Leesburg Police Citizens Support Team, Inc.

The Leesburg Police Citizens Support Team, Inc. (LPCSTI) is organized to aid, support, and assist the Police Department of the Town of Leesburg, VA in the prevention of crime and the promotion of public safety. LPCSTI was established by Police Chief Keith Stiles as an integral part of his effort to institute community policing in Leesburg. Community policing involves bringing the police officers and the law-abiding citizens of Leesburg together to find permanent solutions to public safety and crime prevention problems. LPCSTI is an organization of citizens working closely with the Leesburg Police Department to further community policing goals.

Formed in April 1996, the Team’s membership of civic-minded men and women has grown to 30 and the Team contributed more than 7,500 hours of volunteer service to the Leesburg Police Department and the Town of Leesburg through of December 1997. LPCSTI supports the police department through a number of activities, including child fingerprinting (for easy identification and safety), traffic speed and flow monitoring, neighborhood patrols, manning drug education and public safety displays, community policing meetings, and traffic direction and crowd control at accidents, emergency scenes and special events.

Prospective LPCSTI members must be Virginia residents, at least 21 years of age, hold a valid Virginia operator’s license and have a clean driving record. They also must be able to pass a police background check and be willing to volunteer a minimum of four hours a month. All volunteers undergo necessary training, such as CPR.

The Leesburg Police Citizens Support Team, Inc. is funded by the Leesburg Police Department, fundraisers, and donations.

Greenhill School

The Community Service Program at Greenhill School, an affluent private school in Dallas, TX, is a unique all-inclusive effort that involves children from preschool through Upper School. Each grade focuses on a particular aspect of the community and all divisions participate in many drives throughout the year. Numerous Dallas area agencies benefit from student collections of food, grocery coupons, blue jeans, coats and school supplies. Projects include assisting children with disabilities, tutoring, working with the elderly, animal shelters, the homeless, environment and emergency service agencies and area food banks.

The program goals are to broaden students’ perspectives, develop responsibility, increase exposure, enhance awareness and extend Greenhill’s resources toward the betterment of the community. The school meets that challenge by providing students with structure, challenges and volunteer opportunities.

The program began in 1994, when a small group of Greenhill students adopted Herbert Marcus Elementary School as a place where they could tutor in Spanish. From that small group of tutors, the program has grown to include more than 285 students of all grade levels. Kindergarten students write weekly with the hearing impaired children at Marcus Elementary in the combined Kindergarten/first/second grade classrooms. Greenhill students learn sign language and Spanish to communicate with their Marcus Elementary friends. Each week, seventh graders at Greenhill act as tutors for Marcus Elementary second graders. In addition, Upper School students volunteer as tutors and mentors in the areas of Drama, English as a Second Language (ESL), special education, Deaf Education, Chess and Computer Literacy.

In a pilot program developed with the Texas Department of Human Services, Greenhill students provide Spanish translation to overburdened caseworkers. Another example of exemplary volunteerism is the large number of students involved with the Big Buddy program through Big Brothers and Big Sisters.

A community service “fair” is held once a year to highlight a wide variety of volunteer opportunities. Twice each year, the Upper School students and faculty participate in a day devoted exclusively to community service. The students fan out across the county to approximately 25 agencies and organizations for the day. During the 1997-8 school year, Upper School students donated a total of 19,056 hours. According to the Independent Sector, at a dollar value of $13.24 per volunteer hour, the students gave a total of $252,301.44 back to the community.

Greenhill School’s commitment to service is evident in the funding of full-time Community Service Coordinator Sally Rosenberg. She monitors all student service hours, helps students find or create volunteer projects best suited to their needs and also serves as the school’s outreach contact for the greater Dallas area. Greenhill students have earned a reputation as well prepared energetic volunteers.

Univision Television Group

In 1995, Univision Television Group, along with Communities In Schools, Inc. (CIS), established a broadcast mentoring initiative that enables Univision employees to play an active, positive role in the lives of young Hispanic students nationwide. Univision Television Group is a television company whose programming is geared towards the Hispanic community. The Univision Television Group/CIS Broadcasting Mentoring Initiative started in Los Angeles, and initially engaged 30 students from two area high schools in mentoring activities with a corresponding number of Univision KMEX employees. San Antonio Univision KWEX followed suit in 1996, and Miami’s WLTV joined the initiative in 1997. Since then, Dallas and Houston Univision stations have further expanded the program. For Univision, the program represents an opportunity to personalize its involvement with the young lives that the company is already likely to have influenced through its programming.

Univision’s partner in the initiative, Communities In Schools, Inc., helps communities integrate and coordinate their existing resources to make a real, measurable difference in the lives of youth. CIS forms support teams and partnerships with a wide array of community resources, such as human service agencies, nonprofit organizations, and businesses, bringing community support into schools to help underserved youth learn and graduate. Locally incorporated nonprofit CIS programs coordinate the activities of all sites through which these teams and partnerships operate in the community. These independent CIS programs comprise a network that serves nearly 175,000 young people and their families each year.

The purpose of the Univision/CIS Mentoring Initiative is to provide an opportunity for Univision employees to mentor CIS students, and conversely, to enable young people to connect with community role models. The specific youth-centered goals of the program are to provide positive role models for the involved students, encourage school attendance and achievement, and build the students’ self-esteem. Twice a month, the students visit the television stations for two hours. The mentors, 90 total throughout the five participating stations, and students determine a large portion of the activities that occur during these visits. CIS provides intensive pre-service and ongoing guidance and training to give participants an adequate foundation of skills and knowledge from which to base their planning. The activities that mainly take place include one-on-one discussions, group discussions, occupational skill development, and special seminars.

The program is valuable to both the students and adults involved. For the youth, it enables them to become connected with a successful member of the community, set realistic goals, and learn life and work skills. Univision Television Group employees have become more involved with, and attuned to the communities they serve, made a difference in the lives of young people, and enhanced a sense of community and connection among Hispanic- Americans and Hispanic individuals living in the United States.

Wake County Literacy Council

Literacy skills are measured on a scale of 1 to 5, with Level 5 reflecting the highest skills and Level 1, the lowest. According to the Adult Literacy Estimates based on the 1990 U.S. Census, 17% of the population in Wake County, NC is at Level 1. In other words, they have difficulty performing such everyday tasks as locating an intersection on a street map, reading and comprehending a short newspaper article or calculating total costs on an order form. Illiteracy is a cycle. Statistics show that children of functionally illiterate parents are twice as likely as other children to be functionally illiterate themselves.

For the past 28 years, the Wake County Literacy Council has provided adults with one-on-one tutoring in Basic Literacy Skills and English as a Second Language (ESL). Ninety-nine percent of their organization is comprised of approximately 10 volunteers who contribute 21,000 hours a year. The volunteers tutor their students two times per week, for an hour at a time.

Because of this effort, parents learn to read to their children at home, increasing their children’s chances at succeeding in school. Additionally, they are able to accomplish specific goals, such as helping a friend write a letter. There is an 80% retention rate of students each year, making Wake County Literacy Council successful in its efforts.

WCLC receives the money it needs to function through grants, fundraising, and donations.

Commonwealth Catholic Charities

This year, Commonwealth Catholic Charities (CCC) will celebrate 75 years of faith at work. The vision of CCC is to provide an ever-expanding array of innovative human services, especially to the most vulnerable. CCC realizes this vision by working in partnership with other human service agencies and faith communities. Under the dedicated leadership of Father David Bergner, CCC will continually seek to become a catalyst for change that will strengthen families, and ultimately, the entire country.

The mission of CCC is to respect diversity, promote human dignity and family values, and provide quality human services to all people, especially the most vulnerable. CCC offers a “hand up,” not a “hand out.”

Over the past 75 years, the agency has faithfully served children and their families. In 1997, CCC touched the lives of over 5,000 people in the Commonwealth of Virginia. More than 200 volunteers, covering five sites, have been crucial to the success of CCC and its many services throughout Central and Southwestern Virginia. CCC volunteers come from all over the community and have volunteered thousands of hours of service.

Some of these services include home care for the elderly, case management services for more than 100 people living with HIV/AIDS, food and financial service for needy families, sign language classes for the deaf, and crisis pregnancy and adoption counseling.

One of the greatest accomplishments of CCC is its foster care and adoption program. Through this program, domestic and international children are given the opportunity to be raised in a loving home. This service allows Vietnamese refugee children to go to school and learn English while living with a foster family or adoptive parents.

CCC is funded through state contracts, donations, fundraisers, United Way, and government grants.

The Girls Center

In Walpole, an alarming number of middle school girls were at risk of depression, body-carving, suicide and eating disorders. In their middle and high schools, there were no female guidance counselors. In order to increase these girls’ self-worth and value, ease their pain, despair and helplessness, and empower them to reach their own unique potentials, the Community Counseling Center in Walpole designed the Girls Center as a proactive response in 1997. It serves girls ages 8-14 in the town of Walpole.

The Center is led by an Executive Committee of 12 seventh and eighth grade girls, serving over 210 girls with the help of 65 volunteers. The Community Counseling Center renovated a space to house the Center. The girls have their own television program, called Girl TV and their own magazine, The News and Art Magazine. The Museum of I is designed for the girls to express themselves through music, poetry, journal writing, art and video. To orient the girls toward their own career goals, The Girls Center sets up hands on experience for the girls in local businesses. In addition, the Center hosted their second Summer Camp this year for girls in grades five through eight. High school girls, who participated in the Girls Center, serve as peer educators, providing education to the lower grades and as high school sisters for the middle school girls in Walpole. They are trained to talk to the younger girls about serious problems.

Because of The Girls Center, many more girls are involved in constructive activities. As a whole, their confidence is increasing and they are blossoming. They are developing leadership skills and good relationships with others, becoming empowered personally and intellectually. The girls are making better choices and gaining stronger values. The Center also helps the parents of these girls. Once a month at the Walpole Public Library, the parents discuss books, films and videos concerning their girls’ development and parenting. These sessions teach the parents how to support their daughters by becoming better parents.

The Girls Center is supported by a $236,000 grant from The Paul and Phyllis Fireman Foundation. It covers the cost of programming staff salaries and administrative costs. Money from fundraisers also contributes to funding the Center.

Gwendolyn Jones

At the age of 18, Gwendolyn Jones has devoted more than 230 hours of her time to her community as a leader, a tutor and a mentor. Gwendolyn has inspired and motivated many citizens in her community to volunteer.

Gwendolyn volunteers 2-3 hours per day. She teaches dance to a cheerleading squad of forty young girls, providing them with a productive after school activity and a positive role model. Gwendolyn is also part of the Study Buddy program. Through this program, she volunteers her time two days per week to tutor a child at Coleman Middle School. The Study Buddy program connects students with a mentor who will provide encouragement, guidance, support, and academic assistance when needed. One of her most outstanding contributions thus far is her work as chairperson of the community wide United Way “Youth Day of Caring” effort. Last year, not only did she orchestrate the events of the entire day, but more importantly, she led more than 600 youth in performing a full day of community service. The service activities included feeding the homeless, playing with children, painting a building, visiting the elderly, and working with animals. Through her actions and countless hours of work, she has inspired many teens to continue to volunteer. Additionally, she serves on the Dwayne Wallace Youth Venture committee, which reviews grants for youth progress, and she is active at the United Way in several ongoing youth related efforts.

Lois Pope

For the past five years, Lois Pope has dedicated herself to helping disabled veterans and poor children. She works tirelessly, lobbying to raise money and awareness for these causes while managing the day-to-day operation of the Lois Pope Foundation.

The Lois Pope Foundation, started by Lois Pope with her own personal funds, provides funding for five major programs: The Lois Pope Life Center, the Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation, the Presidential Unsung Hero Award, the Unsung Hero Awards Program, and the Lois Pope LIFE Summer Camp Program. The Lois Pope Life Center is a state-of-the-art research center dedicated to developing new treatments and therapies for catastrophic spinal injuries and neurological disorders. The center opened after Mrs. Pope donated ten million dollars, the largest single donation ever made for paralysis research, to the University of Miami. The Disabled Veterans’ LIFE Memorial Foundation is a national organization, founded by Lois Pope, dedicated to erecting a disabled American Veterans memorial on the mall in Washington, DC. The Presidential Unsung Hero Award provides an award of $50,000 each year to an outstanding disabled Veteran. The Unsung Hero Awards Program has given more than $600,000 in scholarships to youngsters who have set examples by helping the disadvantaged. The Lois Pope LIFE Summer Camp Program has raised more than $500,000 to send children to camp to help them develop skills and a foundation that will serve them well in the future. Lois is involved in all of these programs and volunteers every day of the week.

During the past five years, Lois has created a foundation that has given many disabled veterans and poor children chances they never knew existed. She has sent thousands of kids to camp and has given many an opportunity for higher education. She has given those who suffer from spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders a ray of light. Lois has raised awareness on many issues including disabled veterans. Her efforts have paid off—within the next year a monument will be erected on the mall in Washington, DC.

Public Allies

Public Allies has been in operation since 1992. Paul Schmitz adopted the idea to “identify a diversity of talented young adults and create opportunities for them to practice leadership and strengthen their communities in a new alliance with people from neighborhoods, non-profits, business, and government.” Currently, Public Allies has offices in Washington D.C., Wilmington, DE, Chicago, IL, Cincinnati, OH, San Jose, CA, and Durham, NC. Public Allies addresses needs in the areas of youth development and education, economy, health and human services, public safety, and environmental issues.

Graduating in July of this year, 22 Allies (program participants), ages 18-30 were placed at 21 different agencies and completed a total of more than 37,000 hours of service. The Allies participated in a 10-month apprenticeship, which included leadership development, professional training, service learning, and team building. In exchange for their work, Allies receive a $13,250 living allowance, health and child care benefits, and an educational award. They spent four days a week at nonprofit organizations and government agencies where they created, improved, or expanded services. On Fridays, they participated in workshops to build their skills, and worked on team service projects. In Public Allies Milwaukee’s first four program years, they have developed 96 young leaders and are continuing to add on to this.

The Allies split up into teams, working on three service projects this year. The Health Education Center Team developed a comprehensive asthma program called the Asthma School Days Project, to be integrated into the Milwaukee Public School System. More than 1,400 students with asthma, primarily in grades 3-5, participated in the educational program at the Health Education Center between October 1997 and March 1998. The children learned the definition of asthma, early warning signs and monitoring methods, environmental controls, and the roles and use of asthma medications.

The Youth Mapping Team continued a project from the previous year, coordinating a Youth Asset Mapping Project where young people surveyed their neighborhoods in search of youth resources. The team worked with young people in five different neighborhoods, organizing a series of neighborhood meetings for the young people to present their finding from the previous summer. Their final event included a weekend retreat at a youth hostel that incorporated skill building activities for the Youth Mappers’ continued involvement in the project.

The Mid-Town Neighborhood Association Team worked to gather information for a resource manual for the residents of the Neighborhood Strategic Planning area of the Mid-Town area. The manual was distributed at a resource fair at the park adjoining the neighborhood association. Approximately 2,000 people attended the fair and received the information-packed manual. Additional manuals were distributed to individuals and organizations in the Mid-Town neighborhood that were unable to attend the resource fair.

Last year, the Jekovian Company reported that one of the greatest competencies of the Allies is their ability to recruit and manage volunteers to serve in their community. The Institute for Higher Education Policy’s research attests that 65% of Public Allies’ alumni are active in community service and 50% serve on boards of nonprofit organizations.

With the help of AmeriCorps and private contributions, Public Allies Milwaukee nurtures effective leaders capable of tackling Milwaukee’s biggest challenges.

The Learning and Living Program

With many children lacking the support of a positive role model, mentoring at-risk youth has become a nationwide priority. Big Brothers Big Sisters of Southwest Idaho, the Boise Family YMCA and the Casey Family Program created a collaborative program, Learning and Living, in response to this need. The program began with the purpose to serve more at-risk youth within their community. Its purpose is to provide one-on-one mentoring and tutoring to at-risk youngsters within a structured environment. Big Brothers/Big Sisters provides its expertise by guiding volunteers through a careful screening process, then matching them with a child. The YMCA provides the facilities and supervision, while the Casey Family Program trains onsite volunteers in tutoring youth.

The children that are a part of the Learning and Living Program are known as “Y-Buddies,” and reap the benefits of having positive adult role models spend a consistent amount of time with them. The children spend at least a couple hours a week at the YMCA doing various activities with their mentors. Along with the help of their mentors, the children do homework, and play at the pool, on the basketball court, in the game room, on the climbing wall, etc. Many of the kids have developed computer skills with their mentors in the YMCA’s computer lab. The volunteers try to excite their respective “Y-Buddy” about education by offering innovative ways to learn. For example, one volunteer combines his Y-Buddy’s weekly spelling words with the basketball game, “HORSE.” The program has served more than 30 children.

In the fourteen months since its inception, the Learning and Living Program has bridged a gap for volunteers and youth. The program has reached children who otherwise might not have a positive adult role model. Volunteers in the community frequently choose this program above other mentoring opportunities because of its structured environment and its association with the three collaborating organizations.