SCRAP METTLE SOUL

Founded in 1996, Scrap Mettle SOUL (Stories Of Urban Life) involves the Uptown/Edgewater neighborhoods of Chicago in an oral history-based performance process that empowers individuals, bonds the community and seeds further community-building activity. The plays are professionally produced and based on experiences of the people of the community and performed by people of the community.

This nonprofit company has several programming and outreach initiatives, including the Spring Performance Project – consisting of original choreography and music and the Fall Outreach Tour – an abridged version of the Spring Show taken on the road to community organizations. Other programs include Park Kids after school drama classes at Margate Park, Park Kids Summer Sessions, Youth Outreach Programs and Story gathering workshops where a diverse group of Uptown/Edgewater residents learn to articulate their experiences and create stories for performance.

Scrap Mettle SOUL’s (SMS) volunteer cast profits from the benefits of professional artistic training – usually someone who resides in the local community. SMS keeps the ticket price to the Spring Show low and offers discount tickets to youth and seniors. Because economically disadvantaged populations are the core audience, those who want to attend the show and do not have the funds to do so are never turned away.

In 1994, Dr. Richard Owen Geer began a community performance project in Chicago’s Uptown/Edgewater, where he lives. SOUL began with 60 teenagers as collaboration for a positive youth alternative and as a means of generating more use and better services at local parks. Adults volunteered to help the project grow.

In 1995, the power of the performances attracted Lakefront SRO, a nonprofit developer of permanent, affordable housing for the formerly homeless. The participants of Lakefront SRO decided to name themselves “Scrap Mettle” to denote the addition of age. In 1996, the teens and SRO participants merged and became Scrap Mettle SOUL. Volunteers not only consist of cast members, but they are also story gatherers, a writing apprentice, a director, a production assistant, a graphic designer and a Web master.

ANTONIO ALONSO

Antonio Alonso, Dean of Student Services, has been an outstanding leader at Tulsa Community College in creating programs and services that have promulgated accessibility to higher education by members of the community who have traditionally been underserved in their immediate community. He has raised the consciousness of the entire College with respect to the need to strengthen the participation of all peoples in the educational process of our country. He truly kindles and promotes the dream of participating fully in society by taking advantage of educational opportunities.

Alonso’s commitment to serve inspires many to reach their maximum potential and to also serve in the community–especially in service to the young people of all cultures upon whose shoulders rest the future of our society. He has a passion for community outreach highly motivated by his own personal experiences.

Alonso coordinates the Community Outreach Program at TCC, reaching a level of service that is far beyond that required of his position. This program serves to increase the number of minority students attending colleges in Oklahoma and to promote volunteerism at TCC. He also creates and implements programs and services which have resulted in an increase of minority students at TCC from 12 percent of the students population in 1989 to over 28 percent of the current enrollment at the Northeast Campus.

Alonso coordinates the Day of Vision – a motivational program that has provided to hundreds of African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, and low-income whites, information on TCC and other state colleges as well. In addition, Alonso volunteers as a tutor/mentor for Monroe Middle School, a school consisting primarily of African American and Hispanic students, and as pastoral counselor to Hispanic elderly in nursing homes.

In addition, Alonso supports the Association of Black Collegians and other ethnic student organizations with personal contributions of time and financial support. He serves as a motivational speaker to African-American and Hispanic youth in the Tulsa area, and he publicly promotes volunteerism and diversity through frequent newspaper and television interviews. Alonso received a community service leadership award from the NMCP in 1997 and the 1998 National Council on Student Development award for Exemplary Programs in Student Development from the American Association of Community Colleges.

Alonso has also been recognized by being chosen to serve on the President’s Task Force on Racial Reconciliation in 1999. He was one of two Oklahomans chosen for this task force. He was also the recipient of the 2000 Martin Luther King Commemoration Society Keeping the Dream Alive Award, received the Red Cross Award for promoting diversity in fall of 2001 and was the recipient of the Tulsa Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s Service Award, 2001.

CURTIS SLIWA

Since 1978, Curtis Sliwa has been fighting crime with “The Team” safety patrol. He and his buddy, Don Chin began to clean up crime on one of New York City’s toughest subway lines, the #4 train. This was not a job for two, but a job for 13 and so the group became the “Magnificent 13.”

The Magnificent 13 went from 13 members to hundreds in a matter of months. Thus, it was time to change the name. They went into subways as a group of magnificent youth and they emerged onto the streets as the Guardian Angels Safety Patrol.

Not only did the Guardian Angels have to deal with the criminals and drug dealers but they also had their challenges with the police and government officials. The Guardian Angels, many young citizens, have taken on the major issues of crime and violence at a completely volunteer level. During the group’s beginning, a safety patrol of young people was unheard of and even ridiculed. Overwhelming public support, coupled with Sliwa, was how the Guardian Angels spread all over the nation.

Sliwa’s opinions are heard and shared by millions of his WABC radio-talk-show-listeners. As he has matured so has have the Guardian Angels and their programs – from the inner-city subways to cyberspace and after-school programs for troubled and ungrounded teens.

Sliwa created one of the first U.S. “recycling centers,” essentially by himself, when he was 14 years old. Known as the teenage “neighborhood junk collector,” he collected empty cans, glass bottles, newspapers and scrap pieces of metal, storing them in his basement after having prepared them for recycling. Once a month a tractor-trailer truck would collect his storage drums filled with these items and Sliwa used the money he collected for neighborhood projects to benefit children in the community.

Additionally, he saved a family from a burning building at the age of 15 and was named The Daily News “newspaper boy of the year” for his heroism. At 16, Sliwa was invited to the White House to meet President Nixon, as a result of his community projects.

CLIENT AS VOLUNTEER/JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE OF GREATER WILKES-BARRE

The Client As a Volunteer program is one in which clients of Jewish Family Service of Greater Wilkes-Barre make a commitment to themselves, the agency and those they serve in the community.

The clinical staff at Jewish Family Service recognizes that whether a client is dealing with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem or other mental health issues, they want to feel useful. By delivering meals to those who are homebound, driving someone to a doctor’s appointment, cleaning a person’s house or just making a friendly visit, positive differences result. Clients not only serve those in need, but also enhance their own self-esteem.

After agreeing on workable and attainable goals and a minimum of three visits to the clinician, the counselor presents several volunteer opportunities. The client then makes a commitment to do a service and discusses what is expected. The client goes through training for the assignment and is given the opportunity to accept or decline it. As the volunteer effort progresses, the clinician receives feedback from the client with respect to how the client’s life and views have changed. Observations are recorded about the client’s motivation towards counseling.

Confidentiality is also stressed in the process. The person for whom services are offered does not know that the volunteer is a client of Jewish Family Service. By having the client help someone else, the focus is shifted from the needs of the client to the needs of someone else.

“When families need help, Jewish Family Service is there. It gives aid and comfort because they really care,” stated a Client as Volunteer.

SADDLEBROOKE COMMUNITY OUTREACH, INC.

Saddlebrooke Community Outreach, Inc. (SBCO) was founded in the fall of 1996 as a nonprofit organization run solely by 435 volunteer members living in the Saddlebrooke retirement community. The mission of SBCO is to make a positive and lasing impact on the quality of life of schoolchildren in impoverished neighboring communities by helping them gain self-respect, making possible improved attendance at school, helping induce a strong desire for education and changing the cycle of poverty.

SBCO is dedicated to working with poor families, and there is a special emphasis on the children. They have no paid staff and no overhead. Six percent of the 2001 income was used for administrative costs and was paid from fundraising efforts. All grants received from foundation and corporations are used 100 percent for programs with no deductions of any kind. SBCO addresses the community needs of education, literacy and workplace skills, impoverished communities and minorities in and rural community.

Saddlebrooke is a rural community that used to exist around thriving mines. It is now a depressing area full of poverty with little relief in site. The children are not motivated and very disinterested; they see no reason to set goals or to hope for anything for the future. Initial research, coordinated with community service agencies revealed that the need for appropriate clothing in rural, mountain, and poverty-stricken towns is a great need. Many of the children do not have warm jackets or shoes that fit. They do not have underwear or socks. They are either too cold or embarrassed to go to school.

Because of this, one of the first projects for SBCO and a major ongoing program is a clothing bank called Kid’s Closet. Annually SBCO provides new winter and summer clothes for about 1,200 eligible children. A simple thing like a clothing bank has actually improved attendance in the community. To participate in the Kid’s Closet program, children in Head Start through 8th grade must be eligible for federal free or reduced price school lunch program. The San Manuel School District provides a rent-free room in Mammoth Elementary School for the Kid’s Closet. The room is set up as a department store, opens three times a week and gives the children a realistic shopping experience for their new clothes. The volunteers work one-on-one with the children in the absence of parents or teachers. This ensures the children will select the colors and styles they like, and the children get special personal time with an adult.

The impact of the operation is difficult to measure with precision. However, SBCO receives positive feedback from students, teachers, principals and parents supporting their efforts and letting them know they have made tangible improvements in the lives of the children.

KATHY GOWANS

During 1999, the Windsor Stake Public Affairs Council of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was asked to organize a community project focused on improving literacy in a local elementary school. Kathy Gowans, Stake Director of Public Affairs, took on this task. By April, the effort to adopt Windsor Elementary School as a community effort supporting their tutoring needs was initiated.

Gowans has donated more than 100 hours monthly for the past several years to literacy efforts. She utilizes her organizational skills and designed the purpose, scope, consequences, resources, resources, guidelines and potential pitfalls of the before and after school tutoring program. She has mobilized other community volunteers so they can see the vision of WEALTH – Windsor Elementary After-school Literacy Tutoring Help – and donate their time, effort and resources also.

The goal of WEALTH is to create and provide one-on-one tutoring for language delayed and ESL students who were reading below grade level and were not served by other programs. Gowans is the Organization Development Consultant. She provides leadership for the program design. She facilitated the development of the materials, refined the program and program materials, recruited volunteers, delivered tutor training and modeled effective tutoring.

Windsor Elementary provided a clear picture of their unmet needs, and WEALTH provided solutions. The school also provided space, access to materials and ongoing teacher, PTA and volunteer support. The 1999-2000 school year was a pilot year for the WEALTH program. The community learned how to work together toward a common goal while leveraging existing and new resources. Fifteen students were tutored and tutor-training materials were designed supporting the district philosophy and practices. The next year was a year fro refinement to figure our leadership roles key to ongoing program success.

Because of Gowans’ education, young men, women, adults and senior citizens have found ways to contribute to this community project. More than 30 students have increased their reading levels also. There have been bonds of friendship and nurturing also established between children, their families and caring adults as a result of Kathy Gowan.

MOSES E. M. TIMAH

As a 7-year-old barefoot schoolboy in the small African village of Anong, Cameroon, Moses E. M. Timah had never thought much about the world outside of his village. From a backpack made from palm leaves, his journey has brought him to a lifetime of service in South America and the United States. Timah has spent his adult life helping communities that are impoverished. He has been a tireless worker in educating people about health care issues, including teaching nutrition and breast-feeding to pre- and post-natal women in Guyana and instructing people about hypertension and diabetes in Cairo, Illinois.

Timah was born in Cameroon, Africa, where resources were so limited that everyday life was a struggle to survive. As a teenager, a Peace Corps Volunteer who he knew only as “a black woman” from ‘mukala’ or ‘white man’s land’ befriended him. She brought him to the U.S. and made sure that he was educated through his college years. Timah’s sense of obligation to his mother’s early teachings inspired him to join the Peace Corps, this time as an American citizen serving in Guyana, South America.

While a Peace Corps volunteer in Guyana, Timah established a program of rotating health talks aimed at increasing health care knowledge of breast-feeding, HIV/AIDS, STDs awareness, personal hygiene, contraceptives, and good nutrition. Along with others, he identified cases of malnourished babies and antenatal mothers and with the assistance of Food for Peace, identified needy families. He visited homes, stressing the need for good health, hygiene and sanitation.

During Timah’s internship as an AmeriCorps member with the Southernmost Illinois Delta Empowerment Zone near Cairo, Illinois, he attacked the problem of joblessness, drugs, alcohol, STDs and the fact that teens have no late night meeting places by speaking words of encouragement to schools, church youth groups and area health and entrepreneur camps. He tells youngsters about his struggles as a young boy, how he overcame those struggles and encourages them to volunteer.

Besides serving as a resource and mentor for Cairo and area youth, Timah also devoted his time to forming a diabetes support group for low-income minority individuals, and started a walking and exercise program to promote long-term weight loss and control of obesity within the black community. These programs will continue even after Timah leaves Cairo and the surrounding communities.

Timah has committed two years of service in Peace Corps and one in AmeriCorps. He frequently worked many hours over those required. His philosophy is, “In giving, we achieve a greater good for ourselves.”

BRYAN MCCLURE

Having experienced the loss of a close friend and classmate when in the fourth grade and now dealing with another friend suffering from cancer, Bryan McClure decided to do an annual bike ride to help raise funds for this cause. While living in Howell, Michigan, Bryan’s first friend had battled cancer since she was in kindergarten. Now, within the last two years, the second friend, Victoria, age 11, has been diagnosed with cancer and has undergone chemotherapy one week per month at C. S. Mott Children’s Hospital.

Victoria’s family does not have a lot of money and has very little insurance. Knowing that, Bryan wanted know how they would pay their bills. His mother told them that the hospital would continue to treat Victoria, in spite of that fact. Bryan wanted to help out in whatever way he could. He decided to do a bike ride and ask people for pledges. He rode from East Lansing, where he currently lives, to Howell, where Victoria lives and where Bryan previously lived. He spoke to the East Lansing Kiwanis, stood up in front of his congregation at People’s Church and in June of last year, he rode from the East Lansing Public Library to the Howell Public Library, collecting about $2,000 dollars in gifts and pledges. Pat Michaels, a Channel 6 weatherman in Lansing, who also attends People’s Church, rode with Bryan.

Bryan, at age 13, rode again this year on June 15, 2002, from Hannah Tech Center at Michigan State University to First United Methodist Church of Howell, where Victoria met the riders. This 40-mile ride helped to raise thousands of dollars to help with Victoria’s battle of cancer. Pat contacted the Mid-Michigan Mountain Biking Association and the Tri-County Biking Association to ride along. Bryan also had some friends from People’s Church Youth Group join him. Participants either raised money or paid $25 dollars to ride. He has received recent media coverage from WKAR and the ZOOM show, a PBS show for kids nationwide. The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News did articles about last year’s ride, as did the Livingston County Press.

TROTTER’S CAFE BAKERY AND STAFF

The staff of Trotter’s Café and Bakery has been serving children in the St. Paul, Minnesota area for many years. They work hard to make a difference in the lives of children and youth and be a positive influence for years to come.

During the past 11 years, Trotter’s Café and Bakery has partnered with the members of the Merriam Park Preschool. They have welcomed preschoolers into their store to decorate the windows as the school celebrates the “Week of the Young Child.” This engages the children in a specific task while also aiding in the development of their creativity. This event is something the children look forward to each year.

In addition to decorating, the staff also volunteers in other capacities. Many of the employees volunteer at the food shelf, Meals On Wheels and holiday assistance program. Along with serving the community, the Bakery Staff also recruits others in the community to also become volunteers. They post and pass out flyers that list volunteer opportunities. These advertisements reach their customers as well as other neighbors in the community.

Trotter’s Staff also promote volunteering by providing baked treats for various groups who commit to volunteering and sharing the needs of the community. They are so committed to service that the staff donates their tip jar for community outreach projects. These donations are for service in the Merriam Park area and other parts of the world.

Some of the projects Trotter’s Café and Bakery Staff have supported just this year through in kind donations are the 9/11 Fund, toys for Operation Joy and purchasing school supplies for children. They have also given gift certificates at holiday time to provide food for needy families and money for the American Cancer Society, Ronald McDonald House, Minnesota Women’s Advocacy, Community Solutions Fund, St. Paul Conservatory of Music, Minnesota Environmental Fund and St. Paul’s Bike Classic.

TEAM TOBATI OF KINGSWOOD – OXFORD SCHOOL

Team Tobati consists of volunteers from Kingswood-Oxford School, led by teacher Ronald Garcia, that have been focused since 1998 on garnering the resources and providing the manual labor to improve education and health care in Tobati, Paraguay, one of the poorest regions of Latin America.

Team Tobati has tripled the size of the town’s only hospital and secured vital equipment and medicines. As a result of Team Tobati’s work, the first child was born in Tobati via Cesarean section last spring and another walked for the first time thanks to the donation of a prosthetic leg. Team Tobati renovated and helped to furnish Tobati’s elementary school with desks and computers, where K-O students teach English and computer use to Tobati children.

The Team helped to build a housing complex for local artisans and transformed a vacant building into a neighborhood clinic. They funded construction of a new transmitting antenna for Tobati radio to broadcast weekly medical programs. Team Tobati funded weekly visits by a pediatrician, gynecologist and dentist from Asuncion. They also recruited physicians from Bristol Hospital and the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center to provide services and training, respectively.

To date, more than 75 students and five K-O teachers and parents have been on Team Tobati. In the last three years, the students have collected more than $350,000 dollars in medical and educational equipment for the village. Gonzalez Macchi, the president of Paraguay, has publicly lauded Team Tobati’s efforts.

After spending the fall semester raising funds for village needs, Team Tobati travels to Paraguay every Spring Break for two weeks of work and community. More than 5,000 villagers turned out to welcome the 2001 team.

“The students’ presence [in Tobati] is huge,” Garcia says. “The students who have been to Tobati have been struck by how open and welcoming and warm the people are to foreigners. The students have also surprised themselves with the goodness that comes out of them, both toward the people of Tobati and each other. This journey will have a profound impact on the values they will ultimately embrace as adults.”