THOMAS CASH

Public high schools in northern New Jersey’s inner cities are in a state of disarray. Some of them are graduating as few as 25% of their students. On the other hand, the private (mostly Catholic) high schools which serve the same demographic populations and geographic areas, graduate between 85 to 95% of their students and virtually all of them go on to institutions of higher learning. There are thousands of minority youth who desire, and would benefit from, a private high school education because of the higher academic standards and better learning environment. Unfortunately, with tuitions ranging from $2,500 to $4,500 per year, most of them simply lack the financial means to do so.

About 15 years ago, Thomas Cash began fulfilling his sense of public responsibility by underwriting the private school tuition for some very needy youth in Jersey City, and he spent time mentoring them as well. Within a few years, he began recruiting friends and colleagues to participate in a similar way. In 1993, Cash secured a 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and called the new organization the Student Partner Alliance (SPA). “Partners” give both personal time as well as money to ensure a better chance for a young boy or girl. Since the early 1990’s, SPA has put nearly 200 boys and girls through private high schools. In the current school year, there are 171 students attending eight different private schools in Jersey City, Newark and the Oranges.

The SPA, as currently organized, has several unique features. Financial need takes priority over academic achievement. There are a number of scholarship funds that exist to help the “best and brightest.” SPA students tend to be more average academically – individuals who would probably “fall through the cracks” if left in a public school. With private education, most will become productive members of society rather than a “statistic.” Also, as SPA has been able to secure foundation gifts to cover administrative expenses, all of the money from partners goes toward paying student tuition. Finally, SPA organizes a number of group activities during the year to encourage interaction between students and their partners. At least one annual gathering involves a charitable activity in order to instill a sense of community responsibility in the students.

While the primary goal of SPA is to give disadvantaged youth a chance to become productive and contributing members of society, there is a strong additional benefit of the program. Most inner-city private schools are running well under capacity. When schools are running under capacity, the cost of educating a student rises. This creates a vicious cycle of tuition increasing, thus pushing down enrollment even further. Over the years, a number of private schools have closed their doors permanently, leaving major voids in communities and neighborhoods which can never be filled. By bringing additional students into these schools, SPA is helping , in a modest way, to stem the tide of increasing tuition, making the schools more accessible to the communities they serve.

SHERRI LEE

Tinker Cooper, Executive Director of Families Against Drugs (FAD), formed this nonprofit organization after her son died from a drug overdose in Orange County, Florida. Originally, FAD was a support group for parents who have lost a child to a drug overdose because these deaths are perceived by society and law enforcement as less significant than a death by any other means. FAD also includes family members of loved ones who are in a come, jail, rehab or still using drugs, as well as members of various law enforcement agencies.

Cooper met Sherri Lee under adverse conditions when Lee became a member of FAD. Lee has recently lost her only child, Robert, to a heroin overdose that occurred the day before his 19th birthday. Robert was a first-time user. The fatal incident happened at a going away party for him as he was leaving for the Marines.

With Lee’s help, FAD has expanded to include education of young people and parents about the destructive and deadly consequences of drug use. Lee has since become the Vice President of FAD and Cooper’s right arm. She manages the business aspect of the group and publicly speaks at schools, churches, jails, rehabs and organizations. Whatever there is to be done, Lee handles it. Despite her demanding career as the Vice President of a major advertising firm, and becoming the new mother of a baby girl born 21 years after her deceased brother, Lee has been a major factor in helping FAD raise five times the amount of money that was raised last year.

Lee does more in the community beyond the role she plays in FAD. Raised in poverty and being an abused child, Lee is involved in the Take Stock in Children program, mentoring young people and encouraging them to stay in school. She tells the story of her childhood, marriage and motherhood at the tender age of 16. She talks about the abuse from her first marriage and how she found the courage and strength to improve her life and the life of her child. She explains that through perseverance and education, one can rise above their circumstances and become successfull and happy.

Lee is also a volunteer in the Dividends Program in Seminole County Public Schools, Florida, teaching a variety of subjects to broaden the horizons of impressionable young people. These subjects include marketing, ancient Chinese art & culture, and ancient Egyptian history.

Sherri Lee is also her own “Secret Santa.” She selects one needy family per year and provides Christmas presented for the entire family. The only things she asks in return is that these families do the same for another needy family once they are financially able to do so.

BSSW STUDENT SOCIAL WORK ORGANIZATION COLLEGE OF SOCIAL WORK, UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE

As identified in its bylaws, a major objective of the University of Tennessee BSSW Student Social Work Organization (BSSW-SWO) is to “facilitate and provide volunteer community service to social welfare organizations in the Knoxville community.” Students who are majoring in social work meet every Tuesday during the academic year from 11:15 to 12:20 for meetings. This time is protected and built into every social work student’s schedule. To expedite the work of the organization, the students have organized into various committees. The largest committee is community service, with more than 25 active members. The co-chairpersons of this committee contact social service agencies throughout the Knoxville and East Tennessee region to offer the organization’s volunteer assistance.

In the past three years, approximately 20 social service agencies have been assisted by the BSSW-SWO. Some of the agencies assisted by the members include: Big Brother/Big Sisters, Blount County Children’s Home, Child and Family Tennessee, Florence Crittenton, Knoxville Area Rescue Ministries, and the Ronald McDonald House. Members have been involved in fund-raising, serving meals at homeless shelters, collecting canned goods for a food bank, organizing parties at nursing homes, and providing social activities for children at a runaway shelter and for young women at a residential maternity shelter. References to some of these efforts are found in the organization’s newsletters. In recognition of its work in the community, the BSSW-SWO received a Citation for Extraordinary Contribution to Campus Life at the University Convocation in April 2000.

An ongoing service being provided by the BSSW-SWO is to the Greater Knoxville Mental Health Association. For the past two years, members have been providing service in the Association’s COMPEER program. The COMPEER program matches caring, trained volunteers in supportive relationships with children and adults receiving services from mental health professionals. A number of students in the BSSW-SWO have gone through volunteer training at the Mental Health Association and have been matched with young clients receiving mental health care. The students meet with their “compeer friends” each week to provide friendship and support.

The students involved in COMPEER keep a journal in which they document their volunteer activity, reflect on their involvement in this community project, and connect what they are learning in their social work classes to their service. In addition to the weekly contact with their friends, the students meet with the faculty advisor of the BSSW-SWO once a month to discuss their volunteer activities and to comment on their journal entries. This informal, voluntary seminar connects service with learning.

The BSSW-SWO is meeting a community need for volunteers in social services. Also, the organization is serving client groups that are disconnected from the larger community, i.e., pregnant teenagers in a residential maternity shelter and homeless men, women, and children. The BSSW-SWO encourages its members to be citizens who “will not pass to the other side” when seeing people who are isolated and disconnected from the larger community.

ASSOCIATION OF JUNIOR LEAGUES INTERNATIONAL

In April 2001, nearly 200,000 women commenced celebrating 100 years of volunteer community service and impact through the Junior League. With a century of family literacy, senior citizen care, battered women’s shelters, affordable day care, AIDS education, pregnancy prevention and multicultural awareness to their credit, the members of Junior Leagues in 296 communities in four countries have much to celebrate.

Few women’s organizations have even reached the centennial milestone, but the Junior Leagues have a distinguished legacy of making a difference in local communities since the inception of the New York Junior League in 1901. At the turn of the century, Barnard College student Mary Harriman established the Junior League “to foster among its members the interest in undertakings for the betterment of the social, economic and educational conditions in the City of New York.” Mary Harriman’s idea—that a group of women could be a powerful force for change—has resonated throughout this century. What began as 80 young women traveling to Manhattan’s Lower East Side to volunteer at a settlement house has blossomed into a growing movement of trained volunteers improving their communities through direct service, public education, advocacy, fundraising and sheer hard work.

Individual Junior Leagues contribute mightily to their local communities; Leagues know how to raise money, how to use influence and how to make positive things happen in communities. As an international movement, the organization has also contributed collectively to the public welfare of our society. Programs that we take for granted—free school lunches, children’s theatre and museums, domestic violence legislation, volunteer bureaus, quality TV programming for children—are among the innovations led by the Junior League. Today Leagues work with babies with HIV, abused children and the homeless and serve as mentors to young women and girls. League members found and staff childcare centers, fund breast cancer research and protect the environment. In short, the Junior League can be credited with implementing change and improving conditions in almost every sector. In recognition of decades of these sustained contributions, in 1989, the Association of Junior Leagues International (AJLI) was presented with the prestigious U.S. President’s Volunteer Action Award.

In 1901, membership in the Junior League gave women a rare opportunity to make an impact and to take a leadership role in the wider world. Today, even with increased professional opportunities for women, the Junior League continues to offer women a unique and powerful way to make a difference, take risks and become community leaders. In spite of the fact that two-thirds of the members are working women, they still commit their valuable time to serving their communities…through the Junior League.

SISTER ANITA MARIE STACY

Despite Sister Anita Marie’s success as a mathematics teacher, it is her position as BETA chair for the past twelve years that she help increase social awareness among teenagers, inspiring her “students of life” to become involved in their communities.

As a mathematics teacher, Sister Anita understands the power of multiplication and invests time in others, trying to duplicate herself. It is in this fashion that she and a multitude of her “students of life” are able to mobilize and try to make a difference as community needs arise.

To sponsor interest in the program, she pioneered a Social Awareness workshop for freshmen, where they spend the day reflecting on community needs and then set out to serve in the community with representatives of various agencies. In promoting social awareness, she has empowered a group of high school sophomores through seniors to serve their communities.

Currently, the group has grown to approximately 150 students, which is about two-thirds of the eligible population. Members of the group pledge to complete at least nine community service activities, averaging about four hours per activity, throughout the school year as well as one additional activity in service to the school. Sister Anita shows her support at every activity. Initially, she scheduled all of the activities, but as the program has expanded, she formed a board of outstanding group members to help meet the needs of the community. As an organization, they have provided food, clothing, shelter, and companionship to many.

Sister Anita has also used her creativity to come up with new and innovative ways to motivate the entire school to service. Under her direction the school sponsors an annual “Turkey Bowl” and “Penny War.” Each year for the Penny War, students in the BETA Club elect a charity to support. Following this decision, Sister Anita runs a weeklong campaign including posters, prayers, and videos, making students aware of social needs in the community and the people they have elected to support. Through the contest, Sister Anita appeals to the caring, competitive and strategic sides of each class, competing against other grade levels.

Throughout the past years, the amount of money raised in one week by approximately 400 students has escalated to the current level of over $4,500. The Turkey Bowl is similar, in that it serves as a canned good and money drive, prior to Thanksgiving, using events and activities that many students enjoy and helps support those in need. Each year they collect thousands of canned goods and dollars to donate to local soup kitchens and OxFam, respectively.

When supplies were running low on prizes for the monthly Bingo, one student took the initiative to convince Jergens to sponsor lotion as prizes. This past summer, Sister Anita traveled to Mexico, and volunteered at a school to help set up a computer lab and aid in instruction of mathematics to those less fortunate.

MARILYN PRICE

In 1986 Marilyn Price was pedaling up a bike trail on Mount Tamalpais, gazing at the view of San Francisco beyond. She remembered the kids she used to see when she volunteered at St. Anthony’s Dining Room in the heart of the inner city and though how wonderful it would be if they could have a chance to do what she was doing. It was then that her vision of Trips for Kids began to take shape.

Trips for Kids is a San Francisco Bay Area non-profit that provides mountain bike outings and environmental education for kids that would not otherwise be exposed to these types of activities. Trips for Kids’ goal is to combine lessons in personal responsibility, achievement and environmental awareness through development of practical skills and the simple act of having fun. The Trips for Kids Re-Cyclery program provides job training for youth while recycling old bikes and bike parts.

Price founded Trips for Kids on the belief that outdoor experiences should be available to all children. Unfortunately, most of the kids served by Trips for Kids do not often exercise or have the opportunity to get out of their concrete environments. With commitment and persistence, Price created a program that provides these youth with outdoor, educational and work experiences that set them on a path toward healthy and happy lives.

Price has directed the program as it grew from a home-based volunteer run effort into a flourishing nonprofit that has taken more than 5,000 disadvantaged youth on mountain bike outings and has a volunteer base of 300 people. Trips for Kids has provided 650 low-income youth a chance to earn a bike of their own, hired 11 teens trained through the program, and operates two earn-a-bike workshops for inner city kids and provides jobs for the older kids. The organization earns 68% of its operating expenses from its bike thrift shop and fundraising events. It is now a national program with 10 Trips for Kids chapters across the country.

All of this was accomplished through the dedication and hard work of a woman who, with no prior business experience, wanted to help others. Price worked on a strictly volunteer basis for the first 11 years, putting in 70-80 hours a week. Two years ago she accepted a minimal nonprofit salary and continues to sustain the same level of commitment to this day.

“I believe that sustained commitment is one of the most important things,” said Marilyn Price, “To really change things you have to set your sights on something and keep at it.”

SARAH BRABANT

Dr. Sarah Brabant began helping children more than 15 years ago when she took her keen intuition and extensive knowledge of grief to develop a program for children who had experienced the death of a sibling. Some years later, Dr. Brabant, professor of sociology at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, and other concerned individuals, founded The Grief Center of Southwest Louisiana in 1997 as a safe place for families to grieve and heal, especially children who have had to deal with traumatic loss, including a family member’s murder, suicide or accidental death. The Grief Center allows children to share their grief with others. It provides networking opportunities for area professionals working with grieving persons and it creates an awareness of grief issues as well as education on those issues. The Grief Center is the only one of its kind in the state.

Dr. Brabant writes grant proposals and networks with churches, organizations, the local University and local government to help secure much needed funds. She has also dedicated the royalties from her book, Mending The Torn Fabric, to The Grief Center.

Dr. Brabant’s history of community involvement and volunteerism in southwest Louisiana dates back into the early 1970s when she provided internships for University Senior sociology majors to work in community centers serving the economically disadvantaged. She was a member of the inaugural board of Lafeyette’s first shelter for battered women and their children. Dr. Brabant facilitated the first support group for the local AIDS organization and continues to volunteer there. She assisted Hospice of Acadiana with its volunteer training program in the 1980s. She has also volunteered in a program for children with hearing impairments.

Having just retired in May, Dr. Brabant devotes considerable volunteer time to The Grief Center. She uses her education and experience to bring knowledge and comfort to many that hurt deeply because of the separation brought about by death. The greatest benefactors of her time, talent and treasure are Louisiana’s children. Dr. Brabant impacts not only those children and adults at The Grief Center but in schools, churches and anywhere she is called. Her reward is not monetary. It is knowing that hope is restored in the lives of children and their families who reclaim their faith in themselves and discover the tools to heal and grow.

JACK WINER

In a diverse community such as San Diego, improved literacy and learning English as a second language are important issues faced in every school classroom. To increase public awareness of the value of the public library for all in our community and recognize students for educational achievement, Jack Winer established a city-wide essay contest reaching out to elementary and high school students from 165 public and more than 70 non-public schools in San Diego. Topics are designed to encourage students writers to reflect on a variety of subjects such as The Importance of Libraries to the Community and Volunteering in Your Community.

The essay contest crosses economic and racial lines and offers all students in grades 4, 8 and 10 the opportunity to enter. One winner last year was a former runaway who had attempted to take her own life. In her essay, she wrote about how the book, “Go Ask Alice,” had helped her overcome her despair and move forward in her life.

Another child wrote about his reading difficulties until he discovered in the fourth grade, that he could read Dr. Seuss books with success. He overcame his fear and difficulty in reading through this author. Another winner accompanied school officials to Sacramento to present to the Governor of California his essay on the importance of public libraries for the people.

Jack Winer is gifted in mobilizing large groups and bringing them together to work toward a common goal. To create such a successful program, Winer motivated so many to participate, including The Friends of the San Diego Public Library (membership 5,000); the San Diego Public Library (main library and 33 branches); the San Diego Unified School District (administration, teachers, school librarians and the PTA); citizens (local newspaper writers, elected officials, civic leaders) and Corporate Sponsors (Seaworld, Barnes and Noble, Qualcomm, San Diego Padres, Office Depot), and of course students, parents and primary care givers.

Since its founding, the contest has grown in both the number of participating schools and the number of entrants with 1,200 students participating last year. The contest has become an ongoing project under the wing of the Friends of the San Diego Public Library.

Certainly when one child learns to read and write an impact is made in the life of that child. Society gains, too. Literacy changes lives. The city-wide essay contest helps the San Diego community to focus on the value of the public library (open and free to all), the importance of learning to read, and the power of self expression through the written word.

Winer created a program that did not previously exist in San Diego. San Diego is America’s sixth largest city. Winer’s idea, and his success in bringing together many diverse groups in a new and different way to promote student use of the public library is innovative.

GIRL TEE VEE, A PROGRAM OF THE GIRLS CENTER

Girl Tee Vee is a program at The Girls Center in Walpole, Massachusetts. The Girls Center is a community-based, self-actualization and leadership development program for young adolescent girls. The Center works to engender personal and social change to create a safer and more empowering community for young girls. They work to achieve this goal through activities and projects as well as through community outreach and education.

Girl Tee Vee has been exceptional in this regard demonstrated by how these young women have worked diligently to educate and reach out to the Walpole Community over the past four years. They have created and produced a community access television show since they were 12 and 13 years old. They are currently in high school and are working with a group of middle school students so that the community service will continue. The shows have educated the community about issues facing girls, decision-making skills, and the importance of higher education and the problems of under-age drinking. The girls were contacted and paid by the Walpole Police Department to work on the under age drinking project, and have worked to educate themselves as well as the middle school students on this issue that faces almost all youth.

Girl Tee Vee not only works with youth, but they are also developing a project that will work with the elders in the community. They will be compiling materials for and putting together material and memorabilia as part of a project with a local elder community, entitled “The Video Quilt.” They will compile footage of elders reminiscing about their lives and talking about objects and events that have created the stories and meanings of their lives. This video will serve as educational material for children throughout the school system of Walpole and surrounding communities.

These young women have provided services across the life cycle with intelligence, creativity and warmth. Their talents and services have not gone unnoticed. They were the recipients of the Women in Cable Award in 1998 for their outstanding achievements. They have worked hard and without pay for four years serving and educating the Walpole community.

The original founders of Girl Tee Vee are: Jessica Cataldo, Julie Cunniff, Jessica Riu, and Lindsey Taylor. The Girl Tee Vee tradition continues with: Judi Bisceglia, Kasey Duncan, Alana Goldstein, Megan Hughes, Laura Milot, Morgan Randall, Stephanie Rose, Kayla Soutwick, and Kathy Thibodeau.

COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SATELLITE OF UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS

The Community Oriented Policing Satellite (COPS) was established in University Heights in 1995 through a joint effort of the University Heights CDA, Inc., the Buffalo Common Council, the City of Buffalo, and the Buffalo Police. Subsequently, they piloted satellite stations in six other areas of the city, developing community advisory groups and placing VISTA and volunteer staff to actively engage area residents.

The COPS stations use a community policing approach to effectively address specific neighborhood needs while working on larger issues that affect the City of Buffalo as a whole. They serve as a resource to focus and strengthen the block clubs and community-based initiatives that make a community policing strategy effective. The result is stronger, more stable neighborhoods, desirable for residents and merchants alike. The COPS are highly visible in the community, hosting National Night Out and Glad Bag-A-Thon, and taking part in Take Back the Night, Police Community Days and many other community events. COPS supports local block clubs, help form new ones, and on streets where there are none, recruits block contacts to help communicate with residents.

A key component of the COPS Station program in the Non-Emergency or “Quality of Life” Complaints system, which area residents can use to call in their complaints and concerns. Crime Prevention staff then relay the complaint to the proper authority, most often the local police district, although some complaints are directed to an appropriate city agency. Although this system does not move complaints up to a higher priority, it does give the area another source of getting their non-emergency complaints answered in a timely manner. It also supports the police in addressing non-emergency issues in a thorough and friendly way.

For example, the University Heights COPS Station logged 425 calls in the year 2000. All but two of those complaint calls have been fully resolved. Those two unresolved complaints are currently being settled in court. Eighty-two percent of the calls receive were for police assistance; 18% went to other appropriate city agencies.

One strength of the COPS system is follow-up. All non-emergency complaints are properly recorded and followed up by Buffalo Community Police Officers. COPS staff stays in touch with complainants until some resolution is achieved. This may take the form of arbitration for a neighborhood dispute or an arrest for criminal activity.

Another strength is coordination of information. Just as police districts collect data on crime occurrence, COPS stations collect data on neighborhood nuisances and disturbances. Repeated complaints about a single address are tracked at the stations. Ultimately, COPS will identify strategies to address common complaints and work with the appropriate departments to implement those strategies, whether it is monitoring drug activity to facilitate and arrest, or working with landlords and housing programs to improve problem properties.

COPS is a revitalizing force in Buffalo, involving residents and businesses alike in public safety for the community.