at the Chumash Casino Resort and members of the Tribal Health Council in CPR, First Aid and other lifesaving skills.

Services to Armed Forces

• Delivered emergency communications, deployment information, counseling and other crisis assistance that helped military personnel serving overseas connect with their families.
• Assisted in 129 communications between service members and their families.
  

Volunteer & Youth Support

• Instituted the new Red Cross Masters of Disaster program to teach children (K-6) about how to be safe before, during and after a disaster. Reached over 450 third and fourth grade students in Carpinteria with important Disaster Preparedness information so far this fiscal year.
• Participated in 11 large community events throughout the county. For Las Fiestas Patrias in Santa Maria, we logged over 400 hours of volunteer service in just one day!
• Created Chapter’s first Youth Newsletter that highlights all of the great things our 15 high school and college Red Cross Clubs are doing in Santa Barbara County.