Together We Prepare Members Stay Busy

Happy holidays! I hope you are staying safe, healthy, and warm during this busy month of projects, events, and recent winter blizzard. My name is Misty Youngson and I am a second-year AmeriCorps member with the Together We Prepare program. I serve with the American Red Cross of Northwest Michigan in Traverse City. The Together We Prepare AmeriCorps Program (TWPA) provides emergency assistance to victims and communities affected by disaster and increases preparedness in the areas of greatest need before disaster strikes. Participants in this program recruit, train, and support individuals who will provide community outreach and education through Red Cross service activities focusing on homeland security. Other duties may include serving at blood drives and assisting with Service to Armed Forces casework.

Our Together We Prepare Team has been active throughout the state and around the country providing services and getting things done. In October, three team members were able to assist with the flood relief efforts in Rochester, Minnesota. Samantha of Midland, Drew of Grand Rapids, and Ryan of Saginaw traveled to Minnesota to work as client caseworkers to provide emergency relief to families affected by floods. The American Red Cross can provide emergency food, clothing, and shelter during times of disasters. A caseworker will assess the needs of families and determine their emergency needs.

In November, several AmeriCorps team members from Grand Rapids assisted in the Tree to Table Initiative sponsored by Griffin Properties. The project began with a generous donation of over 300 apples from Leo Dietrich Farm. Ten volunteers worked for nine hours to bake 32 pies. They delivered the freshly baked apple pies to local food pantries and kitchens throughout the city. This was a project of the Heart Work is Hard Work service series. These team members also volunteered to clean up Sigsbee Park in Grand Rapids by painting, trimming bushes, and pulling weeds in October. A very active bunch indeed!

My local team mate, Kelly Teresko, and I have been involved with projects through out Traverse City. I have helped with elementary school music programs and Cub Scout events. Both of us recently assisted the local Planned Parenthood with a large mailing project. We also helped the Goodwill Industries fill the pantries with food stock before Thanksgiving weekend. In February the Together We Prepare Program is planning to attend the Special Olympics here in Traverse City. This will be an opportunity for us to serve and recruit new AmeriCorps members. We look forward to spreading the word about Michigan’s AmeriCorps.

Mrs. Yerkey Goes to Washington

Hello – I’m Rachel Yerkey and I serve with the Michigan AmeriCorps Partnership.

Interfaith Action, my service site at the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, is a program that brings together students for interfaith service work and dialogue. This past October, I had the opportunity to spend three days in Washington, D.C. with two of my students as part of the Interfaith Youth Core’s (IFYC’s) Interfaith Leadership Institute. This institute, co-sponsored by the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships (yes, President Obama had a hand in this institute!), was a kickoff for a series of year-long events for interfaith groups at college and university campuses around the nation.

During the course of the three days, 100 staff members and 200 students had a chance to connect, share ideas, get inspired, and learn about the IFYC’s “Better Together” campaign. As interfaith leaders, we gained valuable skills to help us build awareness for interfaith cooperation across campus, engage religious diversity on campus in a positive way, expand interfaith programs on campus, and support student leaders at the head of interfaith programming on campus.

The institute included a trip inside the White House (in the West Wing! We had passes!) for a conference with speakers Eboo Patel (founder and head of the IFYC, columnist for the Washington Post, and advisor to the President), Joshua DuBois (head of the Office of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnerships), and John Kelly (Director for Strategic Partnerships with the Corporation for National and Community Service). We also came together as campus program directors and discussed what actually makes a campus safe and inclusive for all faith backgrounds, and not just tolerant. We talked about how our individual campuses – the offices of student affairs, residential life, the academic side of things, etc. – are (or, more frequently are NOT) helpful in working with us on issues around faith, spirituality, and religion.

From this institute, we came back with a very clear action plan for our student group here at U-M. Starting next semester, we are going to be running a “Better Together” campaign, centered on the idea that if people of all faiths work together on one issue area, we can all be better together. Our focus area is sexual assault and domestic violence – an issue often glossed over or ignored entirely within communities of faith. Partnering with our student group, faith communities on campus and in the community, and SAPAC and Safe House (sexual assault and domestic violence prevention programs in Washtenaw County), we hope to raise $40,000 (about $1 per student on U-M’s campus) to donate to Safe House, train religious leaders on how to start conversations within their communities on these issues, and have interfaith dialogues on sexual assault and domestic violence once conversations are started within individual religious communities.

So many times I get wrapped up in the “bubble” that is my service site, and I forget I am a part of something larger. Connecting with other people from around the country (and even a few international students and staff members!) was a great reminder of the larger cause. Just like my AmeriCorps network, there are people all across the country doing the same thing; struggling with the same issues, excited to hear about my successes, willing to be resources when I need help, and all working towards a better future.

Conducting Service in the Upper Peninsula

Hello everyone! My name is Melinda Seppanen and I am a second-year member serving with Superior AmeriCorps. During my first year, I served with the BHK Child Development Even Start program assisting parents in receiving their high school diploma or GED. This year, I have the honor of serving preschool students. Let me give you some basic information on our AmeriCorps program.

The Superior AmeriCorps program is funded to operate in Baraga, Dickinson, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw, and Ontonagon counties in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The program focuses its efforts on a single priority area: education. Forty-six full-time members serve in schools, service agencies, and nonprofit organizations throughout the program area. School-based members tutor and mentor students who need support to achieve school success. They also initiate safe, enriching after-school and summer youth programs. Members in pre-school centers work with young children to nurture their development and enhance their school readiness.

I wanted to take this opportunity to discuss our Make A Difference Day service projects this past October. One of our new projects we were very proud of this year was based on community gardens. A group of members spent many hours tending to the community gardens designed to quell many of the problems inhibiting residents of the area; including allowing for an area for low-income people to grow their own food, creating an educational site to teach people about horticulture, teaching students about eating responsibly to fight adolescent obesity, and simply giving people a creative environment for sharing. They worked on five different gardens.

Some other projects included painting the railings at a local high school, conducting a blood drive, and cleaning nature trails. AmeriCorps members also held a clothing drive in two of the seven counties we serve. Various types of clothing were collected and donated to the Department of Human Services office in each county. More than 200 items were donated! Some members also participated in supporting our troops by collecting donated goods and stuffing them in Christmas stockings.

For Make A Difference Day, Superior AmeriCorps put on eight different services projects. Our members cover a wide area of the Upper Peninsula, which gives us the opportunity to assist many people! What service projects are you proud of?