By Natalie Olshevski

When disasters like home fires strike, Cristina Gomez of Allentown is there to help families on their road to recovery. With a background in case management and social work, she brings compassion and cultural awareness to her volunteer role with the American Red Cross. Over the past year, she has served as a recovery caseworker, providing families with resources and emotional support after disasters like home fires.

As a bilingual volunteer, Gomez also plays a crucial role in ensuring Spanish-speaking families can communicate their needs and access critical resources in the language they are most comfortable with.

“We provide immediate help for them for food and for clothing, so they could get over the shock that they were going through, just being sensitive to their situation,” Gomez said.

Growing up in a bilingual community, Gomez saw firsthand the impact of adult role models during her teenage years. Now, as an adult and mother of two, she was inspired to give back, volunteering with Allentown Parks and Recreation and through her work in a preschool, educating herself on the many services available to help families and children thrive. Having witnessed the barriers non-native speakers of English face, she wanted all families who need help to be able to access resources, regardless of language barriers.

“Everybody deserves a place where they can feel safe and comfortable and able to relate to their particular community,” Gomez said.

Her desire to help others inspired Gomez to connect with the American Red Cross after a large rowhome fire in Allentown displaced dozens of people last year, including many Spanish speakers. Her work, along with that of other bilingual volunteers, is critical in providing culturally and linguistically appropriate services that empower people affected by disasters to advocate for themselves.

In her work with non-native English speakers, Gomez has encountered families hesitant to receive disaster assistance, fearing it could negatively impact their immigration status, green card or visa application. It is important to stress that the Red Cross is a safe and secure place for everyone in need after a disaster, regardless of citizenship status. Just as disasters don’t discriminate, neither does the Red Cross – we help anyone in need after a disaster. Gomez emphasized that those seeking assistance can feel secure with Red Cross volunteers, as they are trained to be sensitive to these concerns.

“Families feel more safe when they can lead the conversations on what they need,” Gomez said.

At the Red Cross, we work before a disaster strikes to ensure people understand how to access our services, no matter what language they speak. We share information and materials with community partners that provide services to non-English-speaking communities, and we focus on recruiting a diverse workforce to serve people in need. For Gomez, volunteering with the Red Cross has been a rewarding experience, allowing her to share her knowledge and support her community in meaningful ways.

“It brings me a lot of joy to help my community and to be able to provide them with information that I have, just sharing the wealth,” she said. “You feel rewarded at the end, when you feel their smiles and how grateful these families are to have volunteers like us.”

The Red Cross is actively seeking bilingual individuals to serve as Spanish proofreader/translators, disaster action team members, shelter volunteers and blood drive ambassadors, among other roles. Visit redcross.org/volunteer for more information and to sign up to join us.