[Community-service] {Disarmed} Fwd: Climbing the Ladder

[Darian Smith]

FYI

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "National Service Press Office" <pressoffice at delivery.nationalservice.gov>
> Subject: Climbing the Ladder
> Date: January 10, 2014 at 12:16:09 PM PST
> To: ds94124 at aol.com
> Reply-To: pressoffice at delivery.nationalservice.gov
> 
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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."
> 
> National Service in the News
> 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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