Red Cross announces merger of units
PITTSBURGH — The American Red Cross Southwestern Pennsylvania Region will merge with the American Red Cross Northwestern Pennsylvania Region to form the new American Red Cross Western Pennsylvania Region on Sunday, a move the agency said is designed to increase local services and disaster response capacity while making more efficient use of monetary donations.
The Red Cross said the Western Pennsylvania Region will include 11 chapters covering all 25 western Pennsylvania counties ranging from the New York border to the West Virginia border. Red Cross offices throughout the new Western Pennsylvania Region will work more closely to share resources, expertise, volunteers and staff, creating a more efficient organization with a drastically increased response capacity.
The Southwestern Pennsylvania Region currently includes five chapters covering 13 counties: the Indiana County Chapter (serving Indiana County); the Keystone Chapter (serving Cambria and Somerset counties); the Southwestern Pennsylvania Chapter (serving Allegheny, Fayette, Greene and Washington counties), the West-Central Pennsylvania (serving Beaver, Butler, Lawrence and Mercer counties); the Westmoreland-Armstrong Chapter (serving Westmoreland and Armstrong counties).
The Northwestern Pennsylvania Region currently includes six chapters covering 12 counties: the Allegheny Chapter (serving Clarion, Crawford, Forest and Venango counties); the Corry Chapter (serving parts of Erie and Warren counties); the Greater Erie Chapter (serving the majority of Erie County); the McKean-Potter Chapter (serving McKean and Potter counties); the Pennsylvania Heartland Chapter (serving Cameron, Clearfield, Elk and Jefferson counties); and the Warren Chapter (serving the majority of Warren County).
Following the merger, the two regional entities will become one.
The merger comes as part of a national American Red Cross reorganization designed to reduce overhead costs and streamline operations while increasing programming and disaster response capacity through the sharing of resources.