[Community-service] {Disarmed} Fwd: Corporation for National & Community Service Tumblr Blog | NationalService.Tumblr.com Update

[president at nfbcommunityservice.org]

As many no, I am an alumnus of ameriCorps. 
  While I can tell you from personal experience it is not a perfect program across the board,  I can say that it has the ability to do a lot of good for the person who serves as well as the person who is being served.
 Here is the story of a blind person who served in an AmeriCorps program and found not only an opportunity to serve, but a chance to improve lives and to strengthen their own. 
 Would love your thoughts.

Sent from my iPhone

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> Date: July 15, 2016 at 3:02:31 PM PDT
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> AmeriCorps Leads to Lifelong Career
> 07/15/2016 02:03 PM EDT
> 
> By: Lise Pace, AmeriCorps VISTA Alum 
> 
> 
> Years after my diagnosis and losing my career in finance due to vision loss, I was at home waiting for the other shoe to drop.  And when it finally did, it was devastating.  The progressive loss of my eyesight, its emotional toll and the loss of my independence had caused me to become a shell of who I was just a decade before.  In hopes of reclaiming some semblance of the life I once knew, I decided to look for a service opportunity where I might be able to use my skills for good, while rebuilding my confidence.
> 
> I did a Google search to find a local organization where I might be able to volunteer.  The third listing was Bosma Enterprises, which unbelievably was an organization who provided services for people who are blind.  I called them immediately even though I had great reservations about what value I could bring or if they would even want to have a volunteer who was legally blind.  They were willing to give me a chance.  I started volunteering several times a week in their Rehab Center helping other newly-blinded people learn the skills to live their life over without vision. Surrounded by successful people who were blind and teaching people who had just lost their vision helped me start to feel more confident and inspired.
> 
> After just a few months, I was asked if I wanted to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA building Bosma Enterprises’ volunteer program.  Over the year I served, I grew the volunteer program while educating other not-for-profits about the value of including people who have disabilities in service. I was also able to start a volunteer program where Bosma’s employees, 50 percent who are blind or visually impaired, serve other non-profits similar to a day of service at a for profit company. The program allowed many people who had traditionally received services, the opportunity to serve others.  At the end of my year of service, my work was acknowledged and I was named Indiana’s 2008  VISTA of the Year.  And, I was offered employment at the company that hosted me as their volunteer coordinator. Both were opportunities that I never thought I would have again after I lost my vision.
> 
> Since then, I have continued to work at Bosma Enterprises in several capacities, and in 2014, I earned my MBA.  I was recently named the company’s marketing director and became a member of its Executive Leadership Team.  I’ve worked really hard to get where I am today, but I know it would not have been possible without Indiana’s Corporation for National and Community Services disability inclusion initiative and Bosma Enterprises who gave me a chance.  You see, a person who has an opportunity has a future, while someone without prospects only has the past.  I look forward to every day at Bosma Enterprises. I continue to be excited that I was given a second chance.  The best is yet to come for me and other people who have disabilities.
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