Who Knew the Coolness of the Pioneer Valley?
Red Cross seeks military call center volunteers
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
By GEORGE GRAHAM
ggraham@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - The American Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter is looking for a few good men and women.
Volunteers are needed to help keep its armed forces emergency call center doing what it does so ably, helping military personnel and their families in times of crisis.
The center fields thousands of calls each week, helping families not just from New England but also those served by Red Cross chapters as far away as Chicago and Los Angeles.
Those who work here say it can be an intensely emotional as well as deeply rewarding experience.
"It gives you a sense of fulfillment, and you empathize with people on the phone," said Thomas J. Roe III, of Chicopee, a case worker.
It's also a very busy place. The call center, tucked into a corner room at the chapter house on Cottage Street, handles some 100 calls a day - that's seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
"The center never closes. The phone calls never stop," Pioneer Valley Red Cross Executive Director Richard A. Lee said.
It's a bustling place, with maps on the wall, an array of clocks delineating the nation's time zones, people talking on headsets as they stare intently at computer screens.
The program staff patrol a front-line of anguish - bridging the gap between between families in crisis and their loved ones serving overseas. "Each call is the worst day in that person's life," Lee said.
The families they help come from all over the country. The Pioneer Valley chapter functions as a contractor that provides emergency telecommunications to more than 90 fellow chapters across the country. Areas covered include New York City, Boston, Chicago, the Los Angeles basin.
"They are essentially outsourcing their work to us," Lee said of the chapters in those cities.
Last year the center, which has anywhere from three to 15 people working its three shifts, handled a mind-boggling 26,000 cases, Lee said
On any given day caseworkers confront such things as a dying parent or an ailing child, and see to it that the military member of each family gets information that he or she needs.
"You almost want to reach out to them on the telephone, hold their hand, pat them on the shoulder, give them a hug," said Roe, who recently retired from 31 years in the Air Force.
Cases that Roe has recently handled include striving to convince a sergeant to allow one of his soldiers to return home to see his terminally-ill grandfather. "I pleaded his case to the sergeant, and he changed his mind," Roe said.
More difficult was the time Roe saw to it that that a soldier stationed overseas got word that his days-old child had suddenly died.
The satisfaction comes in making a difference in other people's lives, Lee said. "By the time we get off the phone with them we have made things a slight bit better, sometimes it's a lot better," he said. "It is just a room with phones and computers and people in it but what happens in there is very compelling."
The government does not pay for these services; they are funded through donations from the general public, Lee said.
Volunteers work in the same call center as the paid staff members, but most don't typically deal with families in the heat of crisis. Instead they make the follow-up calls to families some time after the crisis has passed, Lee said.
Such work, however, is not for everybody. "It takes a special breed of person," Lee said. "You need to have a balance of empathy without being paralyzed by the human suffering they are dealing with."
"They step up to the plate," said call center manager Cindy M. Bocash of her personnel's commitment to helping others.
Although the center here has been around in some form or another for 20 years, it really didn't start expanding to its current form until after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America. Today it shares call center duties with similar operations in Louisville, Ky., San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, Calif.
Some chapters still handle their own military social service casework, but more and more of them are signing on. "It's simply good business," Lee said. "They are saving money and getting good casework."
It's also good for the Pioneer Valley Chapter. The call center operation here yields some $150,000 in revenue each year, Lee said. Those funds are used to help finance the center's operation as part of the overall chapter budget of about $2.3 million.
The American Red Cross opted to place the centers in such places as Springfield in part because they are not considered to be prime terrorist targets, Lee said.
Aside from its military work, the center handles casework for all of Arkansas, save for Little Rock. "We literally do all the casework over the phone," Bocash said.
The Pioneer Valley chapter has taken on Little Rock for a year at the request of the national organization, Lee said.
The call center also provides emergency dispatch services for 18 chapters across the country.
-taken from The Republican
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
By GEORGE GRAHAM
ggraham@repub.com
SPRINGFIELD - The American Red Cross Pioneer Valley Chapter is looking for a few good men and women.
Volunteers are needed to help keep its armed forces emergency call center doing what it does so ably, helping military personnel and their families in times of crisis.
The center fields thousands of calls each week, helping families not just from New England but also those served by Red Cross chapters as far away as Chicago and Los Angeles.
Those who work here say it can be an intensely emotional as well as deeply rewarding experience.
"It gives you a sense of fulfillment, and you empathize with people on the phone," said Thomas J. Roe III, of Chicopee, a case worker.
It's also a very busy place. The call center, tucked into a corner room at the chapter house on Cottage Street, handles some 100 calls a day - that's seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
"The center never closes. The phone calls never stop," Pioneer Valley Red Cross Executive Director Richard A. Lee said.
It's a bustling place, with maps on the wall, an array of clocks delineating the nation's time zones, people talking on headsets as they stare intently at computer screens.
The program staff patrol a front-line of anguish - bridging the gap between between families in crisis and their loved ones serving overseas. "Each call is the worst day in that person's life," Lee said.
The families they help come from all over the country. The Pioneer Valley chapter functions as a contractor that provides emergency telecommunications to more than 90 fellow chapters across the country. Areas covered include New York City, Boston, Chicago, the Los Angeles basin.
"They are essentially outsourcing their work to us," Lee said of the chapters in those cities.
Last year the center, which has anywhere from three to 15 people working its three shifts, handled a mind-boggling 26,000 cases, Lee said
On any given day caseworkers confront such things as a dying parent or an ailing child, and see to it that the military member of each family gets information that he or she needs.
"You almost want to reach out to them on the telephone, hold their hand, pat them on the shoulder, give them a hug," said Roe, who recently retired from 31 years in the Air Force.
Cases that Roe has recently handled include striving to convince a sergeant to allow one of his soldiers to return home to see his terminally-ill grandfather. "I pleaded his case to the sergeant, and he changed his mind," Roe said.
More difficult was the time Roe saw to it that that a soldier stationed overseas got word that his days-old child had suddenly died.
The satisfaction comes in making a difference in other people's lives, Lee said. "By the time we get off the phone with them we have made things a slight bit better, sometimes it's a lot better," he said. "It is just a room with phones and computers and people in it but what happens in there is very compelling."
The government does not pay for these services; they are funded through donations from the general public, Lee said.
Volunteers work in the same call center as the paid staff members, but most don't typically deal with families in the heat of crisis. Instead they make the follow-up calls to families some time after the crisis has passed, Lee said.
Such work, however, is not for everybody. "It takes a special breed of person," Lee said. "You need to have a balance of empathy without being paralyzed by the human suffering they are dealing with."
"They step up to the plate," said call center manager Cindy M. Bocash of her personnel's commitment to helping others.
Although the center here has been around in some form or another for 20 years, it really didn't start expanding to its current form until after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on America. Today it shares call center duties with similar operations in Louisville, Ky., San Antonio, Texas, and San Diego, Calif.
Some chapters still handle their own military social service casework, but more and more of them are signing on. "It's simply good business," Lee said. "They are saving money and getting good casework."
It's also good for the Pioneer Valley Chapter. The call center operation here yields some $150,000 in revenue each year, Lee said. Those funds are used to help finance the center's operation as part of the overall chapter budget of about $2.3 million.
The American Red Cross opted to place the centers in such places as Springfield in part because they are not considered to be prime terrorist targets, Lee said.
Aside from its military work, the center handles casework for all of Arkansas, save for Little Rock. "We literally do all the casework over the phone," Bocash said.
The Pioneer Valley chapter has taken on Little Rock for a year at the request of the national organization, Lee said.
The call center also provides emergency dispatch services for 18 chapters across the country.
-taken from The Republican