Does Red Cross Hire Felons?

The American Red Cross was founded over 130 years ago, helping people around the world that are experiencing a humanitarian crisis. All Red Cross and Red Crescent programs are affiliates of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies. Whether it is disaster relief, emergency relief and aid, or education, some Red Cross or Red Cresent affiliate will be available to lend a helping hand.

Nothing is more humbling and rewarding than helping a fellow human that is struggling, this is especially true for felons. Not only does having meaningful employment help keep felons from re-offending, but by helping others it is a way for them to make amends with society and with themselves.

About the American Red Cross

The Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that does everything from disaster relief, education, First aid training, collecting blood for blood banks, to providing free life-saving vaccinations. They provide light in some of the darkest by adhering to their 5 C’s: compassion, collaboration, creativity, credibility, and comment.

In 1863, the Red Cross was started in Geneva, Switzerland. It was needed because there was no safe and protected institution to treat soldiers that were wounded on the battlefield. Clara Barton was a hospital nurse during the American Civil War. While in Europe, she was involved in the Franco-Prussian war and witnessing the aid that was given by the Red. She returned to the United States and founded the American Red Cross in 1881, which has been involved in humanitarian relief projects ever since.

Since its creation, the Red Cross is continually recognized for the amazing work they do. From being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on three occasions, 1917, 1944, 1963, to ranking a B+ at CharityWatch, the work they do has not gone unnoticed.

Along with offering better-than-average pay, they also offer a 401(k), paid holiday and sick time, life insurance and disability to most of their employees. For example, most phlebotomists make 25 to 30 thousand a year while a Red Cross employee can expect to make32 thousand.

After reading comments from past workers of the American Red Cross, a few things became clear. Many people truly enjoyed the work that they were doing and got great satisfaction out of being to help people, but it comes with a heavy emotional toll. With competitive pay and the reward of helping others, most seemed to enjoy the job.

Does the American Red cross Hire Felons?

After doing some research and going through the application, it became very clear that for most of the positions, they will not hire felons. The main reason given is to ensure the protection of donations.

While a felon may not get hired, they can still volunteer or take part in an unpaid internship. However, what a felon can do inside the organization will be fairly limited.

Does the American Red Cross Run Background Checks?

As mentioned before, the American Red Cross is highly concerned with ensuring the safety of donations and the safety of the people that are receiving services. A background check is one of the first lines of defense they have against this.

Again, if a felon decides to volunteer, more than likely your job will be restricted to food can care package handouts.

Careers At the American Red Cross

The Red Cross offers a whole host of job opportunities and positions that can be beneficial for every type of person. Offering positions for every education level, from someone with a high school diploma to someone who is a registered nurse. They even have all sorts of availability, ranging from people who will spend three months overseas to a call center operator who will work a few hours in the afternoon Monday through Friday.

The jobs can be broken into four main categories: medical technicians, administrative, management, and disaster personnel. Medical technicians deal primarily with the operation of blood drives and the management of blood donations. They consist of phlebotomists, lab technicians, and blood processing technicians.

As for the administrative jobs, there seem to be almost limitless types. There are recruitment specialists who assist with the recruiting of volunteers needed to complete a current job. Service agents organize blood drives and vaccination stations. WIC (Women Infant and Children) customer service representatives that carry out everything form screening applications to rescheduling appointments.

The management positions are more of the traditional business roles such as regional CEO’s and regional COO’s who are in charge of directing and coordinating the region’s organization and business activity to ensure that goals are met.

Last, you have disaster personnel. The Disaster Program Manager provides functional expertise and organization to the Disaster Program Specialists. The Specialists is on the front lines making a positive impact in the community.

Application Process At the American Red Cross

There are two ways someone can get started working with the Red Cross. First, the Red Cross hosts career events all over the country a few times amount. They hold both in-person events, like the one that will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina on January 9^th, 2020 from 12 pm to 2 pm EST and virtual events where you can ask questions and start the application process. Or you can go to https://americanredcross.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/American_Red_Cross_Careers and start the application there.

If you are someone with a felony, I would recommend volunteering first. That way you can start to build a rapport with the people in that region.

Maybe once you have volunteered and shown your value and integrity, the will be more comfortable with you and you can start interning.

It is probably a long shot that a felon will ever receive employment from the Red Cross. But if you are looking to make a difference in your community or communities around world volunteer when you can.

Application Links

Company: https://www.redcross.org/

Careers: https://americanredcross.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/American_Red_Cross_Careers