Portable Hours

As youth volunteers, we play a powerful role in the greater Red Cross community — though, as humanitarians, there are often many other roles that we may dedicate ourselves to every single day, including the roles of being a student, a family member, a friend, an extracurricular participant, and more. With fast-paced schedules from day to day, it is sometimes quite easy for us to forget to keep track of our Red Cross hours and to log them in on Volunteer Connection. Thankfully, in our ever-growing world of technology, the American Red Cross Volunteer Connection mobile app has come to the rescue! 

The Volunteer Connection app (currently available for Apple users) is a wonderful tool for volunteers to record their service hours on-the-go. Upon logging in to their account, volunteers can easily click on the “Hours Manager” tab on the left sidebar to begin inputting their completed shifts. This will prompt them to select a date for the service event and provide information about the duration, activity name, hours type (e.g. worked, on call, general availability), position (i.e. the specific category of volunteers that they participated with), and other miscellaneous comments. Upon submission, the entries will be reviewed and posted as soon as they are approved. 

Additionally, the Volunteer Connection app encompasses many other additional features that mirror the components of the desktop website. These include: 

• Recent Activity – This newsfeed allows volunteers to see the wonderful activities that fellow members of their region are participating in. 

• Search Directory – This directory contains the contact information for many other members who are registered in the same region as the volunteer. 
• Profile – This simplified version of the volunteer’s profile features options to edit their contact information and basic regional information. 
• Favorites – This allows volunteers to save and readily access their favorite features on Volunteer Connection. 
• My Regions – This displays all the different categories that the volunteer is registered with, varying from clubs to chapters to regions and beyond. 
• My Shifts – This displays the hours that volunteers have completed and inputted, as well as upcoming shifts that they may sign up for. 

• Email – This allows volunteers to see a summary of emails that they have sent and receivedthrough Volunteer Connection specifically. 
• My Chapter – This provides volunteers with important updates about upcoming happenings in their local chapter. 
• Website – This re-directs volunteers to the default desktop website for Volunteer Connection. 
• Membership Card – This displays each youth volunteer’s unique QR code. 

Ultimately, it is essential for all of us as youth volunteers to enter our hours not only for our personal records but to help us develop accountability skills, to build our resumes and career paths, and to quantify the incredible impact that our efforts have on the American Red Cross. Despite its seemingly small magnitude, logging volunteer hours truly does wonders in the greater picture — it helps youth advocates within the Red Cross showcase the amazing work that youth volunteers do, exemplifying to senior leadership and other adult staff members the remarkable value of youth involvement. Overall, this can even give rise to new opportunities and open greater avenues for youth volunteers in the future! 

For more information about how to navigate Volunteer Connection and ideas on how to get more involved with the American Red Cross, check out redcrossyouth.org!

– Ivy Kwok, National Youth Council member, Office Hours Lead