Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corporation
Each board member of the Wyandanch Homes and Property Development Corporation (WHPDC) realized that there was no housing program to take people out of shelters and help them get back into the mainstream of society. WHPDC was created in 1985 to alleviate a severe housing shortage for the poor living in Wyandanch, NY and other impacted Suffolk County communities. The core objective of WHPDC is to rebuild both communities and families by building housing for the poor and providing poor families with support services to help them achieve self-sufficiency.
WHPDC has built sixteen new modular houses and renovated 9 houses. Twenty-five homeless families are now living in clean decent homes. There are twenty-eight adults and over eighty children working toward becoming self-sufficient. The program addresses the causes of dependence – lack of education, job skills, and child care. WHPDC feels that the best response is to provide the homeless, not only with living quarters, but also with the skills, attitudes and inspiration to attain and maintain self-sufficiency. While life skills are essential to maintaining a home and family, long term self-sufficiency also requires the ability to earn an adequate income. WHPDC encourages families to advance their education in the pursuit of better job opportunities. In combination with this education, families receive career counseling and help planning educational and employment goals.
Families must be on welfare, homeless, and/or living in a shelter to be eligible for participation in the program. There is an interview process to find the families that are willing to go to school or take job-training classes. The families that agree to do their part are accepted into the program.
The Board of the WHPDC has created an excellent working relationship with hundreds of agencies in Wyandanch, Suffolk County and New York State to make housing the homeless happen. The Board was able to get Suffolk County to donate land, which served as the catalyst to have the New York State Homeless Housing Assistance Program supply the funds necessary for construction and/or renovation of houses. The Board members even persuaded the federal government to transfer boarded up houses to the corporation for the homeless.
WHPDC would not be able to accomplish its goals without the help of its volunteers. The program has five volunteers that do weekly fix-up jobs on the houses, and about a dozen people come in once a year to help with major building and renovation jobs. There are also about 25 to 30 businesses that help out with whatever is needed.
WHPDC has had thirty-seven families’ move out of the program and into permanent housing. Members of fifteen families were working and off Public Assistance when they completed the program, and two were working full time but still in the Child Assistance Program. WHPDC currently has nine heads of household in college, fifteen working, and six in G.E.D. programs. The number of families whose lives have been transformed because of this program continues to grow.
Harley Draven
For the past four years, Harley Draven has been working with the US Army Corps of Engineers’ local water safety program. The program takes the message of water safety through presentations to elementary and high school students as well as the county fair and campground/campfire programs.
Ms. Draven joined the program as a volunteer shortly after a diving accident that left her a quadriplegic, at the age of 18. She decided to join the program to help others avoid dangerous accidents like the one she suffered. Ms. Draven goes out to speak to students annually during the three months in which the water safety program is in session. Last year, forty-three presentations were given. In addition, Ms. Draven also gave several presentations on her own without assistance from the Army Corps. Each year she also speaks at the annual week-long safety fair and gives presentations at various rehabilitation programs throughout the Common Cove area.
According to Phillip S. Deffenbaugh, Park Manager for the US Corps of Engineers, “When Harley gets up there to speak, the whole program changes. It brings reality home.” Since Ms. Draven joined the program, Mr. Deffenbaugh has noticed a drop in water safety accidents in the Peila and Kings County area. Mr. Deffenbagh could not say if Ms. Draven’s efforts were the sole reason for the drop, but he is sure that she has made an impact on the students. “They don’t ever think that anything could happen to them, but after they talk with Harley, they realize that it can.”
Ms. Draven does not receive any compensation for her work. She receives financial assistance from her parents and the government for her disability.
P.A.N.D.A. VOLUNTEERS
The Parents Anonymous Child Abuse Prevention Center (PACAPC), a statewide non-profit child abuse prevention agency, is helping to keep Maryland’s Promise, a new initiative in response to the President’s Summit of 1997, to meet the needs of children by providing resources through mentorship of teen mothers and fathers.
Through the PANDA (Parent Aides Nurturing and Discovering with Adolescents) Program, volunteer mentors commit to two years of service. Mentors work with young parents giving hope and guidance to encourage love, healthy communication, and positive parenting skills for generations to follow. PANDA originally started in Prince George’s County, MD, in 1986. Baltimore, MD picked up the program in 1990.
Through PANDA, young parents are involved in many innovative activities. Young parents and their mentors are able to attend an annual stress relief retreat, job readiness seminars, school-based support groups, and find summer employment through the Summer Works Experience Program. In addition, young fathers and male mentors work closely on the Male Advisory Council to strategize ways to attract fathers and male mentors to the Young Fathers Program.
Through the work of mentors, the 1997 repeat pregnancy rate for participating teens was 6% compared to the national average of 30%. In addition, over 75% of teens in the program graduated high school or received their G.E.D.
The mentors consist of hard working men and women. Mentors help the teens to realize that their life is not over just because they have a child. The mentors encourage these youngsters and they prepare them for a successful future. PANDA has a small staff of 118 mentors, but they are making a big difference in the lives of teens throughout the Maryland area.
Tyrone Gaines
For 27 years, Tyrone Gaines has volunteered in the Baltimore City neighborhood of Reservoir Hill, where he has lived his entire life.
In 1971, Mr. Gaines, then a 16 year-old student, staged a basketball game in an effort to unite his community following the murder of a 12-year old. Today, more than 200 players, ages 7 to 35, play in the Reservoir Hill Rivalry Community Basketball League – a league that is funded primarily by Mr. Gaines’ personal income.
In addition to nurturing the likes of NBA players David Wingate, Mugsy Bogues and Reggie Williams, the league has changed the lives of many more by teaching the value of respect, honesty, hard work, dignity and friendship. Mr. Gaines makes sure that his league sets an example for youngsters—league players who curse are warned and repeat offenders are suspended.
He uses basketball as way of attracting youth to get involved with his volunteer programs. His 40 member “Trash Busters” team helps keep the neighborhood clean. His “Granny Committee” of local grandmothers holds food drives and dinners for the neighborhood homeless and provides support for those whom are raising their grandchildren. He is president of the Reservoir Hill Coalition; a neighborhood group that addresses residential concerns and provides tutorial services and computer training, using volunteers and donated equipment. The Reservoir Hill Coalition also raises money for community gatherings such as parties and festivals.
Mr. Gaines, who is a full-time information systems operator at Baltimore Gas and Electric Co., volunteered a total of 2,000 hours last year. Recently, he was recognized by BGE as Volunteer of the Year and given $1,000 for the charity of his choice. The money paid for professional breakaway rims and backboards for the courts. These new additions make the youth feel as if they are playing in the NBA.
Mr. Gaines is working towards the day when each neighborhood resident is a homeowner, when children can safely play in the street, when people can sit on their steps at night, when neighbors can leave the back door open, and when the drug deals happen only in the local pharmacy.
SeniorNet
SeniorNet was started in 1986 at the University of San Francisco as a research project designed to examine whether computers and telecommunications could enhance the lives of senior citizens. The research clearly demonstrated that older adults are able and enthusiastic computer users and that computer skills can be advantageous in many different aspects of their lives.
SeniorNet is a nonprofit organization, administered by a national staff of 12. The vast majority of the organization’s work, however, is done by 2,000 senior citizen volunteers at 141 Computer Learning Centers nationwide. These volunteers are responsible for every aspect of Learning Center life, including locating space to house each Center, developing curriculum, scheduling courses, instructing classes, installing software and upgrading equipment.
The learning centers provide opportunities for students who have never before used a computer, to learn basic skills such as: how to turn the system on and off; how to use the mouse; how to write, edit, save and print a letter; how to manage personal finances; and how to access and use the Internet and other online services to send e-mail and to participate in a chat or discussion group. In addition to learning basic computer literacy skills, students can take a variety of more advanced courses.
Since 1986, SeniorNet has grown from a small research project to a national organization. The number of affiliated centers of SeniorNet has grown from 5 to 141, operating in 35 states. Each center is locally sponsored and managed. SeniorNet participation has grown from 20 individuals in 1986 to approximately 25,000 active members today. More than 100,000 older adults have attended SeniorNet Learning Center classes and in just the past year, 20 new learning centers have been established.
For additional information contact:
Glen Gilbert
Director of Development
SeniorNet
121 Second Street, 7th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94105
Tel: 415-495-4990
Sheriff Andrew P. Meloni
Andrew Meloni has been the Sheriff of Monroe County since 1980. For more than 5 years, Sheriff Meloni has been volunteering with the Compeer program. Compeer is a nonprofit agency that matches community volunteers in supportive friendships with children and adults who have been diagnosed with or are at risk of developing a mental illness.
Since 1986, Sheriff Meloni has been matched with seven different boys. When considering entering into a new friendship, he always requests boys with significant special needs, particularly boys with few community support systems. He in turn offers them friendship, acceptance, community resources and consistency. His mentorship and role modeling provide young boys with the tools they need to grow into responsible citizens.
Sheriff Meloni meets weekly with Matthew, his current Compeer friend. The two share dinners at Meloni’s home and visit the police horse barn together. The sheriff has also played an active role in the recruitment of new Compeer volunteers. He has starred in numerous recruitment videos and public service announcements. Each year, he also serves as the Master of Ceremonies for Compeer’s annual Holiday Party.
In addition to his work with Compeer, Sheriff Meloni serves on the executive committee of the New York State Sheriff’s Association and chairs their Ethics and Standards Committee.
Mount Calvary Youth Drama Guild
Affiliated with Mt. Calvary Seventh Day Adventist Church in Tampa, FL, the Mount Calvary Youth Drama Guild, started in 1993, is an organization designed to provide wholesome activities for youth through drama. The Guild has been successful in helping to redirect troubled teens. In 1996, the Guild started a summer program called F.A.M.I.L.Y. (Friends Acting to Mentor, Inspire & Lead Youth). The purpose of the program is to help African American children in foster care feel like a part of a family and hopefully find one via mentoring and drama productions performed in the community.
There are approximately 500 African American children in need of adoptive families in Hillsborough County and many of these children are in foster care. The members of the Guild, youth (ages 10-18), joined together to address the needs of these foster children by organizing a summer thespian program with the goal to generate more exposure for the foster children and recreate the grassroots responsibilities of the Black church to family. The Guild members are motivated by the desire to make a difference in their community and inspired by the philosophy of the organization Youth as Resources (YAR)—nation’s youth population can be active and meaningful contributors to their communities and to the country.
The Guild designed a program consisting of group activities, mentoring, skits and a play production. The program is funded by a grant from YAR and through fund raising efforts/events. Coordination for facilities, planning the weekly events, and communicating with foster parents is done by Guild members. One Church One Child, Inc. of Hillsborough County supports their efforts by sponsoring children in need of adoption.
During the first year (1996), fifteen foster children (ages 7-17) participated in the summer program. They were paired with a Guild member and together they learned about performing and acting. They practiced their scenes and lines, creating relationships along the way that fostered a family environment. The summer program finished with the performance of three plays that were written and produced by the guild members. One Church One Child reported that, as a direct result of the first summer of the F.A.M.I.L.Y. program, 60 inquiries were made about the adoption process, two families pursued adoptions, and one foster parent adopted two children.
During the second year of F.A.M.I.L.Y., summer 1997, the Guild members did a mentoring project with about fifteen foster children geared toward looking to the future in terms of job and career. Guild members arranged for business professionals to conduct workshops on various career fields and what it takes to get there. They also made arrangements to have the foster children shadow these and other professionals while at work, based upon the interest of the child. These children had the opportunity to learn about everything from the career path of a lawyer to that of a veterinarian. The Guild is currently in the process of deciding what special project is next.
The young people of this program identified a need in their community and successfully orchestrated a summer program for foster children. They took responsibility of the entire program, doing everything from developing an accounting system to advertising, and they made it work.
Michael G. Roach
Inner City Youth Services is a program of Child and Family, Inc., a private non-profit agency in Knoxville, TN, which provides treatment for victims of sexual and physical abuse as well as parenting and home crisis programs. Inner City Youth Services, which was founded by Michael Roach in 1982, encourages children to seek hope and safety through education. As coordinator, Mr. Roach has dedicated this program to the protection and well-being of children from the inner city of Knoxville, TN.
Twice a week, Mr. Roach provides the children in the program with transportation to the agency, for tutoring and activities. He also visits them in their homes and shows a genuine concern for their education.
If Mr. Roach sees any signs of abuse, neglect, or potential abuse in any of the children, he immediately refers them to the appropriate program or social services agency for help.
Operating solely on donations, Mr. Roach is able to coordinate four all-expense-paid out of town trips per year for the children in his program. Three trips are overnight and one trip is eight days. If children need clothing or special items for these trips, Mr. Roach sees to it that money is provided to take them shopping prior to the trip. In order to participate in the trips, each child is required to improve his grade point average 1/2 grade point each semester until he or she has and maintains at least a “B” average.
Neither Mr. Roach nor any of the volunteers that make up his program staff receive monetary compensation.
Steven C. Tremblay
Steve Tremblay, a quadriplegic since a spinal cord injury in 1971, is founder and president of Alpha One, a statewide nonprofit center for independent living based in South Portland, ME. Alpha One and Mr. Tremblay are committed to improving the lives of people with disabilities, developing landmark programs in Maine and throughout the nation that have greatly expanded opportunities for people of all ages with physical, mental and emotional disabilities to live independently.
Among the most noteworthy of Mr. Tremblay’s efforts is the spearheading of the creation of Maine’s Adaptive Equipment Loan Program, the nation’s first and largest program of its kind. The Loan Program is a $6.5 million, consumer-managed revolving loan fund that provides low-interest, long-term loans to people with disabilities and to businesses for the purchase of wheelchairs, adapted vehicles, hearing aids, TTYs, prosthetics, home modifications, voice synthesizers, braillers, and other technologies. The program is funded by a state bond issue. Twenty other states, several with Mr. Tremblay’s personal assistance, have followed the lead of the Adaptive Equipment Loan Program and established loan programs of their own.
Alpha One has grown into an organization with more than 30 staff members and more than 200 volunteers with disabilities that provide a full range of independent living services, including peer support, adaptive driving training and independent living skills instruction. Alpha One serves more than 6,000 people a year.
Mr. Tremblay has lobbied the Maine Legislature to examine the independent living needs of people with disabilities, and has chaired the Commission on Independent Living, which conducted a two-year study that brought about the idea of the Adaptive Equipment Loan Program. He also has been involved in designing public and privately funded personal assistance services that allow the consumer to hire and manage his or her personal assistance provider. Currently, because of this new program, more than 500 Maine residents with disabilities, including elderly people, directly employ more than 1,500 personal assistants.
Mike Nyeholt
Swim with Mike is an annual swim-a-thon that raises funds for the University of Southern California Physically Challenged Athlete’s Scholarship Fund. The event was originally established in 1981 to raise funds for Mike Nyeholt, a three time All-American champion, who was paralyzed from the neck down in a motorcycle accident. The first event raised $58,000 to purchase a specially equipped van for Mike, more than enough to cover the expense of the van. At his suggestion, the excess funds were used to create the Physically Challenged Athletes Scholarship Fund—the only one of its kind in the country. Mr. Nyeholt was so touched by the support he received that he decided to raise funds for other physically challenged athletes. This annual event became the Swim with Mike Program.
Since its inception, more than 3,000 swimmers and 10,000 donors from 20 states have participated, raising over $1.5 million. Additional supporters have included Former Presidents Ford and Reagan, numerous film and television stars and professional athletes. Corporate supporters include GTE, Capital Group Inc., QuikSilver, Disney, McDonalds, Rykoff-Sexton Inc and Speedo. This program has helped 30 physically challenged athletes receive full tuition, housing, books and on-campus transportation.
Recipients must have suffered an illness or injury, resulting in a physical disability that substantially limits major life activity. In addition, they must have participated in organized high school or college athletics before their illness or injury. By helping individuals develop positive self-esteem, The Swim with Mike Program empowers them to self-sufficiency, while they redefine, refocus and rediscover who they are and what they can accomplish.
