MAR VISTA FAMILY CENTER

On a former vacant lot on the border of West Los Angeles and Culver City, the Mar Vista Family Center opened its preschool with the hope of engaging parents as partners in the education of their children. Three weeks later, a local gang, who viewed the new school as an intrusion into their territory, burned down the building. The year was 1980. Then and there the founders of the Mar Vista Family Center decided that they could succeed only if community members took a larger role – as volunteers in the classroom, pre-school teachers, and community leaders. Only then could Mar Vista achieve its long-term goal: transforming the lives of families and their neighborhood, which had the highest crime rate of Los Angeles’ west side.

Today, the Mar Vista Family Center stands as a testament to that idea and the community that has carried it out. The center is thriving and filled with people of all ages. Its year-round, rebuilt preschool serves 34 children, ages 3 to 5, and always has a waiting list. Teens from the center’s By Youth For Youth Leadership Program run the after-school and summer camp programs that attract hundreds of neighborhood children. At night, adults come out for ESL classes, leadership training, and parent groups.

No one believes more in the power of shared responsibility than Lucia Diaz, executive director of Mar Vista. When she enrolled her 3-year-old in the preschool, she was a recent immigrant from Mexico who helped support her young family by cleaning houses. Teachers at the preschool encouraged her to pass her GED and earn a certificate in early childhood education so that she could join the staff. After 20 years, Diaz still recognizes the strength of her mentors who “gave me the space to grow and make my own mistakes.”

Now Diaz takes the lead in making sure other parents and community members have that same opportunity. Weekly leadership training for parents who have children enrolled in nearby public schools and workshops for community members give others the skills to speak out and share in decisions. Even gang members who were once an obstacle to the project are now supportive members of the Mar Vista community. When the center decided to expand into a second building, Diaz recruited young people from the community as apprentice construction workers. Many were high-school dropouts who could not earn a degree because the only school they could attend stood in a rival gang’s territory.

The solution? Working with the Los Angeles School District, Mar Vista opened an alternative high school in the building those young people had helped to renovate. The program, designed for 25, now serves 100 students. Gang members were among the young people who worked hard on the construction project. Now, says Diaz, they feel “they own the community, but in a different way.”

Mar Vista Family Center is a 2002 Honoree of Families Count, the national honors program that recognizes organizations that are making a difference in the lives of families struggling to survive in tough neighborhoods.

VISTA ELDERCARE TIMEOUT: VOLUNTEER RESPITECARE PROGRAM

In 1999, Vista ElderCare investigated the unmet needs of the family caregivers in Northern Lake County. With the assistance of a grant from the Retirement Research Foundation, the TimeOut Respite program was developed. The Vista Elder CARE TimeOut: Volunteer Respite Care program provides respite for family caregivers who are caring for a loved one at home with a chronic illness such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, stroke or other disabilities. The project helps both the family caregiver and the homebound individual with the overall goal of keeping both individuals as healthy and as independent as possible, for as long as possible.

The gift of brief respite is provided by a trained, caring volunteer. Respite volunteers provide two three-hour visits per family each month. All volunteers must have a background check, are interviewed and must provide references. In extenuating circumstances, volunteers have provide four to six hours or respite for special family functions or for caregivers who are interested in attending the Powerful Tools for Caregivers class.

The respite visit provides relief for the caregiver, so that he or she can have time for himself. They may want to have lunch with a friend, run errands and have time for relaxation and renewal. The respite visit also provides companionship and a friendly visitor for the care receiver.

This respite program is unique in that before a family is matched with a volunteer, a registered nurse provides a health assessment and medication review for both the family caregiver and the care receiver. The assessment assists them in matching a volunteer with a family and also enables them to identify additional health resources for the family, such as support groups, physician referrals, homecare, physical therapy, senior services, national organizations and other community resources. Also, all caregivers are provided information regarding the Powerful Tools for Caregivers class, which is a project that is coordinated by Mather Life Ways. The Respite Coordinator teachers the Powerful Tools class with a co-leader twice a year.

The cost of respite care can create a financial burden with even middle-income families. The TimeOut Respite program provides needed breaks for the overburdened family caregiver as well as emotional support and guidance. The TimeOut program has provided caregivers just enough of a break to provide the caregiver with a new, refreshed perspective, giving them enough energy and motivation to pursue additional help from family and other community resources.

Caring for the caregiver and assisting the caregiver in caring for themselves benefits everyone. Research has consistently shown that caregivers who take care of themselves and who are supported delay in institutionalization of their loved one by at lease one year. There is certainly a financial benefit when institutionalization is delayed; but most importantly, there is usually improved quality of life for the care receiver who is cared for at home, and the satisfaction of the caregiver knowing that they did all that they could and were able to care for their loved one at home for as long as possible.

DOROTHY NELSON

Dorothy Nelson trained and became certified as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) in 1985. Since that time she has volunteered countless hours towards supporting and strengthening the EMT services of the rural, isolated community of Green River, Utah. Nelson became EMT Supervisor in 1993 and took over the daunting task of managing up to 20 volunteers – EMT’s and drivers. She was responsible for maintaining mandatory duty and training schedules, which is a huge task within itself. This supervisory position was an unpaid volunteer position for more than 10 years.

Emergency Medical Services in Southeastern Utah is a balance between limited personnel and equipment to cover monumental distances. Green River Ambulance Association covers nearly 45,000 square miles of Interstate freeways and desolate desert. The precious “golden hour” of urban EMS is only a wish to these EMT’s as they respond to emergencies along I-70 from Crescent Junction half way to Salina, Utah, along Highway 6 and 191 between Price and Moab. They also cover all of the desert in between these areas. During 2002, Green River Ambulance crews responded to more than 200 calls.

In addition to her supervisory work with the EMT’s, Nelson identified health and public safety issues that could be met with stronger training programs. For 18 years, she organized and offered classes for adults and youth of Green River. She teaches monthly EMT training classes, a First Aid Baby Sitting Clinic for 1st – 8th graders and a “What to do until the ambulance arrives” class for staff and students at area schools. In addition to this, Nelson teaches Community CPR training and First Aid for Boy and Girl Scouts as well as church affiliated organizations.

Because of her tireless efforts for the past 18 years, they have a safer and more highly trained community. When there is a need, Nelson finds a way to meet that need. Sometimes that means she is quilting for fundraisers to raise money for needed training equipment or an ambulance defibrillator. Nelson has successfully established a solid program which helps meet the needs of the community and has developed a high standard for all other EMT’s to follow.

In addition to volunteering with Green River Ambulance Association, Nelson is the mother of eight children and grandmother to many more. She is active in her church as an adult and youth teacher and a leader in the presidency.

RACHEL EWALD

Rachel Ewald and her husband Mark have four biological children and have fostered 34 others over the years. As a little girl, there was an orphanage in the next town where she grew up, and she never forgot the lonely look on the children’s faces as they peered through the chain link fence watching people pass by. It saddened her that they did not have a mother like she did.

There are 13,000 and 15,000 children in Georgia’s foster care system. Foster Care Support Foundation, Inc. (FCS) evolved after Ewald’s 14 years of fostering children. She saw how little support and knowledge there was about the foster care community and their needs. This organization began in her garage in 1996 to meet the first-hand need for supplemental support for foster parents. FCS is dedicated to improving the lives of Georgia’s at-risk children in soter care homes by providing free, supplemental to qualified, non-relative basic care homes. These homes receive from $12.75 to $14.25 per day to meet most of the needs of their foster children.

She saw there are too many invisible neglected children needing things the rest of the world has and takes for granted each day. Countless children arrive at foster homes with only the clothing on their backs each day, and in many cases that has to be discarded. A collection of new and gently used clothing, toys, shoes, books, infant equipment was given directly to the foster child because of the Foundation.

The motto is “All Kids Count,” and Ewald realized she could provide a special need for children in the foster care system. She acquired the use of a trailer on the grounds of a local church and after a year had outgrown to a partially donated storefront in a shopping plaza. They are now in a 7,000 sq ft facility which enables the foster parent and child to shop in a store atmosphere, giving the foster child a sense of normalcy in an unfortunate situation. Sponsors are always in need to fund the program to make sure that these children do not return to invisibility.

As of December 2003, over 4,000 children have not been forgotten, thanks to Foster Care Support Foundation. Each child, after verification from their county DFACS office, receives clothes, toys, new shoes, socks and underwear, toys and books. Infants can receive a crib or bassinette, bottles, stroller, car seat, highchair and an arrat of necessary items needed to care for them safely. No money exchanges hands because all items are free.

FCS has no paid employees. With an average operating budget of $150,000 for the 2003 year, the project is run with volunteers from the surrounding communities, churches, churches and civic organizations. Ewald volunteers an average of 40 hours each week and receives no compensation. She was recognized as the recipient of the 2003 Commissioners’ Award, a national award from the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) by the state of Georgia for outstanding achievement in the field of child abuse and neglect prevention.

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA DEVELOPING FAMILIES CENTER

In high school, Shaniqua Ballard tried to avoid peer pressure and pitfalls. However when she became pregnant, she briefly moved into a shelter for pregnant women where a friend told her about the District of Columbia Developing Families Center. “I had been going to a clinic where they just gave you a prescription for vitamins and listened to the baby’s heartbeat — that’s it,” Ballard explains. “At the Center, they actually showed me how my baby was looking and explained what was happening with my body. They just made it so comfortable.” Ballard also accessed other supports at the Center, where her daughter Mya was born. Today, Mya receives pediatric care and early childhood education at the Center.

Giving women like Ballard the care and knowledge they need to raise healthy families is exactly what the D.C. Developing Families Center is all about. A collaboration of three service providers — the D.C. Birth Center, the Healthy Babies Project and the Nation’s Capital Child and Family Development — the DCDFC reaches out to low-income communities of Carver Terrace and Trinidad/Ivy City in Northeast Washington, D.C. At the DCDFC, young mothers and their babies can access all their health care in one place in their neighborhood. Additional services, ranging from GED preparation to food and parenting classes, help families stay strong.

Ruth Watson Lubic, a nurse midwife who received a 1994 MacArthur Fellowship after developing a successful birth center in the South Bronx, brought the Center’s partners together under one umbrella to create the DCDFC. For Lubic and Co-CEO Linda Randolph, a public health pediatrician, providing health care that works for the families they serve means treating medical issues in the context of a person’s life. Even among birth centers, the scope of DCDFC’s care for women and their families is unique. Because the Center added a pediatric component, nurse practitioners see children from infancy to age 21. Center nurse-midwives also do well-woman care and were the first to have privileges at back-up hospitals so they could attend births for mothers whose medical risks made them ineligible for the birth center.

This spring, the District of Columbia’s infant mortality rate fell by an unprecedented 20.7 percent, credited in part to the Center and its peers. Representatives from twelve U.S. cities have toured the Center with hopes of emulating both the spirit and the specifics of what they see. The Center itself plans to expand its support for area families, including males, by establishing the Capitol View Health Center for general medical services, dental care and mental health services in an environmentally conscious building. For Lubic, Randolph and their partners, however, the greatest satisfaction lies in seeing women make educated choices about their health care, watching their families grow stronger and giving the neighborhood a focus for pride.

The District of Columbia Developing Families Center is a 2003 Honoree of Families Count, the national honors program that recognizes organizations that are making a difference in the lives of families struggling to survive in tough neighborhoods.

ANTHONY SANCHEZ

Traditionally, underserved urban youth and youth that are minorities have not had access to the natural world. They have not been involved in education and career opportunities in the environmental fields and the green industry. Anthony Sanchez co-founded Eagle Eye Institute in 1990 to address this issue. A troubled youth himself, Sanchez has now turned his life toward helping young people. Sanchez worked out of his house initially and built relationships with politicians, community residents and community-based organizations.

Since 1991, he has acted as a volunteer Executive Director and generally spends more than 40 hours a week on work related to Eagle Eye endeavors. Sanchez, along with his co-founder bought 180 acres of land in Peru, which they maintain privately and keep open for public use and for the use of the programs. In these programs, he takes youth from urban settings to the land to have a three-day experience with nature.

Sanchez developed and implemented Eagle Eye’s first program, Learn About Forests, and has involved more than 2,500 multi-ethnic youth from Massachusetts in carefully planned, magical summer experiences, which also include Learn About Water, Learn About Agriculture and Learn More About Forests.

The Rainbow Stewards after-school program was started in 1999 to involve Somerville youth in a comprehensive city tree survey and environmental work. Under Sanchez’s direction, a nationwide public service campaign to connect urban people of color with tree care organizations in six cities reached 20 million viewers in 2001. This also includes a Web site, www.treesaremyfriends.org, which is still being utilized as a resource.

One of his current projects is collaborating with YouthBuild USA and the Massachusetts Arborists Association to provide arboricultural workshops and training for youth as a career bridge into this field. After more than 10 years as Executive Director of Eagle Eye, Sanchez continues to bring creativity and inspiration to the organizations always strives to do more, which translates into innovative opportunities for both the youth and adults.

Sanchez grew up in New York City and has a profound understanding of the issues and challenges facing youth today. His background and life experiences have given him motivation and focus as well as an understanding of the transformational power of nature. Sanchez is guided by a deep-rooted spirituality and a passion for the work he does. Sanchez has provided opportunities for thousands of youth to connect with their natural world. He has forged partnerships with local, regional and national organizations with overlapping missions; and his work continually has an impact in diversifying the environmental movement so his community, individuals and the environment is stronger.

THE HIGHLEY FAMILY

The Family Matters initiative of the Volunteer Services of Manatee County engages in excess of 2,300 local families in volunteer projects throughout the year. Tammy, Becca and Robby Highley have been dependable, flexible and fun.

The Highleys are a perfect example of a non-traditional family. Tammy is a single mother who has raised Becca and Robby since they were one and two years of age respectively. First, she nurtured the brother and sister as a foster mother. However, on April 29, 1997 Tammy formally adopted the pair.

Today, Becca is 13 and Robby is 14. They are typical teenagers and play soccer as well as both being musicians. They are also honor students; however, their mom teaches them that volunteering is just as important as being good students; it helps them to become well-rounded individuals.

Tammy teaches profoundly mentally handicapped middle school students. Both her children have disorders and struggle with ADHD. Tammy is also ADD, but she is an example of being an overcomer. Somehow the family manages to maintain their active schedules, overcome their learning disorders and other obstacles and still make family volunteering a high priority in their lives.

Becca and Robby are active ManaTEENs who participate in several group volunteer projects, special events and ongoing youth led initiatives with their peers throughout the year. They are active in their church as acolytes, ushers and members of their youth group. As a family, they enjoy volunteering for programs assisting the homeless and participating in mission trips.

As a family the Highleys have been a driving force behind the cemetery mapping and restoration project at a county owned and neglected cemetery. Even when it is hot, humid and miserable at the site, the Highleys do not complain. They brave the fire ants and uncomfortable conditions to engage in an important project to bring dignity and respect to a graveyard that has been ravaged with time and vandals.

In addition to the cemetery effort and ManaTEEN activities, the Highley family helped the Volunteer Center host their Service-Learning retreat during Join Hands Day Weekend in 2002. Youth, educators, AmeriCorps members and families all over Florida were trained on the philosophy of service learning.

The Highley’s mission is to live as a productive unit in their home, community and world. They enjoy celebrating time together and bond through volunteering. They believe volunteering is a trickle down effect that must begin at home.

JO COSBY

Each Monday, Jo Cosby, 15, provides invaluable services to the American Red Cross, Morgan-Lawrence County Chapter. She is a capable leader and a reliable volunteer as well as an apt student of disaster. She has volunteered at the Red Cross office one day a week for more than two years. Since Jo is home-schooled, she has a flexible schedule and volunteers throughout the year. Staff in Health and Safety, Disaster, Blood and Chapter have found Jo’s help indispensable and depend on her weekly to give aid to a variety of projects.

Her duties at the American Red Cross include but are not limited to answering the telephone, making phone calls, filing, assembling bulk mailings, stamping community disaster education brochures, assembling adult and youth orientation packets and shredding confidential documents. Recently, she undertook the project of creating and maintaining a Youth Volunteer Scrapbook to be used in recruiting other youth volunteers. During the Christmas holiday, Jo puts up, decorates and takes down the office Christmas tree. She is also in charge of hanging the honorary gift cards from the chapter’s Holiday Appeal campaign on the tree. She also helps to assemble coffee break bags for blood drive sponsors and gift bags for the Secretary’s Day fundraiser. In addition, Jo folds and counts blood drive t-shirts and cleans and sanitizes mannequin faces.

Jo is also a trained blood drive volunteer. She registers blood donors and serves refreshments to donors at chapter and community drives. She also serves as a youth representative on the Volunteer Committee of the Morgan-Lawrence County Board of Directors as well as conducting leadership workshops for youth volunteers, assisting with youth volunteer orientations and assisting with activities at the Chapter Board retreat.

Jo was only 13 years old when she started volunteering at the Red Cross two years ago. She is the youngest volunteer to be given such significant responsibilities at the Chapter. This youth is still making a mark on youth involvement at the local Chapter. Although approximately 40 youth volunteer during the summer months and many do not continue their involvement. The goal of the Council is to get them to stay involved during the school years by providing quarterly newsletters, meetings and group service project opportunities. She has been responsible for implementing and planning this Council. She conducted the first meeting, sent out the first newsletter and makes arrangements for the service projects. In addition, Jo also set up and maintains a database of new residents in the county. She enters the information and then sends a welcome letter, tips on safety, a schedule of upcoming classes and a family disaster plan brochure.

In addition to her service with the American Red Cross, Jo has also volunteered on a mission trip to Guatemala. She was determined to make the trip with other church missionaries, and spent months earning money to pay her own way. She mowed lawns, sold home-baked goods, did babysitting and watched after a neighbor’s vacant house. While in Guatemala, she volunteered at an orphanage.

THE BUTLER FAMILY

The Butler family is three generations of extraordinary commitment to service to Washington DC. The family began volunteering through Greater DC Cares (GDCC) Family Cares Program in the summer of 2001. Initially drawn to Family Cares because of Brian’s community service requirement for school, the entire family soon found that volunteering provided their family with precious time they needed to bond. Since that summer, Brian and his mom, Pamela and his grandmother, Sarah, have been a model for other families to follow.

The Butler’s family’s first project through Family Cares was at the Days End Farm Horse Rescue in August of 2001. This is an organization that rescues abused and neglected farm horses throughout the state of Maryland. They enjoyed that project together and continued to serve at various agencies until they found their niche in volunteering.

The Butler’s soon found their nook at Christian Community Group Homes (CCGH). This is an agency that serves low-income elderly residents of the District of Columbia. Having recognized that this critical issue receives too little attention in their community, the Butler’s have continued to volunteer at CCGH during the past two years. They soon found that being there and sharing with the residents hit closer to home than they could ever imagine. Sarah recognized one of the residents as a distant cousin that she had not seen in years.

Their dedication to volunteering and to CCGH extended further than anyone could have imagined. They took on a family leadership role through the Family Cares, serving as the ongoing Project Coordinator at CCGH. As a Family Coordinator, the Butler’s responsibilities include recruiting family volunteers to attend the project, coordinating these volunteers and managing them at each of the projects.

The Butlers also took on a significant role in Family Cares Challenge in the spring of 2002. As part of the Challenge, Pamela engaged other families to participate in the program. These families came from their neighborhood, thereby increasing their community’s involvement in family volunteering and civic service. Brian was also able to spur the interest of his friends and classmates, sharing with his peers the importance of volunteering.

Throughout the year, the Butler family continues to coordinate projects at CCGH in addition to participating in various other projects, including National Youth Service Day and National Family Volunteer Day. Their sustained dedication to their community has not gone unnoticed, receiving the Volunteer Spotlight in the March 2002 edition of the Greater DC Cares newsletter, The Connection.

THE HAENDLER FAMILY

Nearly every Saturday for the past two and a half years, Ruth Haendler and her 17-year old son, Michael and their dog, Nutmeg have been welcome yet unconventional volunteers at Mediplex. They have dedicated themselves to share with the residents at the nursing and convalescent home in Stamford.

Prior to the Haendlers coming to the facility, the family reserved part of the summer in order to complete a five-week training and evaluation course with their dog in “pet assisted therapy” through the Good Dog Foundation. The mission of the foundation is to promote society’s understanding of the therapeutic value of the human-animal bond. The goal of this training program was to ensure certification of volunteers and their animals in order to provide safe and therapeutic visits.

Every weekend, the threesome are welcome visitors at the nursing home as part of an animal assisted therapy team and are judiciously written into patients’ weekly schedule. With the understanding that these patients rarely receive visits from young people and their pets, Michael and his mother demonstrate compassion as they listen to their stories, bring them small gifts on special occasions, photograph the patients and entertain them with their golden retriever’s tricks.

Even patients who have difficulty with verbal responses, the pair’s quiet encouragement, along with Nutmeg’s leanings and nuzzlings, obviously engages the clients as they pet, smile and nod. Providing these therapeutic and positive interactions with the elderly and rehabilitative patients clearly delight the residents as the call out to the family when they see them in the halls. As committed visitors, the Haendler’s golden threesome support residents as they deal with issues such as Alzheimer’s, serious illness and failing health.

In order to encourage others to join in pet assisted therapy, the three have volunteered in promoting the program at the Good Dog Foundation booth during local dog shows and festivities. Ruth maintains volunteering compounds happiness. Michael explains volunteering with a mathematical equation: V(volunteering) + V ( volunteering) does not equal 2V but V squared.