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Youth Services

Since the founding of the Junior Red Cross in 1917, youth and the Red Cross have been partners. Today, the involvement of young people with the Red Cross is more important than ever. Our goal is to provide young people with meaningful opportunities for education, training, and volunteer/community service so that they remain a part of the Red Cross family throughout their lives. Young people up to age 24 make up 35 percent of all Red Cross volunteers nationwide.

Red Cross Clubs
The American Red Cross believes that you can make a difference! That is why your local Red Cross wants to help you join or set up a Red Cross club at your school or organization. We want to offer you the opportunity to work with others to organize activities inside and outside of your school that will save lives. For more information about starting a Red Cross club please contact Health and Safety at (316) 219-4060.

Babysitting Training
This course give young people ages 11 - 15 the skills and confidence to care for infants through school-age children. This program is interactive and activity-based that builds self-confidence and competence by practicing decision-making and managing real-life situations. Topics include safety issues, preventing injuries and illnesses, basic childcare, first aid, care for choking and age-appropriate behavior and play.

Teachers and parents!  Interested in teaching your kids more about proper handwashing?  Handwashing helps to prevent everything from foodborne illness to the flu.  Learn more from NSF International’s Scrub Club.

Check out other activities happening around town for youth at YAAA!

Family Services

Provides a variety of emergency financial and communications services using licensed social workers and trained volunteers.

Programs include:

Armed Forces Emergency Services

The American Red Cross provides emergency communications to military personnel and their families 24 hours a day.

Click here for more information.

Holiday Mail for Heroes is back!

In this season of hope and giving the American Red Cross and Pitney Bowes, Inc. have joined forces to invite Americans to “send a touch of home” to United States service members and veterans across the country and abroad. In its third year, the Holiday Mail for Heroes program is an opportunity to share joy and thanks with our service members throughout the holiday season by way of a greeting card.

How Holiday Mail works

We have established an extensive process to ensure all cards sent to our service members are safe and arrive in time for the holidays. Holiday cards will be collected through a unique P.O. Box address from Monday, November 2 through Monday, December 7*.

First, cards from across the nation must be sent to this address:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Every card received will be screened for hazardous materials by Pitney Bowes and distributed to participating Red Cross chapters nationwide. Once the cards arrive at the Red Cross chapters, they are sorted and reviewed by volunteers who then distribute them to service members, their families and veterans in communities across the country.

For a complete list of rules and mailing requirements, visit http://www.redcross.org/holidaymail.

Emergency Financial Assistance

Individuals experiencing an unexpected, verifiable financial situation that leaves them unable to pay their rent/utilities are eligible to apply for financial assistance. A Red Cross caseworker verifies the need and eligibility for each case. Finding community resources for other individual and family needs is a service provided routinely for several thousand more individuals and families throughout the year. Call 219-4070 and leave your name and phone number. A caseworker will return client calls and screen over the phone to see if clients meet guidelines.

Grocery and Gas Assistance

Fridays only. Low-income families who meet 110% of federal poverty guidelines may be eligible for assistance in the form of grocery vouchers or gas cards for purchasing fuel for their vehicle. Clients should call (316) 219-4070, listen to the recording which explains the information they need to bring in.

International Services

The American Red Cross helps families locate and contact loved ones around the world, provides relief to areas of war and disaster worldwide, and provides tracing services for victims of war and the Holocaust.

Click here for more information.

Project Deserve

The American Red Cross, through a partnership with Westar Energy provides emergency financial assistance to pay Westar Energy bills to those over age 60 or those who are severely disabled or who meet 110% of federal poverty guidelines.

Health & Safety

Provides safety outreach, information, education, and training to enable people to promote, achieve, and sustain healthier, safer lives, and prepare for and respond effectively to emergencies.

Additional direct services include HIV/AIDS program referrals, First Aid, and water safety rescue standby and health and safety expo participation. Each year, an average of 40,000 individuals participate in Red Cross safety classes and an additional 10,000 people, primarily youth, attend community and workplace HIV/AIDS programs.

A nominal materials fee is charged for some courses offered by Red Cross. Most fees can be eliminated for individuals with limited incomes.

Be Red Cross Ready
Now thanks to our simple online preparedness training course, it’s easier than ever to get ready for emergencies.  Click on the image below to take our FREE online preparedness course and Be Red Cross Ready!

Good Neighbor Nutrition Program

This program provides social activities and serves nearly 1,100 hot, nutritionally-balanced meals each weekday noon to residents age 60 or older in Butler, Harvey, and Sedgwick counties.

There are 17 senior dining centers in Wichita. Thirteen others operate in Andover, Augusta, Cheney, Clearwater, Derby, El Dorado, Halstead, Haysville, Mulvane, Newton, Park City, and Valley Center.

This program is funded under the Older Americans Act through the Central Plains Area Agency on Aging and the Kansas Department on Aging, with Red Cross sponsorship providing support services.

Meals are provided by reservation only and on a donation basis. Suggested donation is $2.00 per meal.

Click here for the October menu.

Senior Work Experience Project

The Senior Work Experience Project annually places approximately 200 economically disadvantaged people over age 55 in training positions at non-profit agencies in Butler, Cowley, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Sedgwick, and Sumner counties. The Kansas Department of Human Resources and the U.S. Department of Labor fund this program.

Senior Medical Transportation

The American Red Cross, Senior Medical Program transports any person sixty years of age and older to medically related appointments. There is no cost for our service, but contributions are welcome and help offset the cost of the program. Our Funding comes from the United Way of the Plains, Mill Levy funding and the generous contributions of our community.

We transport our riders in well identified, full-size, four-door sedans. We are not able to transport people in wheelchairs, but can accommodate walkers, oxygen, etc. Our drivers are all volunteers who are willing to escort you to and from the car. For more information or for a brochure of the program, please call (316) 219-4040.

Disaster Services

Provides help 24 hours a day to individuals and families who have disaster-caused needs. This is a service in which Red Cross volunteers and staff respond to disasters ranging from a family home fire to larger disasters, such as tornadoes and floods.

Assistance is provided by completing a purchase order to the merchant of the disaster victim’s choice for items such as food, rent, and basic household furnishings. Red Cross also trains disaster volunteers who then become part of the local, state, and national preparedness and response network. All Red Cross disaster assistance is free.

Want to get involved?

Then take the on-line course Introduction to Disaster Services. Learn the fundamentals about disasters, community response and the role of the Red Cross during these events. This course will also help you decide what volunteer job you might be most interested in.

Safe and Well Listing

The American Red Cross Safe and Well Website is an internet-based tool that families can integrate into their family communications plan and also one that the Red Cross will use to help disaster victims communicate from inside the disaster-affected areas to loved ones outside.

People within a disaster area can register themselves as “safe and well” by selecting and posting standard messages for friends and family that indicate they are safe and well at a shelter, home or hotel, and will make contact when they are able. Concerned family members who know the person’s phone number (home, cell or work) or a complete home address can search for the messages posted by those who self-register.

Community Outreach

What does the Red Cross do and how can I help? The Community Outreach department of the Midway-Kansas Chapter will answer these questions for you.

Want to be a volunteer?  Volunteer recruitment, coordination and recognition are major components of community outreach. We are always looking for volunteers in a variety of positions. Volunteers must fill out an application and be interviewed. After a reference check volunteers can begin putting their compassion into action in our local community. 

Click here to download a volunteer application.Application_Blank.pdf

If you are a new Red Cross volunteer or you would like more information on the American Red Cross, click on this link for an online orientation.

In addition, a speaker’s bureau is available to make free presentations to the community about Red Cross programs, services and volunteer opportunities. If you have a school, church, civic group, neighborhood association or employee group who is interested in learning more about Red Cross programs, volunteer programs or emergency preparedness give us a call today.

Programs & Services

Did You Know?

• The #1 disaster Red Cross chapters (including the Midway-Kansas Chapter) respond to are house fires?
• The Red Cross is not funded by the government? Instead, our chapter is funded by United Way of the Plains and through the generosity of individuals in our community. This means the Midway-Kansas Chapter relies on local support for our programs and services to exist!
• Transportation Services started in 1943 taking babies and children to the doctor because many women during the time couldn’t drive and gas and rubber were rationed because of World War II.
• The Good Neighbor Nutrition Program serves an average of 1,075 meals per day?
• The Midway-Kansas Chapter is governed by local volunteers who serve on our Board of Directors?