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Other Human Needs AmeriCorps Programs in Iowa
Each One Reach One AmeriCorps Program
The Each One Reach One AmeriCorps program supports four community partner's efforts to provide supports to at risk youth, families and neighborhoods. Member activities revolve around the goal of infusing social supports into communities to meet the needs of those populations.
A variety of mentoring practices have been developed to address the variety of needs of at risk youth, victims, offenders, at risk families, and targeted under resourced neighborhoods. These practices provide meaningful and safe ways that the volunteers can contribute to solutions for safer communities.
Specifically, AmeriCorps members may provide direct services in the following: 1-1 mentoring of a child who has a parent incarcerated; help facilitate afterschool, neighborhood based programs for at-risk youth; becoming a neighborhood partner to meet the need of at risk families; providing group mentoring support through Circles of Support and Accountability to aid in prisoner re-entry; and helping to develop additional resources including funds, partnership, in-kind materials; and assist in recruiting and managing community volunteers for such activities. Other activities include event planning, marketing, and outreach/partner support.
Members are placed in the following affiliates: Partnership for Safe Families in Cedar Rapids; Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County; Churches United in Linn County; and the Community Corrections Improvement Association/6th Judicial District Department of Correctional Services in Linn and Johnson counties.
For more information, please contact:
Jean Kuehl, Program Director
Sixth Judicial District Department of Correctional Services
951 29th Ave SW
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404
319-398-3675 (phone)
319-398-3684 (fax)
jean.kuehl@iowa.gov (email)
Habitat of Humanity of Iowa AmeriCorps State
The Habitat for Humanity of Iowa AmeriCorps State program supports nine local Habitat affiliates by providing vital manpower and skills. Member activities revolve around the goal of eliminating poverty housing. They work to build decent and affordable housing for low income families who would not normally be able to afford an adequate place to live. The services provided by members allow Habitat for Humanity (HFH) affiliates to jumpstart home production in their areas.
Habitat AmeriCorps members manage volunteers, do direct house-building activities, lead community volunteers on construction sites, and help develop additional resources including funds, partnership, in-kind materials, and volunteers. Other activities include event planning, marketing, and outreach/partner family support.
Members are placed in the following affiliates: Greater Des Moines HFH, Cedar Valley HFH, Iowa Heartland HFH, Iowa Valley HFH, Marion County HFH, North Central Iowa HFH, Ottumwa HFH, and the Quad Cities HFH.
For more information, please contact:
Bobbi Bendickson, CEO
Habitat for Humanity of Iowa
103 E State Street, Suite 302
Mason City, IA 50401
641-210-4988
Fax: 641-210-4989
hfhia@omnitelcom.com
HFHIowa website: www.hfhia.org
The Iowa Campus Compact AmeriCorps Program
The Iowa Campus Compact AmeriCorps Program (ICAP) seeks to increase levels of volunteerism among college students as part of their academic experience to engage them in local communities now and throughout the future.
Nationally Iowa ranks 6th for quality K-12 education (Business Facilities, Feb. 2004), 5th in the nation for students per capita (2006-07 Chronicle Almanac), and 4th in the nation for traditional volunteering, and yet it ranks 48th in terms of intensity and 28th for college student volunteering (2003-2005 Volunteering in America: State Trends and Rankings). ICAP seeks to raise the intensity and rate of college student volunteering as laid out in the 2007-2010 State Service Plan.
Specific goals are:
1. Increase the level of college students volunteering by 2% on college campuses, thereby, raising the social capital across the state of Iowa.
2. Create a network of peers who understand their role as change agents and recruit at least 1,775 other volunteers, 10 or 15 ten additional volunteers per 300 or 450 hour member respectively.
3. Support local communities in promoting ethics of service, service-learning, and civic engagement among K-20 students to better utilize resources.
The pool of volunteers will be increased by 5,325 over the course of three years. In just one community, 20-30 middle school youth will be mentored, over 250 English Language Learners (ELL) and/or at-risk students will receive tutoring and 450 will have a safe place to go after school.
Members will serve with a campus to better connect the college with the community. Levels of volunteerism will increase as members work with faculty, staff, students and agencies to build an engaged community. Their volunteer hours will be invested in after-school programs, tutoring, mentoring, mobilizing volunteers, annual service days, MLK Day of Service, and alternative break trips in addition to serving local agencies. It is this diversity of resources that ICAP wishes to network together through college student engagement to strengthen Iowa.
Iowa Campus Compact (IACC) is a coalition of colleges and universities dedicated to increasing service, service-learning, and civic engagement.
Sandra Hansen
Executive Director
Iowa Campus Compact
100 Wartburg Blvd.
Waverly, IA 50677
319.352.8660
(f) 319.352.8605
sandra.hansen@iacampuscompact.org
www.iacampuscompact.org
Iowa Legal Aid AmeriCorps
Iowa Legal Aid is a non-profit organization that provides free legal help in non-criminal matters to Iowans who have nowhere else to turn. Our goal is to ensure that the legal system works for all, regardless of income. Typical cases involve protecting victims of domestic violence; preventing illegal evictions and unsafe housing; securing income support; and preventing consumer fraud and abusive debt collection practices.
AmeriCorps members’ work will enhance equal access to justice for low-income and older Iowans. Project sites include our offices in Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Dubuque, Iowa City, Mason City, Ottumwa, Sioux City and Waterloo.
Through this Project, members will help Iowa Legal Aid staff:
- Develop a unified intake system, conduct intake with clients in regional offices and the Legal Hotline for Older Iowans;
- Do outreach to low‑income minority and English as a second language Iowans;
- Develop the Iowa Legal Aid Pro Se Coordination Project;
- Recruit volunteer attorneys;
- Design and implement programs to involve non-attorney community volunteers in Iowa Legal Aid’s work;
- Coordinate local Advisory Council’s development of promotional activities for Iowa Legal Aid; and,
- Develop the Iowa Legal Aid Website www.iowalegalaid.org.
Gail Klearman , Program Director
Iowa Legal Aid
1111 9th Street, Suite 230
Des Moines, IA 50314-2527
(515) 243-1198 ext 1678
gklearman@iowalaw.org
PCA Iowa’s AmeriCorps Partnership Program
Prevent Child Abuse Iowa has received approval from the Iowa Commission on Volunteer Service for its AmeriCorps Partnering with Communities to Protect Children program. Under the overall direction of PCA Iowa, this program will support 8 local Community Partnership sites that cover 24 counties in their efforts to reach out earlier to stressed families and to intervene more promptly and comprehensively when abuse occurs.
PCA Iowa is the only nonprofit organization with the mission of ending child abuse in the entire state of Iowa. PCA Iowa's goal is for Iowa to become a place where children are free from abuse and neglect, living in families that are nurturing and safe. PCA Iowa seeks to ensure that parents receive the social support, respite child care, and education they need to be good parents and not abuse their children by: (1) organizing and directing two statewide child abuse prevention programs, (2) advocating for expanded child abuse prevention services, and (3) informing the public about child abuse and how to prevent it. PCA Iowa's efforts help 12,000 parents and 60,000 children annually, with projects now in 91 of Iowa's 99 counties.
An important part of PCA Iowa's child abuse prevention work has been its partnership with Iowa Department of Human Services staff in the expansion of the Community Partnership from Cedar Rapids in 1996 to 97 counties now.
PCA Iowa's program will involve eight Partnership sites throughout Iowa in recruiting AmeriCorps members for work in their communities. Local Community Partnership coordinators will provide immediate supervision of AmeriCorps members. PCA Iowa will provide overall program supervision and financial management through its Community Partnerships associate coordinator and AmeriCorps Program Director.
Stephanie Chase
AmeriCorps Program Director
Prevent Child Abuse Iowa
505 5th Avenue Suite 900
Des Moines, IA 50309
515-244-2200
schase@pcaiowa.org
REACH (Rural Education and Community Help) AmeriCorps Program
Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence
The Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence (ICADV) currently operates a 19 Member AmeriCorps Program called REACH (Rural Education and Community Help). The mission of REACH is to provide assistance to battered women and children in rural Iowa in areas where services for victims of domestic violence are currently minimal or nonexistent. The REACH project has helped expand and enhance victim services and prevention efforts across the state.
Trained and certified as victim advocates, AmeriCorps Members provide counseling, referral services, crisis intervention, legal, medical and personal advocacy, support group facilitation and assist with pro se protection orders. Since the creation of the REACH program, at the inception of AmeriCorps, members have had more than 90,000 victim contacts.
Members are placed in communities throughout Iowa including: Ft. Dodge, Mason City, Des Moines, Waterloo, Ottuwma, Cedar Rapids and Oskaloosa providing services in more than 30 Iowa Counties.
For more information, please contact:
Adam Stark, REACH Program Director
Iowa Coalition Against Domestic Violence
515 28th Street
Des Moines, Iowa 50310
515-244-8028
adams@icadv.org
www.icadv.org
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