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The Wyoming Valley Chapter of the
American Red Cross moved to a new facility on
January 5, 2005. Our
new address is 256 N Sherman Street,
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18702 located directly across from My
Brother's Place Home Improvement Center.
Because of program development and
goals to better serve our great community, we are
replacing the Victorian Chapter facility with
a 17,000 square foot building that will be located out
of the flood plain. The
new building provides:
Accessibility
for people with special needs.
In the Chapter’s strategic plan,
diverse populations have been targeted for disaster
education and health & safety classes, and diverse
staffing (paid and volunteer) has been identified as
an objective. Of the 758
volunteers currently active with the Wyoming Valley
Chapter, diverse populations are not represented at a
level that reflects the community. An untapped pool of qualified, capable, and committed people
awaits the opportunity to serve others through the
American Red Cross.
The accessibility of the facility for people with special needs enables services and
opportunities that the Wyoming Valley Chapter has not
been able to provide at its former location.
Capacity
for an on-premises
blood donor site.
The Wyoming Valley Chapter is the largest
collector of blood in the region, representing
approximately 15% of all blood collected by the
American Red Cross, Northeast Pennsylvania Regional
Blood Center. Still, the average donor gives blood
only 1.7 times/year, and less than 5% of the
population even donates once.
An on-premises donor site will increase the
capacity for donors to give blood at their
convenience.
State
of the art classrooms that will provide twice the
capacity of the existing site.
The American Red Cross mission includes
helping people prevent, prepare for, and respond to
emergencies. The
most effective way to meet our mission is to provide
the exact information and skills people need to apply
when confronted with an emergency, to provide
information to mitigate the occurrence of disasters,
and enable hands on lessons to
prevent emergencies.
In the the 2007 fiscal year, the Wyoming
Valley Chapter provided health and safety programming
to 11,952 people, or 4.9% of the Wyoming Valley
population. The
numbers represent a 12.5% increase over the previous
year. Health & Safety classes continue to be above the Red Cross
average for Chapters of similar size.
Community disaster education was provided to
2,718 people, and disaster response classes had 174
people enrolled during the same time frame.
At
our former facility, there was one classroom on the
first floor and another on the third.
There was no special needs accessibility to the
latter classroom.
Our
new facility provides for no less than
four classrooms, all of which would be completely
accessible.
Library
with internet access for community education.
The Wyoming Valley Chapter’s
strategic plan targets greater youth involvement for
the future. Because of the reliance the Red Cross has on volunteerism,
youth involvement is seen as critical to future
service to the community.
Our
new library enhances learning of
the proud history of the American Red Cross for youth
volunteers and provide
‘one-stop shopping’ on topics as diverse as HIV
prevention to pet first-aid.
High school students, nursing students,
human service students, or anyone interested in the
American Red Cross would be able to obtain information
in a learning friendly environment.
The Wyoming Valley Chapter has a long
and proud history of community service, dating from
1916.
An historical area, showing minutes of
meetings from decades past and nursing uniforms from
bygone eras would be on display.
A
disaster mass care shelter.
The former facility did not allow for
any possibility of use as a mass care shelter.
It simply did not have the capacity.
In addition, the location of the facility in
the flood plane precludes its use during overflows of
the Susquehanna River. The proposal for our new facility offers the opportunity for a
needed shelter for 10-12 individuals.
The area would be complete with restrooms, a
shower, and a separate kitchen area.
While the shelter would only be used when other local
shelters are at capacity, its use would save the
Chapter from lodging
expenses.
Improved
safety and security for customers, volunteers, and
staff
Exterior lighting, a hard-wired
security/fire alarm system, and keyless electronic
coded access will provide increased security.
The facility is also zoned, prohibiting
access to administrative offices and storage areas,
while classes are being conducted. Likewise, when disaster supplies are accessed during night, other areas of the building would not be
accessible.
Fail-safe
communications for emergency response
The new facility is out of
the flood plain and less than five minutes from downtown
Wilkes-Barre. The Summer of 2006, the Fall of 2004, winter of 1996 and the summer of
1972 flooding taught valuable lessons.
In the event of a flood, there would be no need
to relocate. Telephone
drop-lines would provide a bank of telephones from
which disaster volunteers could function.
Wall displays to list active shelters,
capacities, in-kind donations, welfare inquiry
listings, warehouse information, and other pertinent
data would be available to expedite communications.
A portable generator would be used to power the
telephone system, in the event of a power outage. A bank of cell phones would be used as a secondary back-up.
Parking
for all customers, volunteers, and paid staff.
The new chapter facility provides for a minimum of
80 parking spaces, which is more than adequate for
Chapter functions.
The former facility had 18 spaces, and
volunteers or class participants were often forced to
park off premises, paying for the service.
Special needs parking is available at the
proposed facility, with curb cuts in place.
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