THE LEAP CENTER
The LEAP Center is a project created in 1993 by the Kosciusko Foundation of Education, the Kosciusko School District, the Kosciusko Schools PTA and the Kosciusko/Attala Chamber of Commerce to provide help for at-risk students. Funding for the LEAP Center budget, which is approximately $30,000 annually, comes from local businesses, clubs and individuals, private foundations and from annual Learn and Serve grants provided by the Mississippi Department of Education.
Students in grades K-12 may come to the LEAP Center to study in a quiet and safe environment, use the substantial reference materials available and receive tutorial assistance as needed. Tutoring is provided by volunteers: certified teachers who team with uncertified but well qualified adult tutors and high school student tutors. There is no cost to students for any assistance provided by the LEAP Center.
Students in grades K-5 who need tutorial assistance are given scheduled times to come to the LEAP Center. They receive small group tutoring in areas where they have demonstrated weakness in school. Students in grades 6-12 may “drop-in” as needed. They receive small group or one-on-one tutoring in subjects where they need help. As part of this process, mentoring also occurs.
Having recently completed its seventh year of operation, the LEAP Center has a solid track record of positive results. Examples include improved attitudes of students who receive not just tutorial assistance but also genuine interest and encouragement from volunteers there. In many of these students a feeling of self-worth, of knowing that someone cares, produces self-confidence, which in turn leads to greater effort being put forth and greater success in the classroom.
A more specific example is provided by the two seniors who would certainly not have graduated with their class this year without the assistance they received at the LEAP Center as they worked on their correspondence course in geometry from Mississippi State University. Through one-on-one tutoring and encouragement, they both passed geometry, just in time to walk and receive their diplomas. The students themselves, the volunteer tutors who helped and the entire community benefited from this positive experience.
The LEAP Center continues to be an example of how a community can work together with its public schools to produce a winning combination that benefits students, schools and the community as a whole.
NYUMBURU CULTURAL CENTER
The University of Maryland and the Nyumburu Cultural Center have formed a partnership to increase awareness and understanding of diversity, particularly concerning race and culture. Nyumburu is Swahili for “freedom house”. The Nyumburu Cultural Center has served the University community for 27 years. Nyumburu’s productions and activities include lectures and seminars, art exhibits, workshops in the dramatic arts, dance, music and creative writing. Academic courses in blues, jazz, gospel music performance and creative writing are also offered.
The Nyumburu Cultural Center is dedicated to advancing and augmenting the academic and the multi-cultural missions of the university by presenting a forum for the scholarly exchange and artistic engagement of African Diaspora culture and history. All programs are open to the entire university community and are open to the general public.
The Joint Service Project is a new program that has been created within the Nyumburu Cultural Center. This community service program, created by Toby Jenkins, Coordinator of Campus/Community Outreach & Public Relations, focuses on issues affecting the Black community as well as join together groups of various ethnicities, race and cultures.
The program has addressed the issue of homelessness through working with Sasha Bruce Youthworks. This agency provides various services for youth runaways, abandoned children, and children given to the center upon parental request. The program provides shelter, meals, tutoring programs, cultural trips, etc. The University of Maryland has sought to create a unique connection with this group in providing physical labor support, tutoring and mentors, as well as providing transportation and invitations to campus events. The goal is to expose youth to a higher education environment so they will choose to pursue a college education.
Through the Friendship House, the program provides family support services including welfare to work programs, daycare centers, tutoring programs and teenage employment programs.
The Joint Service Project also serves the student community at Maryland. It is important while students pursue degrees and careers, they simultaneously are exposed to issues for which these degrees and their education could potentially help.
The Joint Service Project consists of diverse groups coming together on several Saturdays during the semester to focus on an area of service, travel to the site to perform the service and then reflect on the service over lunch. Nyumburu provides transportation, food and the service site. Each Saturday focuses on a different community need. The first Joint Service Project was held in November 2000, at the Friendship House in Washington, DC. Twelve student organizations participated as well as several individual students.
DEB NARO
Deb Naro has helped to organize and plan the implementation of the Community of Caring program in Plymouth, New Hampshire, as well as addressed the needs of students with disabilities. Representative Naro chaired the committee that brought many local parents, teachers, school board members, administrators, students, and community members together to research the Community of Caring program and its potential impact on the Plymouth schools and community.
The Community of Caring Program is a comprehensive, prevention-based character education program that began in 1986 in five schools and has spread to over 800 public schools nationwide, emphasizing five core values: respect, responsibility, trust, caring, and family through student forums, values across the curriculum, parent involvement, teacher training, and community service. Thanks to the leadership of Naro, and the efforts of many local parents, teachers, school board members, students, and administrators who served on the Department of Education to cover full implementation costs, the program will begin its second successful year in the Plymouth schools.
Naro emphasizes that supporting values-based programming and promoting partnerships between the school and community is important because students learn in many different contexts: the family, the school, and the community. Naro believes character education and academic learning should not be conceived as separate goals because of a mutually supportive relationship. She states, “Building a sense of community has many payoffs for students and school communities. It boosts academic motivation and achievement, lowers discipline referrals, reduces high risk behaviors, increases pro-social behaviors, and improves school climates by building trust and respect for self and others.”
Naro was recently presented the Community of Caring National Community Leadership award in San Diego, California by Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the program’s founder and honorary chair. Naro was selected for her leadership in helping “to build strong communities where all members, but especially the most vulnerable, are treated fairly.” Also, in 1999, Naro along her husband, were recipients of the New Hampshire Parents of the Year award and finalists for the National Parents of the Year award.
Representative Naro has served on numerous committees supporting children, families, disabilities rights activism, and education.
PROJECT AMERICA, INC.
Founded in 1993 by three college students, Project America is a 501(c)(3) orgnization headquartered in Richmond, Virginia, that inspires and teaches people to take positive steps in their communities, and creates partnerships between volunteers and organizations that need them. The volunteers empowered by Project America have performed millions of hours of community service valued at tens of millions of dollars.
Specific Project America activities include Radio Reaching Out (RRO) for Capstar Broadcasting, one of the nation’s largest radio networks. Created in 1998-99, RRO utilizes Capstar Broadcasting stations to link volunteers with community organizations. RRO has been extremely successful, generating more than 2.5 million service hours valued at more than $32 million. Alternative Spring Break is another Project America activity that engages participants in a weeklong service experience to help a community in need through service. Evenings are spent in leadership development sessions. Participants leave the Alternative Spring Break with a concrete plan to lead their home campuses in effective community service.
Project America fosters a sense of connection through service. Its programming is designed to meet the four needs of community assistance, education, leadership development, and social responsibility. From restoring houses to teaching inner-city children to read, Project America motivates others to address pressing local needs. Project America fosters dialogue about pressing social needs so that each volunteer understands his/her role in the framework of social change and community improvement. Project America believes the leadership potential in youth is overlooked or underdeveloped. Project America programming helps volunteers develop skills to lead others in positive community action. Project America develops socially responsible adults by targeting this audience to create a lifetime dedication to community improvement.
Project America approaches every problem as an opportunity. The program works in partnership with the community to define mutual goals to meet their needs. Project America also empowers individuals and develops leaders through service. Young people, particularly high school and college students, are an untapped resource – Project America involves youth in the solutions to real problems in real-world situations.
Project America mobilizes volunteers in two ways:
- Through work with corporations, universities, large member organizations, national and local nonprofit organizations, and communities to connect those who do community service with those who need volunteers
- Through education and empowerment of the individual volunteer. Project America teaches volunteers how to lead effective service learning programs.
Project America follows up with project leaders and educates volunteers on the importance of ongoing service regularly. Recognizing that no community service effort is problem-free, the Project America staff helps volunteers find innovative and effective solutions to their service questions.
DANIELLE CATHCART
Danielle Cathcart started raising money for Wipe Out Kids Cancer (WOKC) when she was about 11 years old. In 1994, Danielle’s five-year-old friend was diagnosed with cancer. She fought hard for two years, but she eventually lost her battle. Danielle and her mother were devastated by the loss and felt that they needed to help other kids. After crying for days, Danielle and her mother decided to do something about it. Danielle stood outside stores handing out fliers and asking for donations.
Although this fundraising was of great benefit to WOKC, it was not enough for Danielle. She mentioned the idea of having a rummage sale to raise money and the idea was a big hit. Friends and people from her school and church were more than happy to donate items to the cause. Danielle would accompany her mother after school to pick up the donations for the sale. The church also donated their parking lot for the sale. The day before the sale, Danielle and her family and friends sorted all of the donated items.
The day of the rummage sale, the parking lot was filled with people. Danielle sold food and tickets for the cakewalk, as well as items for sale. She raised approximately $5,300. The following summer, she prepared for the second sale. That summer she collected about $6,500 for WOKC. Danielle raised enough money with each sale that she was considered one of WOKC’s sponsors. Her work became known as Danielle Cathcart’s Kids for Kids. Her monetary donations were given to researchers at Children’s Hospital where it was used to help find a cure for cancer.
Danielle has touched everyone that she has met through her Kids for Kids organization. People often call and ask her how they can help. Her mother, Cynthia Cathcart, is now the Chairman of the Board for Danielle’s organization. Thanks to Danielle’s efforts, the researchers at Children’s Hospital are $11,800 closer to finding a cure for cancer.
Between sales, Danielle and her mother organize additional fund raisers between sales and they host an annual Halloween party and other outing for young cancer patients at Children’s Medical Center. They recruit volunteers at The Episcopal School of Dallas, where Danielle is a seventh-grader, and at other area schools. They have also taken an active role in getting involved with some younger patients at Children’s as part of Wipe Out Kids’ Cancer.
Danielle has been able to spread joy by involving many of her friends from school and church. The children are now extending their efforts to start auxiliaries at other schools and to organize more volunteers. As the project expands, volunteers plan to add new fundraisers with additional activities with ambassadors – patients at Children’s Hospital who get to go on outings and to parties with well children.
DONNA EARLY
Donna Early’s volunteer service spans throughout Summit County in Ohio. She is an active and dedicated member of their chapter of the American Red Cross. Early has served as Chapter Chair from 1996 – 1999, and prior to that appointment, she served two three-year terms on the Board of Directors. In addition to holding committee positions and offices, she also does volunteer work with the public.
Under Early’s leadership, the Summit County Chapter received the President’s Award for Cultural Diversity due to their increase in the number of minority volunteers. They also received the Ten-By-Ten Award for their Community Dinner program, which feeds up to 200 people in their community every month. At the present time, Early is implementing and developing a joint relationship between the International Institute and the American Red Cross. This partnership will provide comprehensive services to the Refugee Resettlement program. As a result of Early’s efforts in mobilizing the two agencies, necessary items and support will be more readily available to refugees who relocate into Summit County. This is just one example of how Early enabled the chapter to fulfill it’s humanitarian international mission along with the needs of the community.
The International Institute is located in Akron, Ohio and resettles over 400 refugees annually into the Summit County community. With limited resources and volunteers at the Institute and the international mission of the American Red Cross, the collaboration was fruitful. The agencies are providing transportation from the airport to the refugees’ new apartments and the Red Cross is also partially furnishing these dwellings. Their future goal is to be able to supply transportation to medical appointments and government offices also.
In addition to mobilizing the two agencies, Early has also touched upon the issue of refugee employment support. She founded a recruiting and staffing firm in 1981 and translated her desire to help others into a successful national agency. Early’s clients now include those she welcomed into the United States, and she is happy to aid people in becoming self-sufficient.
The Refugee Resettlement program has created more than 50 volunteer opportunities. These volunteers provide the support needed within the first months of the refugees new life. An ad hoc committee has been formed with volunteers and staff from both agencies. They looked to delineate and commit to serving the needs of the refugees.
BLENDA WRIGHT
Blenda Wright has volunteered with Southern California Housing Development Corporation (SCHDC), an affordable housing provider, since 1997 at the Rancho Verde Village Community in Rancho Cucamonga, California. Rancho Verde Village Apartments provide programs such as After-School Tutoring, English as a Second Language and an urban dance class free of charge to its residents and the surrounding community.
Wright was one of the first volunteers that SCHDC enrolled. Her love for children and education pulled her to the After School Tutoring Program, which was established in 1997. Wright is the first face that the children are excited to see after school. For many of them she is the only face they see because they are latchkey children. She immediately creates a comfortable environment for the children, which includes beanbag chairs and sofas. When one enters the serene learning environment, the sounds of classical music and laughter fill the air.
Although Wright’s first priority was and is always the tutoring program, she continues to assist with the summer lunch program, holiday events and field trips. She not only initiates the idea and chaperones the field trips, but also in many cases has assisted families financially so they are able to attend. Wright strives to give children new experiences that they may not receive without her. This included a recent field trip to play in the snow. As we all know Southern California is not an easy place to find snow, although many of us have taken trips to the local mountains or out of state to experience it. Most children at Rancho Verde Village are not able to do this for many reasons. This was until Wright helped to organize a trip that would take children to a place where they had a chance to do so. These children will never forget that trip, nor will they forget Blenda Wright.
The tutoring program has begun to develop into the more “formal” program that is currently in operation. Tutors are received in collaboration with local colleges and trained in tutoring techniques in the areas of reading and writing. Wright has embraced the new program and developed herself through the training with the other tutors. She is always concerned about what is best for “her children.” Every child that steps foot in the Learning Center becomes one of “Blenda’s children.” Everyone in the community knows, respects and loves Wright and the commitment she has to the children of Rancho Verde Village.
In total, over the course of three years, Blenda Wright has volunteered more than 1,000 hours with approximately 150 children and families of the Rancho Verde Village Apartments. She is the most dedicated volunteer at SCHDC.
PROJECT LINUS NJ, INC. “BLANKETEERS”
The mission of Project Linus NJ, Inc. (PLNJ, Inc.) is to embrace fragile children from birth to 17 years of age with hope and healing through the gift of a handmade blanket. These children are presented with the comfort that a “hug from the heart” provides. Caring hearts and willing hands create the one-of-a-kind treasures. They are known as, “Blanketeers”.
What began as a few concerned citizens reaching out to comfort fragile children and their families has grown to over 800 active volunteers in 19 months. These volunteers have donated over 4,700 handmade blankets to children in New Jersey and across the country, as partners with global child-based agencies. Our “Caravan of Love” delivery drivers and our “good news” volunteers are an integral part of the team at PLNJ, Inc.
In October 2000, the Blanketeers participated in national Make A Difference Day. A seven site, five-hour blanket blitz was organized and over 900 handmade blankets were created and arrived in one day. Local fire stations, police departments, and first aid squads throughout three counties of New Jersey received these articles. These service departments come in contact with fragile children in need during the course of their job and it was appropriate for them to be recognized and supported as the recipients of the blanket blitz.
In April 2001, the Blanketeers engaged 100 high school students to participate in a global quilt mural project in praise of the 2001 International Year of the Volunteer. In partnership with the Community YMCA, a unique program to design and complete four murals to be donated to the United Nations Volunteer offices in Bonn, Germany and New York became the event. It was a day of youth volunteerism and community spirit with a global theme.
The volunteers of 0project Linus NJ, Inc. are quite diverse. There are blanket makers young and old. Some are experienced quilters, knitters and crocheters while many others are learning for the first time inspired by the mission. Among members are knitting circles, quilting guilds, church groups, military wives, and retail partners that offer workshops to their customers in support of the organization.
To date, over 4,700 children have felt an extra dose of tender loving care with a handmade blanket created just for them by a Project Linus NJ Blanketeer.
Blanketeers are partners in healing, on a mission of hope.
MICHAEL ROTH
Michael Roth’s passion is the preservation of agricultural history so that future generations in Montgomery County, Maryland (808,000-plus population adjoining Metropolitan Washington, DC) can appreciate their roots. Roth is not a farmer nor is he retird. He serves as a volunteer in the following capacities: 1) Chairman of Old Timers Exhibit at the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, 2) Charter President of the Friends of the Agricultural History Farm Park, 3) producer of the cable television show “Focus on the Farm” for Montgomery Community Television, and 4) personal videotapes made of oral histories by retired farmers.
Michael Roth is chairman of the Old Timers Exhibit Area of the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, where he has been involved since 1971. The Montgomery County Agricultural Fair draws about 250,000 patrons annually. The Old Timers Area is a 10,000 square foot display area featuring exhibits of farm and home antiques up to 1950 vintage plus demonstrations of old-time skills. Roth organizes 200 exhibitors and show volunteers into a uniquely popular show with stationary exhibits, ongoing demonstrations, parades, etc. for fair-goers.
In 1994, the Friends of the Agricultural History Farm Park was organized as an advocacy/support group for a farm purchased by the Montgomery County Government to develop into a working farm museum. Roth was elected charter president, a position that he still holds. This organization has approximately 300 members staging 10-12 festivals/events at the farm to both share agricultural heritage with festival attendees and to raise money for the development of displays and restoration of the original building of the farm. He also plays a major role in the planning and conducting of these shows, which are typically each attended by 3,000 to 5,000 people.
Three years ago, Roth began to work with Doug Tregoning, chairman of the Montgomery County Extension Service, to create a farm education show called “Focus on the Farm,” which airs weekly on Montgomery Community Television. There have been 28 shows taped, dealing with many subjects relating to agriculture. Roth and Tregoning help to tape these shows, contacting guests to be on the shows, planning props, etc. Roth has taken classes on how to do taping for cable television, and uses footage that he has personally taped for many shows.
Michael Roth is deeply interested in videotaping oral histories from retired farmers and has used his own camcorder to make these tapes. Sadly, many of the retired farmers whom Roth has taped have passed away, making his work that much more valuable.
Roth works tirelessly to motivate – especially children – to understand their farm heritage when most have never even seen a farm. Activities at events are hands-on as much as possible. Roth’s leadership brings agricultural history and issues alive for an estimated half million people annually. As a volunteer, Roth does all of this on his own time and also involves his family – a wife and three children.
YUMA READING COUNCIL
The Yuma Reading Council has been a literacy provider in Yuma County since 1981. Beginning then as a small pool of dedicated volunteers and growing today into a large, multi-faceted agency serving the community-at-large, the agency is the largest literacy program in Yuma County and the only volunteer-based program in the area.
Additionally, the Yuma Reading Council is the only agency that breaking geographic boundaries and working to provide services in an area that covers 5,200 square miles, contains two military installations, and two Indian tribes.
The volunteers at the Yuma Reading Council strive to provide the community with quality service rather than quantity services. Each year approximately 900 people are served by a staff of 14 and a volunteer corps of just over 100 residents. They take pride in working with the students to successfully place them in jobs or volunteer placements in the community.
The Yuma Reading Council utilizes a plan of growth and planning that includes community members, students, tutors, staff and Board. This has made the organization highly effective in all aspects of program development and growth to meet the needs of those most in need of quality of life through increased literacy.
The Yuma Reading Council provides English as a Second Language, GED, Adult Basic Education and Spanish literacy to the residents of Yuma County. They provide these services through a cooperative effort of paid instructional staff and volunteer literacy tutors. There are programs on life skills and community integration for all students. The staff and volunteers recognize that literacy involves not just giving students the skills but also showing them how to use the skills.
The Yuma Reading Council works in the community in partnership with other human services agencies, probation and state departments to enhance lives through cooperative education programs.
