National Service News: When October Comes, National Service is in Full Swing

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AmeriCorps members take the AmeriCorps pledge during the AmeriCorps 20th Anniversary Celebration at the White House in 2014.

When October Comes, National Service is in Full Swing

The month of October is a busy one for national service ... for many reasons.

Schools are back in session, bringing Senior Corps volunteers back to classrooms; AmeriCorps programs initiate new members across the country during Opening Day events; and, unfortunately, many national service members and volunteers are called in to help people affected by hurricanes and other natural disasters.

Through service at 50,000 locations, Corporation for National and Community Service programs have the versatility to address local needs and national priorities. If you don't mind us saying so, this noble service embraces the idea of placing others above self. And sometimes, service provides often-unheralded benefits that ripple beyond the basic acts.

We serve in schools and help our members continue their education. Our programs create healthier communities and improve the health of our volunteers. We serve veterans and their families and veterans join our programs to serve their country again. We help strengthen communities and our members' service inspires them become better citizens.

As this month continues, you will see service in action that encompasses headline-making issues -- such as preventing opioid abuse, helping domestic violence survivors, or increasing high school graduation rates -- and others that gain less attention but are just as important.

And we're proud to help during October and all year long.

In service,

Mike Cys

Director, Office of External Affairs

Editor's note: By clicking the links below, you may be connecting to websites created by parties other than the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). The CNCS Office of External Affairs provides links to these stories because they contain information that may be useful or interesting to the national service and volunteering community. These links are for reference only, and CNCS does not endorse the individuals or organizations associated with these links, and cannot attest to the accuracy of the information provided by websites outside of our control.

The Impact of National Service

Reading Partner volunteer Will Bruner helps Eugene Field Elementary student Shalese Walker during a tutoring session. (Photo by Ian Maule/Tulsa World)

'You Get a Real Sense of Accomplishment Watching it Happen': Reading Partners Brings the Joy of Reading to Students (AmeriCorps)

With about 1,600 mentors last school year, Tulsa has embraced Reading Partners. The volunteer program has a well-documented history of success throughout its five years with Tulsa Public Schools. But the young students aren’t the only ones who benefit. “What’s really cool about the program is seeing the kids go from the beginning to the end of the program,” said Reading Partners volunteer Will Bruner. “It is fun to watch them grow in confidence. They are more certain of their reading. “Watching that progress is so much fun. You get a real sense of accomplishment watching it happen. I know it is fun for me. And, I believe it is fun for them, too.”

Foster Grandparent Carolyn "Grandma B" Blaylock is a welcome addition to the Raleigh, N.C., kindergarten classroom of teacher Sonya Mitcher.

Foster Grandparents Help Students Excel (Senior Corps)

Sonya Mitcher is a Kindergarten teacher at Rogers Lane Elementary School in Raleigh and says she’s fortunate to have "Grandma B" in her classroom every day. From teaching students all of the letters of the alphabet to teaching students how to read, "Grandma B" has made a lasting impression on the students she interacts with. "Grandma B" is the nickname students have created for Carolyn Blaylock. Blaylock is a Raleigh resident and has been a Foster Grandparent in the national program for five years. “It's about the love of the children and how you interact with the babies. I call them babies, everybody's a baby to me,” Blaylock said jokingly. “It has helped them a lot. They learn how to, hold their pencil and listen, which is the most important part, along with following instructions. It's a beautiful program and the babies need us.”

Local volunteers help with cleanup after a tornado struck Marshalltown, Iowa. (Des Moines Register photo)

Marshalltown Tornado: Volunteers, Staffers Needed to Help Response Team Leading Recovery, Repair Efforts (AmeriCorps)

Months after a tornado devastated Marshalltown, Iowa, volunteers are increasing their efforts — but they need more help. Gov. Kim Reynolds on Thursday announced that Volunteer Iowa is giving $400,000 in state and federal funding to equip and staff a mobile response unit that will make critical repairs to tornado-damaged homes in Marshalltown. But more staffing is needed to help lead volunteers, according a state news release. The next goal for the unit is making homes livable through the winter and supporting long-term recovery. Volunteer Iowa and Habitat for Humanity of Iowa have immediate openings for AmeriCorps members to assist in this effort.

AmeriCorps members winning Herb Kohl award were (left to right) MiKayla King, Julie Sadler, Steve Frodl, and Kao Yer Thao.

Wisconsin AmeriCorps Members Honored with Herb Kohl Award

Three Wausau-area AmeriCorps members were recently recognized for their efforts supporting children of low-income families. On Sept. 27, team members from North Central Community Action Program, Inc. and NCCAP AmeriCorps Team-Greater Wausau Area attended the 34th annual Poverty Matters Summit – Statewide Edition hosted by Wisconsin Community Action Program Association in partnership with Social Development Commission (SDC). Three #NCCAPAmeriCorps members, MiKayla King, Julie Sadler, and Kao Yer Thao along with NCCAP were presented the Herb Kohl Helping Hand Award during the Legacy VIP Dinner.

Watch: AmeriCorps Welcomes New Members

AmeriCorps Director delivers an Opening Day message to new AmeriCorps members in this video.

Each week, we provide a social media shareable to use on your networks. Today we have a video message from AmeriCorps Director Chester Spellman made for Opening Day events taking place around the nation during the next few weeks. These celebrations mark the start of the service year for AmeriCorps members serving to improve education, expand economic opportunity, preserve our environment, develop healthy habits and combat the opioid epidemic, and support our veterans and military families. Help us recognize our newest AmeriCorps members by using the Facebook and Twitter buttons above to share this story with your social media networks.

National Service in the News

Volunteer Florida Promotes Donations to the Florida Disaster Fund to Support Those Affected by Hurricane Michael

Volunteer Florida

Volunteer Florida, the state's lead agency for mobilizing volunteers and coordinating donations before, during and after disasters, is promoting donations to the Florida Disaster Fund to support the thousands of Floridians affected by Hurricane Michael. The Florida Disaster Fund is Florida's private fund established to assist statewide communities as they recover during times of emergency. In partnership with the public sector, private sector and other non-governmental organizations, Volunteer Florida distributes the Florida Disaster Fund to voluntary organizations, such as the Salvation Army and Florida Baptist Disaster Relief, that are actively engaged in food delivery and repairing and rebuilding homes, while offering financial assistance and other recovery-related services.

Exceptional Service by Exceptional People (AmeriCorps)

National Service Blog

(The following is a blog by CNCS CEO Barbara Stewart.) America has a long history of progress because of the exceptional people who make up its citizenry and share common goals. We share a belief that when we are united, we can elevate our nation and realize the potential that lives within each of us. Service is one way to achieve that ideal, and we are celebrating our newest national service members during AmeriCorps Opening Day ceremonies for the next few weeks. This fall AmeriCorps is sending 75,000 members to support some of the most important work that needs to be done across the nation. Our agency, the Corporation for National and Community Service, partners with State Service Commissions, municipalities, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations to ensure that the federal support we provide meets local needs.

98-Year-Old Rochester Woman Recognized for Volunteer Work (Senior Corps)

KMIT-TV, Minnesota

Gerry Hackman is a volunteer at the Women’s Shelter and Support Center in Rochester. There, she’s known as Grandma Gerry. “I don't even know if staff here know her full name,” Suzie Christenson, Executive Director, said. “She does what grandmas do, she talks to the kids, she sits with them, she does puzzles.” All as a volunteer. At 98-years-old, Grandma Gerry has been coming in about five hours a day, four to five days a week, for the past 17 years. That’s why she’s getting the Minnesota Coalition of Battered Women’s ‘Inspire’ award. Christenson nominated Grandma. “She does all those things nobody gets credit for,” Christenson said. “I felt her efforts to be recognized was very important.” Christenson said many of the women who come to the center, with their kids, are isolated from their families. Grandma Gerry helps them feel at home and gives them a sense of family.

Day of Service Plants Seeds of Sustained Engagement (AmeriCorps)

Johns Hopkins University Hub, Maryland

The first time Lizzie Crespi and Will Wisner-Carlson stepped into Carmine Garden, a thicket of weeds tumbled out of the garden plots. It was 2016 and Crespi, then a junior at Johns Hopkins University, and Wisner-Carlson, a senior, had arrived at the garden with scores of other students as part of President's Day of Service. Although neither had much expertise in gardening, Crespi and Wisner-Carlson were intrigued by the plot of land in Franklintown, on the western border of Baltimore City. The garden, once the pride of the neighborhood, was covered by trash and overgrown plants. Today, Crespi and Wisner-Carlson serve as volunteer co-managers of the garden and have established deep ties to the surrounding West Baltimore neighborhood.

Training Held This Week for Foster Grandparents (Senior Corps)

WJAC-TV, Pennsylvania

The Cambria County Foster Grandparents Program started training future foster grandparents on Monday. Foster grandparents have been working in Cambria County since 1965, and there are currently about 75 foster grandparents hired. They work within around 40 different schools and day cares throughout the area. “To see those little faces, I can’t wait when I get up in the morning to come here,” Valentina “Tina” Ruiz said. Ruiz has been a foster grandparent for seven years and currently works at Mom’s House of Johnstown. The program is funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service and sponsored by the Area Agency on Aging. Both sides reap the benefits. “They come and hug me and I hug them back. I feel the love from the little kids and I give back the love,” Ruiz said.

Watch video

Maine AmeriCorps Members Swear in at Umaine

WFVX-TV, Maine

More than 6,500 Mainers have served as AmeriCorps members since the program began in 1993. On Tuesday, people from across the country took the pledge of service. "I was looking for a job and I saw the ad for this and the words that popped out to me were 'do you like to help people'," said new AmeriCorps member Debbie Parker. AmeriCorps helps communities address different needs through a network of programs. By swearing in, members commit to serve for three months to a year. The Maine Commission for Community Service funds the different AmeriCorps programs in the state. The Maine Conservation Corps is one of those programs, and gives its volunteers an opportunity to do something impactful while also gaining useful experience.

RSVP Volunteers Recognized at Annual Banquet (Senior Corps)

San Antonio Express-News, Texas

After a dinner catered by Weekends Bar-B-Q, the program was started by presenting Mayor Wendell Dunlap with a symbolic replica check in the amount of $1,145,206, representing the value wage for 61,777 hours volunteers from Floyd, Hale, and Lamb counties served during the past year. In the Mayor's response; he had everyone's attention describing a new hometown pharmacy in town and continued with saying there is "no charge" for prescriptions. This pharmacy can improve your health, decrease loneliness and social isolation, and enhance your physical ability. The name of the pharmacy is RSVP! He reminded the audience of 125 members present that staying active and volunteering in service would change their overall health and without having to take additional medication.

Building Better Futures by Building Projects and Earning a High School Degree (AmeriCorps)

NJTV News, New Jersey

Da’Shaneia Jones wiped away the tears that marked the struggle to get to graduation day — earning a high school diploma from the Paterson Great Falls YouthBuild. Public and nonprofit money funds YouthBuild for 16- to 24-year-olds who, for one reason or another, left high school before they could finish. Through YouthBuild, they earn a degree and learn construction industry skills from on-the-job building projects. “Today we celebrate this wonderful group of young people having worked extraordinarily hard over this past year, having crossed many, many obstacles, and having gotten to this date because they said that I want to succeed,” said Robert Guarasci, founder and CEO of the New Jersey Community Development Corporation.

Public Allies is Celebrating its 20th Anniversary of Producing Diverse, Unique Cincinnati Leaders (AmeriCorps)

CityBeat, Ohio

When Nikita Anderson first joined Public Allies Cincinnati, she was looking for a job. With four children to support — and unemployed at the time — she was searching for opportunities. Then she met two ‘allies’ serving with the Urban League (an organization that promotes economic empowerment and self-sufficiency through a variety of programming) in her home neighborhood of Avondale. And so, Anderson decided to take the dive herself. She says the intensive, 10-month stint with Public Allies wasn’t easy. Housed under the umbrella of AmeriCorps — a national volunteer-based program that engages adults in public service to help meet the needs of the surrounding community — Public Allies is an offshoot with a specific mission to “create a just and equitable society” and diverse, sustainable leadership.

AmeriCorps Group Works to Restore What Conway Flood Victims Lost

WBTW-TV, South Carolina

Volunteers from around the country are in the city to help restore homes as flooding from Hurricane Florence recedes. A dozen AmeriCorps volunteers began work on their fourth flooded house after Florence. The college-age students and recent graduates are part of the National Civilian Community Corps in AmeriCorps. With some masking tape, a hazmat suit, a respirator, and rubber gloves, the AmeriCorps volunteers are ready to clean up a flooded home. "We're really doing exactly what they need right now and it's an honor to be able to do it," said Robert Stone, a volunteer from western North Carolina and a recent graduate of the University of Vermont.

AmeriCorps Working at Ft. Totten State Historic Site

Devils Lake Journal, North Dakota

Since Sept. 17, a team of AmeriCorps workers have been staying in the historic Fort Totten Trail Inn and working at the Fort Totten State Historic Site. The team members and their team leader, Zach Marks, have accomplished a great deal since they came to North Dakota, the first visit to this state for these young volunteers. The first few weeks were spent clearing out the gymnasium building in Cavalry Square. That was no simple task as over the years it had become the place to store metal, wooden doors and other debris. Then, as the building further deteriorated, it became home to countless numbers of birds, pigeons, and bats. Everything stored in the vast building was then covered with a couple of inches of bird droppings and bat guano. Marks and his team members had to dress in hazmat suits with a special breathing apparatus to accomplish this task.

SUU Partners with the Ancestral Lands Program (AmeriCorps)

Iron County Today, Utah

As part of the Ancestral Lands Program, the National Park Foundation (NPF) is providing a $252,100 grant to connect Native Americans to their ancestral lands. Southern Utah University’s Outdoor Engagement Center, along with several other land agency partners, are working together to engage 66 Utah Native American youth and young adults as part of this historic program. These Native American crews will complete important conservation projects in both the Grand Staircase Escalante and Cedar Breaks National Monument. The internships began in May and will last for 40 weeks. “It’s been a great collaborative approach between the National Park Foundation, who had a donor interested in employing Native American Youth in Utah; Conservation Legacy’s Ancestral Lands Project based out of Durango, and the Utah Corps,” said Briget Eastep, director of Southern Utah University’s Outdoor Engagement Center.

News You Can Use

Share Our Strength’s Billy Shore Shares Innovations That Built an Anti-Hunger Campaign

The Chronicle of Philanthropy

(The following article highlights Share Our Strength, an important anti-hunger initiative.) This week’s Business of Giving features Billy Shore, co-founder and executive chairman of Share Our Strength and the No Kid Hungry campaign, which are working to fight food instability. By working with state governments, the free school breakfast program has added 3 million more kids in the past six years. Through corporate partnerships, celebrity endorsements, and a new podcast that aims to bring conversations about recipes and chronic hunger together, Shore says, the organization is working with one goal in mind: "to end childhood hunger in the United States."

Reforming the Nation’s Remaining Low-Performing High Schools

America's Promise Alliance

Through much of the last century, high schools served as a driver of individual mobility and community progress. Today, however, in too many school districts and communities, high schools are no longer fulfilling that promise. There remain about 1,300 traditional high schools in need of serious improvement and redesign. With an average graduation rate of 49 percent, these low-graduation-rate high schools are concentrated in 18 states from the inner city to the heartland and sit at the fault lines of race, class, and inequity in America. At the same time, clear rays of hope exist. Over the last two decades, the number of low-performing high schools has been cut in half, as high school graduation rates have reached an all-time high. While graduation at the remaining low-performing high schools still is just a 50-50 proposition, these schools make up a small percentage of high schools throughout the country, totaling just 10 percent of all traditional high schools enrolling 300 or more students.