Willie Mae Matthews Christie

Willie Mae Matthews Christie has a genuine soft spot for the children of Norwood, LA, the small town where she was raised. Until Christie stepped in to change things, there were no activities in the town for children to participate in, not even a Sunday school program at the local church. Christie became a one-woman crusader for programs that would benefit the children of her hometown, most of whom are at-risk children living at or below the poverty level. Although Christie moved away from the town several times during her life, she always maintained that she would return to help young people as best she could.

In March 1996, Christie’s husband retired for the second time and the couple returned home to Norwood. Since that time, Christie has been relentless in her pursuit to improve the way of life for children in the town. Due to Norwood’s distinction as the only remaining village in all of Louisiana that has no sales tax, there are few funds to provide service for community youth. Within the community of approximately 1,000 people, a large number of which are children under the age of 18, there were few, if any, positive recreation outlets in the area.

Christie recognized the need for the children to be engaged in constructive activities, which led her to establish a Sunday school program. The church allowed her to start the Sunday school but was unable to provide any funding to purchase materials. Old materials were obtained from other churches and copies were made so that each child would have his or her own work material. Although enrollment was high, with more than 35 children attending, Christie soon found that most of the children required instruction in the most basic reading tasks.

Next, Christie saw the need to address the growing problems within the community such as drugs, teen pregnancies and poverty levels. To accomplish this, she organized a group of community members to form a nonprofit organization called Volunteer Initiative Serving the Interest of Norwood (VISION). The organization was formed in April 1997 and soon obtained 501(c) (3) status. VISION received a $10,000 seed grant from the Baton Rouge Area Foundation in September 1997 for the establishment of additional programs. Volunteers assist with existing programs and a walking track and expansion of the current building are projected for the future.

In addition, Christie solicited the State board of Education to establish an after-school tutorial program. Christie, unselfishly, sacrificed her own funds to remodel a building she owned, making four classrooms, a bathroom, central air and heat, to meet the requirements of the State Fire Marshall. The final expense was more than $10,000. Currently, there are 40 students enrolled in the program with three tutors and Christie serving as program coordinator. From October 1997 to present, there have been marked improvements in the grades of the participating students, some raising their grades from “F’s” to “A’s”.

Willie Mae Christie is making a concerted effort to break the cycle of sub-par education, drugs and crime that are affecting Norwood’s children. She plans to continue implementing ideas for activities that will keep local children off the streets and engaged in constructive activities.

Samantha Oliver

Samantha Oliver is described as “an agent for change.” Seventeen years ago, while helping a dying friend, she recognized the need for a local hospice service and began working with others to create what is now Hospice of Northeastern Illinois (HNI). It is one of the largest organizations in Illinois, dedicated to easing the passage from life to death for the terminally ill and their families through comprehensive quality care, pain and symptom management, bereavement resources and community education.

At HNI, Oliver has served in nearly every capacity, from volunteer to President of the board. Programs focus on meeting unique, individual needs and take hundreds of volunteers to implement. One such specific issue is the Vigil Program for elderly nursing home patients who don’t have any family, where volunteers sit at their bedside so they don’t have to die alone.

As the word about hospice care grew, more families sought help, but not all could afford to pay. In response, Oliver was instrumental in starting the Hospice Foundation of Northeastern Illinois, the fundraising arm of HNI, whose motto is, “we never turn anyone away because of their financial circumstances.” As the 1998 co-chair of the Annual Giving Drive, Oliver and her committee members easily exceeded their goal of $180,000 in donations.

For the past two summers, Oliver has been a counselor at Camp Courage. Sponsored by the Hospice of Northeastern Illinois, the four-day bereavement camp caters to children coping with the deaths of parents, siblings or other loved ones. Having lost her own parents at a relatively young age, this 65-year-old camp counselor brought her usual empathy, humor and heart to the task. Because of her valuable service, Oliver has received the Hospice of Northeastern Illinois’ annual Caring Award.

As with most people driven to make the world a better place, Oliver gives herself to a number of favorite causes. Since 1984, she has been Staff Director of Citizens for Conservation, which “saves living space for living things.” She is the past Chairman of the American Heart Association of Metropolitan Chicago, where she twice received the Heart of the Year Award. She is also the President-elect of Good Shepherd Hospital’s Auxiliary. Previously, she served on the hospital’s Governing Council and was given the Shepherd’s Award for outstanding contributions to the hospital. In addition, the Barrington Development Council presented Oliver with its Community Service Award.

Oliver participates in short term volunteer mission trips–either medical or construction–to depressed areas of the U.S. and in developing countries. This year she went to West Virginia with high school students to repair homes in Appalachia.

“We need heroes to emulate, and Oliver is truly a hero,” states Jeanne Hanson, President, Volunteer Center of Greater Barrington, “her slight stature, quiet way and occasional stammer give us hope that we too, can take on a life-changing, community building, world betterment role.”

The National Eye Care Project

Created by the American Academy of Ophthalmology, the largest national membership association of ophthalmologists, and sponsored in part by the Knights Templar Eye Foundation, Inc., the National Eye Care Project (NECP) provides medical eye care for financially disadvantaged senior citizens.

The NECP began in 1983, as a pilot program which was hailed by former President Ronald Reagan as “volunteerism at its finest.” Since then, the NECP’s toll-free helpline has received more than 527,000 calls. More than 198,000 of those callers were referred to one of 7,500 volunteer ophthalmologists nationwide for an eye exam and any necessary treatment. Participants’ insurance or Medicare is billed for the care; however, for those without the means to pay, fees are waived.

The need for this program was clear to the American Academy of Ophthalmology: by age 65, one in three Americans are afflicted with some form of vision-threatening eye disease and many people suffer needlessly from conditions that are treatable or curable. Some older Americans do not know that they are at risk for eye problems, while others do not have access to a medical eye doctor or lack the resources to pay for an exam or treatment.

While there are a number of programs that provide optical assistance, the NECP is unique in that it provides medical eye care for financially disadvantaged seniors.

Not only do qualified seniors benefit from quality eye care, but the members of the Academy who volunteer for the program enjoy the satisfaction of having contributed their compassion and skills to an important cause. Every ophthalmologist who becomes a member of the Academy is encouraged to participate in the NECP and new volunteers are actively recruited from long-standing members.

For 15 years, the NECP has provided services that may have been otherwise unavailable to the people who are helped. Whether a patient is cured of cataracts through surgery or requires ongoing care for glaucoma, NECP patients receive the same quality care that volunteer ophthalmologists provide to their traditional patients.

“We measure our success not just by the numbers of people we have helped, but also by the words of the people who are served — and whose eyesight is saved — by the NECP,” remarked Gail Nyman-York, Manager, Public Service, American Academy of Ophthalmology.

HOPE for Kids – South Carolina

HOPE for Kids, a program of HOPE worldwide, is a nonprofit, community-based organization founded on the belief that every child deserves to live a healthy, fulfilling and productive life. The volunteers are committed to meeting the healthcare needs in low-income areas through educating families about the vital need for childhood immunization and other health issues. The 1,000 active statewide volunteers enable HOPE for Kids to canvass low-income neighborhoods in six cities in the state of South Carolina. In the four years HOPE for Kids has been in South Carolina, approximately 80,000 children have been reached.

One outreach strategy of HOPE for Kids is its Annual Immunization Drives. Volunteers go door to door in low-income areas, distributing health education materials and encouraging parents to complete their child’s immunization series. Between 1994 and 1998, more than 32,000 children were reached through these annual outreach events. During the first immunization drive, 80 volunteers participated. In 1998, that number grew to 600 volunteers, who reached some 20,000 children statewide.

Beginning in 1996, HOPE for Kids volunteers have sponsored a toy drive to provide Christmas gifts to low-income neighborhoods serviced by HOPE for Kids volunteers during the year. In 1997, volunteers sponsored Christmas events in Columbia, Greenville and Charleston. A total of 1,500 were reached statewide with gifts. In addition, 2,220 children were reached with health information during the festivities.

Low-income residents are often eligible for medical services but are unaware that these services exist. For example, health coverage is available through private health insurance companies as an alternative to standard Medicaid coverage. The major benefit of these services is that private medical providers can be utilized with such coverage, eliminating the need for long waiting hours at medical clinics and unnecessary use of emergency room services. Filling out an application is the only requirement necessary for residents meeting low-income status. However, few applications have been filed. In an effort to educate the target population about this service, HOPE for Kids volunteers distributed information about the alternative healthcare plan. As a result, in 1998 HOPE for Kids reached 15,000 families with Medicaid applications and information. HOPE for Kids also actually signed up 1,245 children on Medicaid.

While serving in these low-income areas, the volunteers have observed first hand other crucial needs among children and their families and are committed to expanding efforts to meet these needs. While proper healthcare is a key factor in breaking the poverty cycle, academic success is an equally vital key in reducing the negative impact of poverty among youth in low-income areas. HOPE for Kids volunteers have been operating a family resource center to meet this need. This program provides a homework center during the week. In addition, on the weekends academic tutoring coupled with a basketball league and a cultural arts program provides 4th and 5th graders the enrichment needed to succeed. HOPE for Kids volunteers serve as caring adults providing literacy skills development. Contingent on the student meeting the requirements of this tutoring component, he/she has the opportunity to participate in a basketball league and explore cultural and arts activities. Computer training is also provided for the parents, as well.

Community Health Advancement Program

For 20 years, the Community Health Advancement Program (CHAP) has drawn thousands of medical and health science students into leading and participating in volunteer service, touching the lives of more than 10,000 individuals. Its students and programs demonstrate the quiet dedication of many students seeking to address identifiable unmet needs in local underserved communities.

The first CHAP project was the Saturday Clinic at Holly Park Community Health Center, located in a low-income housing project in Seattle. CHAP was born from the match between the needs of the Health Center, its patients and the aspirations of medical students wanting to serve. It provided the community with the only local weekend clinic and provided the students an avenue for living their values. It provided volunteer faculty and attending physicians with a focus for teaching community-oriented primary care, leadership skills and cross-cultural medicine.

By the late 1980’s, CHAP consisted of the Saturday Clinic and Brown Bag Community Health Seminars. Each year there were 10 leaders who administered the projects and over 200 volunteers. The modest needs for funding were raised by the students. In the 1990’s, CHAP projects expanded to include, not only the Saturday clinic, but a flu shot clinic for elderly, a pre-sports physical clinic for low-income teen athletes, a cooking project for The Seattle Chicken Soup Brigade, which provides food for home-bound persons with HIV/AIDS, a dermatology clinic for the homeless in a downtown shelter, a diabetic education and foot care project and an adolescent mentoring and health promotion project. The Saturday Clinic and the Chicken Soup Brigade Cooking Project ended only when the co-sponsoring agencies became unable to provide the needed services.

CHAP projects share six tenets. First, projects require highly interested students and there is no credit or stipend for participating. Second, projects develop from unmet needs defined by the community; there would be no dermatology care for the sheltered homeless, nor mentoring for teens if CHAP were not providing the service. Third, students must develop tools and processes to implement, support, evaluate and modify projects. Funds are raised by the students. Fourth, projects link with ongoing services within the community. Fifth, projects must provide a vehicle for students to learn as they serve. CHAP is sponsored by the University of Washington Department of Family Medicine, which provides training and backup for the students. Sixth, all programs must be evaluated regularly.

The story of CHAP’s growth is the story of quality volunteer service that emerges when care is taken to have a community identify its needs and to realistically develop a program which volunteers can implement, administer and continuously staff. While these are health students, they have not only been providing medical service, they teach, mentor, tutor, cook, fund raise, and do needs assessments.

“To recognize CHAP with this award would be to recognize three notable groups: the communities who have welcomed CHAP and identified needs which CHAP could meet, the community agencies who have partnered with CHAP students to better meet the needs of the communities they serve, and thousands of volunteer who have kept CHAP alive these 20 years as a vehicle for communities and students alike,” remarked Sharon Dobie, Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, University of Washington.

Summer Scholars

Summer Scholars is a community-based program for at-risk elementary students in Northeast Denver who are significantly below grade level in reading. It began five years ago with 20 students in one school and has expanded to 953 students in 18 schools. The literacy initiative grew out of Denver’s 1993 Summer of Violence, as a neighborhood response to the dramatic increase in teenage crime. Since 1993, more than 4,000 students participated in the six-week, full-day summer program. Summer Scholars also recruits 300 tutors each year to work with the same students during the school year, a total of some 1,200 volunteers.

Summer Scholars now serves one-fourth of Denver’s public elementary schools (DPS) and other schools continuously ask to join. They are impressed by the success rate of the program. Pre- and post-tests administered in 1998, revealed that the reading skills of 80% of the students improved significantly. Attendance is better than it has ever been. In 1998, 74% of students missed only three or fewer days. Due to the positive impact of Summer Scholars, DPS started its own mandatory summer literacy program two years ago, modeled in part, after Summer Scholars’ voluntary program.

Literacy levels were low when Summer Scholars started, more than 75% of DPS’ 35,000 elementary students were reading below grade level. Writing levels were even worse. Since declining literacy is a national problem that warrants preventative interventions, Summer Scholars combines the reading program with community partnerships to expand services to at-risk learners. Denver Parks & Recreation provides afternoon recreation including Red Cross swim lessons for almost two-thirds of the students. The city’s Scientific & Cultural Facilities District recruits cultural groups to provide afternoon enrichment and multi-cultural programming. For example, the Children’s Museum donated a walk-in globe to teach geography and the Colorado Children’s Chorale, an international touring choir, taught singing at four schools. Kids then performed for their parents.

Summer Scholars recruits and trains academically strong teenagers to help in the summer classrooms as teacher aides and role models for the younger students. In 1998, 75 teen interns, aged 13 to 18, were hired and placed. In addition, teacher training in balanced literacy is a high priority and paid for by DPS. Every summer classroom has its own literacy coach and teachers are required to take weekly classes taught by the coaches.

Parent involvement is another key aspect of Summer Scholars. All teachers are required to do family visits. They also plan a family literacy event, which range from breakfast burritos, to ice cream socials, to evening performances and storytelling.

Two years ago, Summer Scholars started a school-year pilot program for all primary students at a local elementary school. The pilot uses the same approach: balanced literacy, small reading groups of 15 students to 1 teacher, community volunteers and parent involvement. During the first year, students went from 32% at grade level in reading in September to 80% at grade level in May. In 1998, Summer Scholars was accepted as a VISTA project, utilizing a VISTA volunteer at each of 17 summer schools, and six additional VISTA’s at school-year sites where they are implementing a “Million Minute” reading program. Students must read at least 100 minutes per week outside school to win rewards. In addition, corporations like the Colorado Rockies and Kaiser Permanente adopt schools to help fund the summer program and recruit tutors during the school year.

New Hampshire Partners in Education

New Hampshire Partners in Education (NHPIE), the statewide resource for development of effective community involvement in education, had its 30^th anniversary in 1998.

In 1998, NHPIE expanded its network of educational volunteers to include 588 school coordinators and 503 partnership directors. According to annual reports filed by Blue Ribbon applicants, 50,000+ school volunteers contributed more than 1.2 million hours of direct service to their community schools. When attributed with a dollar amount, this represents more than $14,400,000 provided to New Hampshire schools at no cost to the taxpayer.

Sixty-eight thousand New Hampshire students have received the benefits of community collaborations in this academic year. Partnerships continue to be examples of systemic, multi-layer programs, which yield educational reform and systemic improvement for the students of those communities. Reported results of these mutually beneficial collaborations include reduction in vandalism, increase in literacy scores, improved attendance, 50% increased college attendance, increased communication between parents and teachers and increased student volunteerism.

In its role as a clearinghouse, NHPIE is able to replicate successful models of partnership programs across the state. The demand for services and programs relating to school volunteer and partnership programs increased 45% over last year’s requests in the state. As a result of information gathered from the 50,000 school volunteers statewide, NHPIE cataloged 230 partnership programs. These models are in high demand and serve as a library for communities seeking examples of partnership programs.

Besides increasing the quantity of school volunteers, NHPIE serves as a resource for the professional training of these individuals by providing workshops, conferences, consultation services and materials. NHPIE has received full funding this year from the Walker Foundation to facilitate a comprehensive school-based mentoring program for business; a task not yet undertaken by any other state affiliate in the nation.

Kansas City’s Promise Youth

A diverse group of approximately 50 youth from the Kansas City metropolitan area, called the Promise Youth, have been instrumental in mobilizing youth through the metropolitan area to be of service to others. They are the driving force behind an evolving systemic change which enables and empowers youth to be of service through volunteering.

The Promise Youth began organizing a year ago in tandem with the effort to organize Kansas City’s Promise and Youth Summit. Several students who were invited to be part of the efforts to provide the five fundamental resources promoted by America’s Promise to area youth wanted more. While they appreciated being part of the movement to provide services to youth, they wanted to mobilize services by youth. So they expanded their numbers to include students from every school district from both sides of the state line in the metropolitan area.

The Promise Youth wanted to do more than one-time volunteer projects on a hit and miss basis. Their vision was to create a system by which youth could volunteer on an on-going basis. A couple of the students had service-learning programs in their schools, while a couple others had other community service projects. After assessing the few opportunities, they decided to make a promise:

“The Kansas City’s Promise Youth promises to advocate for Community Service Clubs, with a faculty sponsor, in middle schools and high schools in the five-county metropolitan area by the year 2000. These Community Service Clubs will reach out and recruit young people in Kansas City involved in giving back to their communities.”

As a kick-off to their promise, the Promise Youth organized a Youth Breakfast, which attracted some 125 youth from both sides of the state line. Prior to the breakfast, the Promise Youth organized a metro-area-wide essay contest on the theme of what a ‘caring adult’ has meant in their lives. The finalists shared their essays and introduced their caring adult.

The Promise Youth then began organizing the fall conference to inspire and motivate youth and provide them with resources to start Community Service Clubs in their schools. They interviewed all of the existing service-learning programs in the area and conducted extensive research and produced a 43-page manual on how to start Community Service Clubs.

The Promise Youth proceeded to organize and develop a conference around the subject. Nearly 400 high school students and faculty advisors from 50 schools gathered and learned how to give back to the community. Participants heard from national speakers and other youth with extraordinary accomplishments in the service field. The conference also featured break-out sessions, model service programs from schools with already established clubs, sessions by area Volunteer Centers on how to get service clubs started and strategic planning sessions.

The Promise Youth are in the follow-up phase with the schools to provide them with added incentive and to link them to the area Volunteer Centers and the volunteer opportunities available as the service clubs are formed.

“Kansas City’s Promise Youth are truly making a difference…not only creating a system by which students can volunteer, but ultimately in the services that those clubs provide to those in need in Kansas City,” remarked Denny Barnett, Director, Volunteer Connection.

Naval JROTC, Oxford High School

The Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (NJROTC) has been in existence since 1964 to address the need for youth to understand the duties and responsibilities associated with being an active citizen of the United States. The NJROTC Unit at Oxford High School is located in Oxford, MA and has been operating since August 1995. These 14-18 year-old students have worked on a variety of community service projects in the town and surrounding communities.

Since 1995, an average of approximately 55 students have been engaged in more than 25 community service projects per year, including maintaining a clean environment, supporting civic organizations and senior citizens, enhancing the school system and generating interest among other youth groups. The Oxford cadets have volunteered more than 3,800 hours each year since 1995.

The cadets participate in many annual projects including the Oxford Veteran’s Recognition Dinner, the National Kidney Walk-A-Thon, Oxford/Webster Crop Walks Against Hunger, AIDS Dance and Walk-A-Thon, Easter Seals, Oxford Senior Citizens Dinner, Oxford Ecumenical Council Holiday Food Basket Distribution and Earth Day. The cadets are also involved in monthly projects such as Adopt-A-Highway and Project SHARE.

The cadets performed landscaping services at the Oxford Senior Center on over 11,500 square feet of grounds including the installation of a new lawn. They performed the first renovations on a one-room schoolhouse that was rededicated in August 1998 as a historical site; 28 cadets worked on this project for a total of 120 hours. The cadets located and obtained more than $100,000 worth of donated chairs, file cabinets, bookshelves, lockers and other equipment that they then refurbished for use in the high school. Additionally, the Color Guard has performed in more than 150 public programs since 1995.

Urban Technology Project

In 1996, Edison Freire, a bilingual science teacher in North Philadelphia’s Edison Fareira High School, set out to help close the ‘digital gap’ that exists between students attending schools in affluent areas and students attending schools in lower income neighborhoods, such as E. Farerira. Working after hours, Freire organized the Latino Tech Collective, an after-school student group comprised of disadvantaged high school students who spoke little English and had no previous experience with computers. Over the next few months, Freire taught them to design and maintain Web pages, repair and refurbish used computers and provide basic and advanced technical support. Through it all, the students gained confidence and self-reliance and learned the value of knowledge.

Marketable technical knowledge and improved self-esteem themselves were profound lessons for these students—but Freire took his students even further. Believing in the value of giving back to one’s community, Freire showed these students how to pass on their knowledge to their peers, family members and adult English learners

In 1998, at the encouragement of several school district administrators, Freire developed a proposal to expand and replicate his project. The Urban Technology Project (UTP), a Philadelphia School District Service-Learning program and an affiliate of Tech Corps-PA, came to life to serve the needs of more students and communities throughout the poorest sections of Philadelphia. As UTP’s director and a Learn and Serve Master Teacher, Freire continues to teach students to use technology and then share their expertise in ways that benefit the community.

UrbanTech is dedicated to providing North Philadelphia youth with opportunities to develop service learning activities that facilitate access to technology among their peers, other community members, and local schools and nonprofit agencies. Located in the former Roberto Clemente Middle School, in the heart of North Philadelphia, UrbanTech has established a student-run center for recycling and refurbishing computers that provides students with a broad range of service learning experiences, including business administration, the technical aspects of computer recycling, and the provision of ongoing technical support in the community. Refurbished computers are placed in area classrooms that would not otherwise be able to afford the equipment.

Since 1998, UrbanTech students have engaged in roughly 1,800 hours of service by refurbishing computers or designing Web sites. Among other projects, UrbanTech students have configured or built 300 computers that were then placed in elementary schools in Wilmington, DE. UTP student volunteers provide ongoing technical support via the Internet and telephone with toll-free access for teachers and students in Wilmington. They have also refurbished and installed computers in two computer labs, now used in after-school programs for at-risk students, for Weed and Seed agencies in some of the poorest sections of Northern Philadelphia.

The Urban Technology Project has begun the march against the ‘digital gap’ in inner-city Philadelphia.