Fort Wayne's Red Cross cuts full-time positions

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) The Fort Wayne Red Cross chapter is reducing its full-time staff to just three people. About a year ago, the staff at the chapter consisted of eleven people.

The Red Cross chapter based out of Fort Wayne covers Allen, DeKalb, Noble, Steuben, Wells and Whitley counties in Indiana, as well as Williams County in Ohio. They have about 400 volunteers, 300 of which have been fully trained.

The slashing of full-times jobs comes months after the CEO of the Fort Wayne Chapter, Kay Ostrum, lost her job due to restructuring that occurred throughout the Red Cross organization. 

As part of a financially motivated restructuring, some chapters across the U.S. were merged with other chapters and some were completely dissolved. Some responsibilities were also transferred to the state or regional level.

Of the three people left, one person will be management, the other will be support for emergency services, and the third will handle administration. However, the staff reduction means the three left will have more responsibilities and inevitably longer hours meaning they'll need the help of volunteers even more.

“Without the support of those volunteers, it would be very difficult for us to respond in the middle of the night to a disaster, to send volunteers out on national disasters to assist, to be able to maintain our fundraising responsibilities," said Katherine Mac Auley, the Chief Operating Officer at the American Red Cross of Northeast Indiana.

To become a volunteer, people can register online on their website, then fill out an application, go through an interview process and background check, and take a 12 hour training course.

"It certainly is a good way for me to use that spare time that I have, very rewarding to be a volunteer," said Jo Milliken, a volunteer.

Officials say 97 percent of what they do is handled by volunteers. They are Trained in sheltering and feeding, case work, recruitment, and in the field disaster relief.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity for people to use the skills and the talents they have to help other people who are struggling within their very own community," Mac Auley said.

The Red Cross Blood Services for the Indiana-Ohio region shares office space with The American Red Cross chapter of Northeast Indiana but they are two distinct operations governed by different boards. Currently, the local chapter has 400 volunteers.

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NewsChannel 15 thanks our partners at Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly for the details of this story. For the complete story, read the Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly on Friday, Nov. 16.