Americorps: Serving the Youth of Asheville

Asheville City Schools VISTA volunteer Jillian Buckley with Adam, one of the 35 Asheville middle school students interviewed for the Listening To Our Teens project.  Photo Urban News

By Sarah Williams

Our local Americorps VISTA is hosted by the Asheville City Schools Foundation (ACSF). Leah Ferguson and Kate Pett are co-directors of the program. ACSF is an independent non-profit organization dedicated to the educational success of all Asheville City Schools students.

The Foundation works to engage and mobilize the community to support teachers, students, and their families. It is supported by individual and corporate donations, grants from philanthropic organizations, special events, product sales, and fee-for-service. “All of their programs are funded entirely by the community,” said Joanne O’Sullivan, Americorps Coordinator of Asheville Programs.

The national Americorps organization reflects and supports First Lady
Michelle Obama’s emphasis on volunteering as her primary concern. Mrs.
Obama has been speaking out to encourage all citizens to volunteer in
their communities; presently, she is rallying around the issue of
health care reform proposals being pushed by the her husband, President
Barack Obama.

Mrs. Obama was the keynote speaker for the opening plenary session of
the National Conference on Volunteering and Service. She discussed the
United We Serve summer initiative, a nationwide initiative to bolster
civic engagement to address critical needs. The United We Serve
campaign began June 22, marked as a national day of service and
remembrance, and will end September 11. The initiative focuses on key
areas: education, health care access, energy and the environment,
community renewal, and military families and veterans.
The White House has called on state governors to lead the eleven weeks
of service and to participate in the program. Following President
Obama’s kickoff of the campaign was a discussion of volunteerism at
Heritage Park, NC.

Governor Beverly Perdue announced that her office and all departments
and agencies of state government will participate in United We Serve.
She has chosen to focus on mentoring and has appointed a leadership
group to identify mentoring opportunities and to help drive the program
out into various organizations at the state, local, nonprofit, and
corporate levels.

 Ms. Kaye Gattis is Executive Director of the North Carolina
Commission. With all of North Carolina’s national service programs
working together with the Governor, she expects a huge impact can be
made during the 81 days of service.

Organizations and agencies that are supporting the United We Serve
campaign are encouraged to determine how their organizations can
develop service activities in which local community members may
participate. To make it easy for volunteers to find projects, they are
asking organizations to post opportunities to the Web site .

United We Serve offers not only the opportunity to meet critical
community needs, but also visibility for organizations as leaders in
service. This is also a great opportunity for year-round volunteers to
step into leadership positions in the community. The leaders of this
initiative believe that as North Carolinans galvanize around these
service opportunities, showing that the state is committed to improving
the lives of all citizens.