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Dear Colleagues and Communicators,
Happy 2014! We're excited to continue sharing our national service updates with you every Friday.
This
week, we marked the 50th anniversary of the War on Poverty, saw President Obama
name five Promise Zones to help communities continue to recover economically,
and celebrated one of our colleagues getting significant attention for his
ground-breaking work.
All of
these developments underscore how national service plays a leading role in
helping Americans achieve economic mobility.
Read
more below, and feel free to share with your friends and family.
The External Affairs Team
 Fifty years
ago, President Lyndon Johnson declared "an unconditional war on poverty." Since then, the AmeriCorps VISTA program has been at the forefront
of the fight for the underserved. Volunteers in Service to
America was founded in 1965 as a national service program designed specifically to fight
poverty in America. This year, more than 7,000 AmeriCorps VISTA members will serve in organizations, schools, and nonprofits
across the country. More than 185,000 have served since the program’s
inception. Lamar Marchese, a member of the first VISTA class, shares his story.
 As part of
the new Promise Zone Initiative announced by President Obama, national service members will
join leaders across the country to transform several of the nation’s
poverty-stricken communities. Five full-time
AmeriCorps VISTA members will deploy to each of the five Promise Zones -- San Antonio, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Southeastern
Kentucky, and the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma -- to help citizens strengthen their communities and to recruit and manage volunteers.
 Expanding
economic opportunity is the driving force behind the Social Innovation Fund
(SIF). And this week, the Chronicle of Philanthropy named SIF Director Michael Smith one of the "People to Watch in 2014". As the publication notes, the fund is "intended to spur the growth of
promising nonprofit solutions to social problems."
Senior Corps
Mentors forge valuable connections with students
Kenosha News (WI), January 7, 2014
Mentors are not tutors, according to RSVP director Darleen Coleman. Instead,
they are needed to forge connections. "It's not strictly academic. That
can come up, but our mentors don't do tutoring," she said. "They're
there to form a friendship with the child and to be a role model…In fact,
"Putting Back the ‘Men' in Mentoring" is a campaign the agency has launched,
according to Coleman.
It's a numbers game for tireless volunteer
Corvallis Gazette-Times (OR), January 3, 2014
Working through Linn County’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, she manages
to stay busy when the tax season isn’t so pressing by helping out with the
Senior Health Insurance Benefits Assistance (SHIBA) program.
AmeriCorps
In Jobless Youth, U.S. Is Said to Pay High Price
The New York Times (NY), January 7, 2014
Young Invincibles [a post-recession youth
advocacy group] said that federal youth jobs programs had been cut by $1
billion a year since 2002, and recommended expanding the Labor Department’s
registered apprenticeship program and AmeriCorps, a national service program
that had more than half a million applicants last year for about 80,000
positions, Mr. O’Sullivan said.
AmeriCorps NCCC
FEMA Corps member graduates after 10 months of service
Freehold News (NJ), January 7, 2014
FEMA Corps is a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and
the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) to enhance the
nation’s disaster response and recovery capacity while expanding career
opportunities for young people…Established as a new unit within the existing
AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps (NCCC) program, FEMA Corps engages
young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 to serve on disaster-related
projects.
AmeriCorps VISTA
ESL In-Home helps locals become citizens
Mason Valley News (NV),
January 7, 2014
“When I came back to the United
States, I joined the AmeriCorps VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America)
program,” Phillips said. “I wanted to continue serving as I did overseas,
teaching English, but in the state of Nevada.”
Social Innovation Fund
People to Watch in 2014
The Chronicle of Philanthropy (DC), January 7, 2014
Michael Smith left the Case
Foundation in July to become director of the White House’s Social Innovation
Fund. The fund, intended to spur the growth of promising nonprofit solutions to
social problems, has awarded $137.7-million in grants over the past five years
to 20 organizations that select nonprofits to focus on issues of youth
development, economic opportunity, and health.
National Service Blog
AmeriCorps VISTA Creating Oasis in Baltimore ‘Food Desert’
NationalService.gov, January 8, 2014
As Christina Bodison navigated a demanding course load at Howard University, the former biology major actively searched for ways to be of service to others. First, she mentored high school students during an alternative spring break program in Detroit. Then, she researched HIV, AIDS, and the socioeconomic factors that bar access to health care. All of this compelled Christina to join the AmeriCorps VISTA program and the fight against poverty.
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