Helping Youth in Northern Michigan

Char-Em ISD AmeriCorps are small in number, but big on service! My name is Janice Justis and I serve with the Char-Em ISD AmeriCorps program located in northern lower Michigan. Char-Em ISD stands for the Charlevoix and Emmet County Intermediate School District. We currently have nine members in this two-county school district. We are a school-based program working on literacy and behavior in grades Kindergarten through fifth grade.

I am a Baby-Boomer AmeriCorps member (over the age of 50!!!). When my husband of 25 years passed away suddenly, I was only 49 years old. My husband was a legal aide attorney for about six years when I met and married him. I guess the legacy of service was just starting in my family. I decided to join AmeriCorps because of his legacy of service and I hope that it will be carried on by our sons.

I am a second-year AmeriCorps member serving at Ottawa Elementary School in Petoskey. I have a caseload of 16 students in Kindergarten and first grade. We work on literacy skills, and in some cases, social skills. As a Char-Em ISD AmeriCorps member, I have received training on teaching literacy skills and have received additional professional development through my service site. I also work with students in our RTC (Responsible Thinking Classroom) where we work on skills to make better choices and improve social skills. We have participated in classes for life crisis intervention and other social skills mentoring.

Along with serving each day at our respective schools, the Char-Em members do a variety of service projects and engage in service to the community. For the 2010 MLK Day my service project consisted of collecting personal care items which were donated to United Way for Project Connect (a day of services for low-income and homeless families). More than 700 people were served in one day and each person with a bag of personal care items.

Our members are involved in a number of other projects; including those involving Exceptional Riders, Red Cross Disaster Teams, Court Mentoring Programs, Girls on the Run (self-esteem program), food pantries, and shelters. I am honored to serve alongside my other members to build relationships with our young mentees and give them the encouragement to succeed each day.

Serving Detroit

If you ever wander around Detroit on a bright and early Friday morning, you may run into a sea of people in red jackets, khaki pants, and Timberland boots performing exercises at Campus Martius. You may even be able to hear us from your office in the surrounding buildings. Or you may run into a group of happy young adults in red performing powerful community service. If that is so, then you just met an incredible group of individuals. You just met City Year Detroit. No, not City of Detroit. CITY YEAR DETROIT!!!

Hi everybody! My name is Gopi Patel and I am an AmeriCorps member with City Year Detroit (CYD). This is my first year serving at my program and I love it! Before I get into the service we have provided for Detroit this year, let me tell you a little bit about our wonderful program. City Year is a non-profit organization comprised of 17-24 year olds that commit 10 months and 1,700 hours of service to Detroit Public Schools. Our members tutor and mentor students from kindergarten to 12^th grade, as well as hold after-school programs for students. We also perform physical service on Fridays around the city of Detroit. At the moment, we have 19 sites throughout the United States and one overseas in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Currently, we have seven teams at CYD located in schools throughout Detroit. We also have two teams dedicated to running our Heroes programs, which recruit and perform service with volunteer students from middle and high school. My team is located at Brenda M. Scott Middle School, which is on the east side of Detroit. Our team has only been in the school since prior to Thanksgiving break, but we have already completed one service project and started another. We provided blankets to more than 100 middle school students and their families at our Warmest Winter Ever Drive in December. The children were able to decorate shopping bags (that were generously donated by Macy’s) and put the blanket inside the bag to either give away as a holiday gift or keep. Also just last week, our team kicked off an All-Year Recycling Drive for Brenda M. Scott Middle School with a Recycling Relay Race. Other teams at CYD have also completed amazing service projects at their schools. The team at Phoenix Middle School painted beautiful murals throughout their school. The teams at both Osborn College Preparatory Academy and Cody High School have overseen large beautification service projects which are still in progress.

Recently, our members have participated in MLK Day and DPS Reading Corps registration day. MLK Day for CYD was amazing all around. We were able to provide volunteers a variety of locations to serve at. We had volunteers as well as AmeriCorps members at Osborn College Preparatory Academy, Cody High School, Gleaners, Fishes & Loaves, as well as many other locations. We also were lucky enough to assist United Way in their MLK Day volunteer events and their rally. The CYD rally was a success with Governor Jennifer M. Granholm in attendance as well as First Gentleman Daniel G. Mulhern. It was truly an amazing service day for everyone. We had members at service sites starting at 7:15 a.m. and volunteers up and ready to go at 8 a.m. It was exciting to see so many people from the surrounding communities of Detroit willing to give up a day off work or school to give back to their community. Every person had a smile on their face and a ready-to-go attitude! It was definitely a day ON not a day off.

Speaking of great smiles and attitudes, a couple of weeks ago about 25 CYD AmeriCorps members participated in the kick-off of the DPS Reading Corps. The DPS Reading Corps is a new initiative from Robert Bobb, Emergency Financial Manager for DPS, to provide reading volunteers to pre-kindergarteners as a way to increase test scores. CYD members assisted with registration and greeting more than 3,000 volunteers that day. It was an exceptionally inspiring day to see so many volunteers wanting to dedicate an hour a week for the rest of the school year to teaching a student how to read. Seeing and feeling that type of positive energy is so contagious it carries with you.

Before I end, I would like to pose some questions for our readers out there. What will you do this year that will inspire others to lend a hand? What actions will you take to serve your community? Don’t wait any longer. Start today. Start at www.cityyear.org. GIVE A YEAR. CHANGE THE WORLD.

Michigan Mentoring Month & AmeriCorps

Whew, what a month! This is Betsy Knoll serving with the 4-H Mentor Michigan Initiative and Ottawa County MSU Extension. Last month, mentoring programs around the state celebrated the 2010 Michigan Mentoring Month with a variety of recognition and recruitment events, as well as mentoring awareness campaigns. The photo here of me is with my mentee Katelyn. We had the great opportunity to speak at the Magic of Mentoring event, and we had a blast! All of the 4-H Mentor Michigan Initiative members worked diligently on their own Michigan Mentoring Month projects and I am proud to share what one of my fellow members did!

Kristy Oosterhouse, AmeriCorps member serving at Eaton County MSU Extension with the Supporting Teen Opportunities Mentoring Program (STOMP) supported Michigan Mentoring Month by hosting the STOMP Extravaganza. The STOMP Extravaganza was held on January 23 at Kardel Hall in Charlotte and invited families of all ages for a night of fun carnival games. The event also recognized two of the mentors for their involvement in the program. It looks like there was a lot of fun going on, check out the pictures. Congratulations to Kristy for putting on this great event during your year of service!

There were great things going on all over the nation for National Mentoring Month, including at the Whitehouse. Yep, I said the Whitehouse! As part of National Mentoring Month, the Michigan Youth 4-H Mentoring Program, a part of Michigan 4-H Youth Development Programs, was selected to represent 4-H Youth Mentoring nationwide at an event at the Whitehouse. The Corporation for National and Community Service requested a match from the Journey 4-H Youth Mentoring Program of Ottawa County because of their state and national recognition through becoming a 4-H Program of Distinction and for receiving the Outstanding Mentoring Program Award at the 2009 Governor’s Service Awards. Oh, by the way, did I mention that Journey 4-H Youth Mentoring is where I am serving?

Needless to say, we were so thrilled at Journey 4-H to be able to offer this opportunity to one of our matches. Andrew (mentor) and Ryan (mentee) shared the stage with President Obama during a portion of the event held on January 20 in Washington, D.C. The match even had the opportunity to shake the President’s hand and he asked Ryan what his name was. I wasn’t able to attend the event, but everyone who went agreed it was an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity. Ryan even described the event as “epic” and “pretty awesome.” Check out some pictures of Andrew and Ryan hamming it up in DC and the Whitehouse and also shaking the president’s hand.

It was a great month for mentoring in the state of Michigan. Now, I can’t promise a trip to the Whitehouse, but I encourage you all to seriously consider volunteering as a mentor. You don’t have to be a hero, or a tutor. You just need to be there for a youth. Contact a mentoring program in your area by visiting www.mentormichigan.org and pass it on to a youth today!

American Red Cross

If you had asked me a year ago if I would be serving with the Red Cross, I would have asked, “Are you serious? Why would I be doing that, now?”

My name is Lindsay Pals, and I’m serving with the Together We Prepare program at the American Red Cross of Greater Grand Rapids. I am finishing my fifth month as the Disaster Relief Volunteer Coordinator, and anticipating the last five to go. It is still interesting to tell people that I serve at the Red Cross. The primary response is, “Oh really? So… you work with blood drives?” And I totally understand, since that was the extent of my Red Cross knowledge until I began training. But honestly, describing everything this entity does, locally and globally, would take a book- a really thick book.

In short, the American Red Cross’ fundamental principals and values center around dignity and respect for all human kind, no matter which background, faith, culture, political stance, race, or gender a human being possesses. “Preventing and alleviating human suffering wherever it may be found” is the perfect umbrella phrase under which we find all the roles of the American Red Cross. The main services my chapter offers in my community, aside from blood drives, are family tracing for refugees, contacting deployed military personnel with significant familial news, driving senior citizens to and from doctor appointments, and providing emergency shelter, food, and clothing to those who just experienced a local disaster. Yet most importantly, we educate our community about fire safety, fire prevention, and the other various services provided, so that prevention and preparation is a priority, emphasizing the idea that if you know about us, we can better help you.

In my individual role as the Disaster Relief Volunteer Coordinator, I am a resource for the group of volunteers that respond to local disasters – primarily house fires. These specific volunteers comprise the Disaster Action Team. I make sure they have the supplies they need, the six volunteer leaders have all the correct and updated information, and the system is running smoothly. I communicate within the entire chapter because I rely on every other department for some aspect of fire response, and within the communities in the four county area we serve to know and best respond to those community’s disasters.

My biggest project is fixing the current system in which my volunteers function. I’m making sure the power distribution is the most logical and that I’m making my volunteers feel needed and valued – because they ARE needed and valued! It has been a blast getting to know the various communities we serve, as well as what everyone wants in the new system. This project is like one fun, huge puzzle.

I truly believe in what the American Red Cross and the International Committee of the Red Cross do. In just graduating from college, I have political issues, social issues, and arguments for every stance under the sun swimming in my head. My future is before me and there are so many options out there for anyone my age, I can get overwhelmed! But when we went over the principles and values during the first day of training, it was like a huge breath of fresh air. The Red Cross brought me back to what is most important and how it manifests within our community – people. Putting people first and taking care of their needs. No matter what. I know I will uphold my priorities to that standard.

If you’re interested in volunteering at your local Red Cross, or you would just like to know more about being involved, go to the website at www.redcross.org, and from there you can navigate to your Local Red Cross Chapter’s site.

If you would like to donate to the International Disaster Relief efforts in Haiti, please text ‘Haiti’ to 90999, or contact your local chapter if you’d like to donate.