The American Red Cross Southeast Mississippi Chapter is looking to partner with local organizations and Newton County to help increase access to services in the east Mississippi area.
Denise Smith, regional philanthropy officer for the American Red Cross, spoke to the Board of Supervisors about the services her organization offers in Newton County and ways the county, church groups or civic clubs could get involved.
“If we can partner with you all, with any church group, any civic group, please let me know because we really want to make sure every one of our counties in Mississippi is a little bit safer,” she said.
Red Cross offers several programs for Newton County residents, Smith said. The main service is disaster assistance for household fires. In 2018, Red Cross served 18 families who fell victim to a household fire and spent $11,490 assisting them. So far this year, $7,500 has been spent helping 12 families.
“If you know anyone who has suffered a home fire, who has lost everything they have, you know Red Cross is generally the first one that’s there to hand them a little bit of money to get them started again,” she said.
For victims of home fires, Red Cross provides a gift card for families to purchase basic necessities and will cover temporary lodging by putting the victims up in a hotel for a night or two. That assistance is where the majority of the county-level funding goes, she said.
Additionally, Red Cross operates a service to armed forces helping them go see family members in the hospital or assisting with travel arrangements for a funeral and provides free smoke alarms for residents to protect them from fires. Last year, Smith said Red Cross assisted 11 Newton County families in its service to armed forces, trained 16 residents as volunteers and gave out over 2,790 smoke alarms across the state.
To provide those services, Smith said the Red Cross relies on local volunteers, with over 90 percent of the organization’s workforce coming from volunteer groups, clubs or individuals.
Any Newton County organization, club, church group or individual that would like to volunteer or assist in other ways is encouraged to visit redcross.org/Mississippi or call the Meridian Chapter office at 601-485-5151.
