The Bergen-Hudson Chapter of the American Red Cross is merging with its closest neighbor, a move officials say will expand the organization's capacity to respond to emergencies, especially in the region's biggest cities.
Combining the chapters will help the local Red Cross to be as efficient and effective as possible, said Vernon Reed, CEO of the Bergen-Hudson chapter in Hackensack.
"We feel we'll gain from the different strengths of service delivery in each."
Despite the merger, which takes place Monday, the new organization, serving Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex counties, will not close any existing offices or lay off staff, said Reed, who will become interim CEO of the new organization, based in Fairfield.
The new American Red Cross of Northern New Jersey will continue to look for a buyer for the Red Cross Englewood office, which has been up for sale for some time. He added that the northern New Jersey chapter is looking to open an office in Newark, where the Red Cross doesn't currently have one.
The Bergen-Hudson chapter, he noted, has "a strong volunteer corps. Both counties are well organized to respond to emergencies in either place, and volunteers in one county don't mind crossing over into the other."
One of the most frequent types of emergencies to which the Red Cross responds, Reed said, is helping people displaced by fires. The only community in Bergen and Hudson counties where fires are fairly frequent, he added, is Jersey City.
"We have people on call every night, and they will say to us, we don't get any calls. With Newark and Paterson in our chapter area now, they will get plenty," Reed said.
In return, people in Bergen and Hudson counties will benefit from the expertise of Red Cross volunteers now working for the American Red Cross of Metropolitan New Jersey because of the frequency of fires in its more urban coverage area, Reed said.
Mergers of Red Cross chapters have been common for decades. The Bergen-Hudson chapter itself is the result of several mergers among smaller groups in the two counties.
But having local chapters report directly to a regional organization rather than the national headquarters is much newer, said Jim Hamilton, vice president for the Community Presence Initiative at the American Red Cross in Washington.
One of the initiative's purposes is to encourage cooperation among Red Cross groups.
"It's a way we're looking at of taking the leadership and coordination of a regional chapter out to the rest of the community chapters," Hamilton said. "Especially when you get out into some of the rural areas, there are a lot of things this lets them do together to consolidate overhead."
The approach is also designed to enhance emergency response.
"It makes it easier to respond to a midsized emergency, like flooding or a tornado, that cuts across several counties," Hamilton added.
"This way the chapters are set up so they can respond regionally. It's like taking the mutual-aid arrangements fire departments have to a higher level."
In a disaster that strikes across chapter boundaries, the regional setup allows the cooperating chapters to cut red tape.
"Instead of going through a chain of command and calling the national headquarters to have them call in other resources from other chapters, they can automatically do it themselves," Hamilton said.
The new arrangement should also help with fund raising, by consolidating efforts to attract contributions, especially with big companies whose service areas extend across Red Cross jurisdictional lines.
"I'm sure they'd rather hear one knock of the Red Cross on their door than six or seven," Reed said.
Local emergency management officials generally think the merger is a good idea.
"Any time you can make more resources available for us, that would be a good thing," said Essex County Sheriff Armando B. Fontoura, whose department oversees the county's emergency management office. "It will benefit all of us."
"We believe the Red Cross will provide us with the same services they have in the past," Maryann Trommelen, deputy coordinator of the Passaic County emergency management office, said in a statement released by the county administrator's office.
Bergen County emergency management officials declined to comment, saying they didn't think doing so was appropriate until after the merger actually takes place.
Other non-profits that work with the Red Cross during emergencies responded positively to the change.
"A more centralized administration would allow them to deploy their services better," said Brenda Beavers, the state director of human resources for the Salvation Army. "All of us in the disaster-response field are challenged by a need for more volunteers, and if this is a way for them to enhance their capacity, that's good."
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The merger
• The new American Red Cross of Northern New Jersey will serve 3 million people living in Bergen, Passaic and Hudson counties and most of Essex County.
• It replaces the Bergen-Hudson Chapter of the American Red Cross and the American Red Cross of Metropolitan New Jersey, which serves Passaic and Essex counties.
• The new group will also oversee six other local chapters covering Morris, Warren and Sussex counties, the remainder of Essex, and parts of Union County.
• As before, the group will provide emergency services to victims of fires and other disasters.
