Category Archives: Service News

06.14.10
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Idealist.org Grad Fairs in DC and New York this Week!

For folks seeking graduate school options, check out our first two graduate admissions fairs of 2010 this week on the East Coast.

Both events feature 60 public interest graduate schools and 6 pm panel discussion. Admission is free!

New York City — June 15th

Tuesday, June 15, 2010, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (check out the schedule)Fordham University, Lincoln Center Campus, Pope Auditorium
113 West 60th Street, New York, NY (directions)

Washington, DC — June 16th

Wednesday, June 16, 2010, 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. (check out the schedule)
American University, Katzen Arts Center, Main Rotunda, First Floor
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, Washington, D.C. (directions)

More…

Check out more grad school resources on Idealist!

Also take a look at which grad schools are…

06.08.10
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Saving Northwest Service Academy

The Pacific Northwest national service community has been rocked this past week with the news that one of our most vibrant AmeriCorps National programs has lost its AmeriCorps funding starting in September of 2010.

Northwest Service Academy‘s AmeriCorps program partners with local agencies, schools, and organizations to tackle environmental projects in the Pacific Northwest.  Its LINKS program works with partnering agencies to directly address education, public safety, the environment and other community needs. It’s sponsored and supported over 4,000 AmeriCorps members.

The funding situation means that as things currently stand, this year’s members will serve out their terms (as late as November) but the 75 placement sites already selected for the coming year will likely not be able to recruit people to fill needed service positions. Continue reading →

05.29.10
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Shirley Sagawa’s New Book Sees Citizen Engagement as a Solution

By Put Barber, editor of the Nonprofit FAQ on Idealist.org.

Shirley Sagawa has been a source of creative energy for the growing national service movement in the United States for 20 years – from serving on Senator Ted Kennedy’s staff when the first tentative steps towards AmeriCorps were accepted by President George H. W. Bush, to cheering on the day President Barack Obama signed the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in Washington, DC last spring.

Her recent book, The American Way to Change: How National Service and Volunteers are Transforming America, builds on this experience to document the reasons for the success of this idea. It offers accounts of the positive impacts service has had on participants. It shows the ways the rapid growth in their numbers has made possible both expansion of needed services and brave experiments with new ways to address enduring challenges facing individuals and communities. And it talks about a future in which the engagement of active citizens could—and, if she has anything to say about it, will—“solve the seemingly intractable problems holding back this country from achieving its full potential.”

I had a chance to catch a small glimpse of all this a few days ago when I represented Idealist.org Continue reading →

05.19.10
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Asian and Pacific American Heritage Month Web Event: Diversity in Peace Corps

Diversity among Peace Corps Volunteer groups serving overseas is crucial to the success of the entire program — for many reasons. Peace Corps promotes person-to-person diplomacy, and aims to increase understanding among people of other countries about the United States. Without recruiting Volunteers who reflect the rich array of cultural and ethnic and racial heritages that make up U.S. communities, host country nationals in Peace Corps countries can’t begin to grasp the ways of life that exist here in the United States.

Tomorrow Peace Corps will highlight and celebrate the contributions of Asian and Pacific Americans in Peace Corps service. Last year, hundreds of Asian and Pacific Americans served as Peace Corps Volunteers, providing needed skill sets and services to Peace Corps host countries.

Returned Volunteer Mike Buff  — of South Korean descent — will host an online information session tomorrow Continue reading →

03.15.10
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Senate Recognizes VISTA’s 45th Anniversary

Last week, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution honoring the work of Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA), for its 45 years of work towards alleviating poverty, and other accomplishments.

Senators Jay Rockefeller (D-VA) and Thad Cochran (R-MS) introduced the resolution (S.Res.449), and were joined by several co-sponsors. Rockefeller first lived in West Virginia as a VISTA, when he was 27 years old.

The resolution recognizes the more than 175,000 VISTAs who have served since 1965, and their creation of “many successful and sustainable community initiatives, including Head Start centers, credit unions, and neighborhood watch groups.” The resolution honors VISTAs’s work on diverse poverty-related issues such as health care, technology, crime/recidivism, housing, and literacy. The resolution also highlights these numbers:

  • 7,000 VISTAs serve each year
  • Annually, VISTAs bring in $100 million in cash and in-kind donations to their organizations
  • Also each year, VISTAs recruit 1 million volunteers who engage in 10 million hours of volunteer service.

Read the entire Senate resolution here. Oddly, the House introduced a similar bill (H.RES.1152) last week, but it wasn’t passed; instead it’s been referred to the House Committee on Education and Labor.

According to a statement today from the Corporation for National and Community Service, which operates VISTA, the resolution marks the official kick off of VISTA’s 45th anniversary celebration — a series of events and celebrations that will take place this year.

Celebrations will include a photography exhibit of VISTA photography from 1968, an effort to collect and share stories of VISTAs, and I’ll be launching a podcast episode featuring three VISTAs who’ve served across the decades during AmeriCorps Week in May.

Are you a VISTA or former VISTA? How will you commemorate the 45th anniversary of the organization?