"H is for Heart: The Corporation funds three innovative programs in the Northwest" Fall 1996
Two programs in the Northwest were recently awarded Governor's Innovative Program grants and one program received a Local Collaborative Initiative award—funding that was made available through Subtitle H of the National and Community Service Act of 1990. By awarding these grants, the Corporation for National Service "hopes to learn how it can provide more flexibility in program models and requirements without compromising program quality and without losing our emphasis on 'getting things done,' strengthening communities, and developing participants. . . . The programs . . . encourage innovation, expand the universe of service models, and support service programs in a variety of settings."
Learning Involving Nurturing Kids in the Summer (LINKS) is a summer program for at-risk young children in need of strong and responsible adult role models. The program is a collaboration of two AmeriCorps programs (Friends of the Children and EnviroCorps), a Learn and Serve program (Students Serving the City), and Portland's Foster Grandparents program. Each Foster Grandparent and Portland State University student involved was paired with two children. Twice each week, the children worked with AmeriCorps Members on environmental and community service projects such as cleaning up the yard of an elderly community member, removing graffiti, or taking care of trees around their neighborhood school. Community members—including a juggler, a masseur, musicians, and artists—were recruited to work with the children.
Amy Driscoll, director of Portland State's Community/University Partnerships, tells a story of one girl in the program who told a student volunteer, "I'm having a really bad day, but you're going to have to deal with it 'cause you get paid to." The volunteer responded, "No, I don't get paid for this. None of us do." The stunned girl asked, "Well, then why are you here?" The volunteer said, "Because I want to be here." The girl spent most of the rest of the day telling her peers, "They're here because they want to be here!" Driscoll also mentioned that an unexpected benefit of the program was the close, intergenerational relationships that were developed between the Foster Grandparents and the student volunteers.
Fostering Youth/Community Partnerships, an AmeriCorps program that will serve Snohomish and Pierce Counties in Washington, will coordinate the efforts of three full-time and 14 half-time Members. Members will mentor 15- to-18-year-olds currently in foster care and recruit additional volunteers to work with the youth. After conducting an interest inventory, the AmeriCorps Members will work with the youth to organize community service projects. Ted Wiseman, the adolescent services coordinator at the Pierce County Alliance, says, "It gives the foster kids an extra resource . . . somebody who really is there for them as a friend, as an advocate . . . who isn't a representative of a system, and whose main focus is doing what's best for the kid. Having that kind of friend will really help them with the transition."
After piloting its efforts in four counties, the Family Empowerment Program (FEP) was granted a Governor's Innovation award to include an AmeriCorps Member in each of five additional counties in Oregon. During the first two years, FEP was administered by Bud Pinkerton of Services to Children and Families and Georgena Carrow of the Department of Human Resources (DHR), and staffed by two VISTA volunteers and two employees of the DHR. FEP, which is now co-coordinated by Lisa Harnisch and Barbara Selby (a former VISTA Volunteer), pairs volunteers with families of chronic neglect. The families are referred for mild cases of neglect where there is no immediate threat of harm and thus no intensive service for the families. The volunteers act as role models and mentors to families; advising them on a variety of social issues and personal hygiene. In addition to recruiting, supervising, and providing support to the volunteers, the AmeriCorps Members will match the volunteers with families, provide emotional support, and facilitate regular meetings and training events for the volunteers.
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