Thursday, April 21, 2011

Farewell!

Hello All:

I will be leaving the PWC VISTA Project as Coordinator on 4/29 to begin a very similar position with the Mott Foundation and Boys and Girls Club of Greater Flint on 5/9. This has been a tremendous growing experience for me over the last four years, personally and professionally. I am very grateful for all I've learned, the friends I've made and the greater understanding I have of the community and development. As each member comes and then moves on to bigger things I can see pieces of the greater puzzle. I see service etched into their thinking and solving processes, I can see a greater sense of self through community and I can see a deeper connection to the people, buildings and environment around them. Service has so many benefits and I'm proud to have been a part of it. Thank you to all for making this a success. Lansing will always be in my heart and I am carrying with me all these success stories to the new project in Flint. I will be in touch! I am passing this blog and the website off to Sergio Ruiz, VISTA to the Power of We Consortium, as of today. Peace, love and good food to all.

Mary

Monday, April 4, 2011

Thoughts from a Graduating VISTA...

From Chad Badgero, 2nd term VISTA 4/'10-'11:

Before I came to AmeriCorps, I was a teacher and worked in the theatre. I had a strong desire to get more involved in Community Service, and I knew I wanted to contribute more to my community, but I didn't know exactly how to do that. When the Executive Director of the Old Town Commercial Association said they were looking for an AmeriCorps member, I didn't even know what that meant. But after signing on at the OTCA and beginning work in this amazing community, I realized a fulfillment and satisfaction that I never knew. By working with AmeriCorps and Old Town, I have found a passion for community service, felt a sense of satisfaction in revitalizing a community, and seen the tremendous impact one person, one group of dedicated individuals, and one organization can do to better our community and our world. The OTCA relies on their volunteers to make the over 111 events happen throughout the year, and AmeriCorps relies on volunteers in the same way to make our communities and our world a better place. I truly will never be the same after my two years of service with AmeriCorps. Some of my biggest accomplishments are the creation of Old Town's first community garden, the growth of Compassionate Feast (which provides local families with a complete Thanksgiving meal), being part of 4 ribbon cuttings for over 25 new businesses, assisting with the building of Old Town's first community built playground, growing their volunteer database from 800 to 1300+, and my involvement with the Farmers Market.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

What I'm Doing as a VISTA

My name is Serg Ruiz and I’m the AmeriCorps VISTA for the Power of We Consortium. As the Communications Coordinator I will be serving to increase the capacity of the consortium’s, and its member coalitions’ and organizations’, communication and social media tools. I’ll mostly be working with websites and things like Facebook pages and Twitter accounts and so on to increase the communication and linkages across the current membership and to expand our outreach to underserved populations and groups.

The Power of We Consortium is defined as community collaborative or a network of networks; by involving the community organizations in the process of cooperation and collaboration, the Power of We Consortium strives to improve the quality of life and self-sufficiency of all residents of Ingham County through a healthy community. Basing its efforts off of its 33 indicators of community well-being, the Power of We Consortium focuses resources through engaging the community as a whole to solve problems that cannot be solved by any single entity. Hopefully that was coherent because part of my assignment description is to increase recognition of the Consortium and its coaltions, programs, and initiatives.

A couple of the things that I’ve done so far were to redesign the Consortium’s newsletters, implement initial changes to the website and open dialogue with a few of our 12 coalitions about their communication and social media tools. I’ve met with Angela Austin, who is one of our new co-chairs and the coordinator of the Community Coalition for Youth, in regard to her website and the creation of a newsletter. I’ve also met with the Ingham Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, the Greater Lansing Homeless Resolution Network, the Ingham Great Start, Birth to Five Collaborative, and the Immigrant and Refugee Resource Collaborative about increasing their capacity. The IRRC is on route to move their website as a Power of We Consortium subsite, which is pretty exciting. The only hitch I’ve encountered is that coordinators tend to enact most of the changes themselves – which is great but it kind of leaves me out of the loop.

To widen my involvement, my supervisor sent out emails to a couple of our member organizations and our current VISTA sites and a few have responded to me for help. I’ll be working with our fellow VISTA sites at the Garden Project, with Willow Cherven, and the Old Town Association, with Chad Badgero, as well as a couple of other organizations such as the Fenner Nature Center, NAMI, and the Allen Neighborhood Center’s Youth Service Corps.

AmeriCorps VISTA serves to reduce and alleviate poverty in communities across the United States. My involvement in this effort is more behind-the-scenes than your normal VISTA, as I’m not directly managing volunteers or raising physical monies. It’s taken me some time to come to the understanding that I’m indirectly addressing the issue of poverty and its accompaniments by increasing the capacity of the organizations I help to be able to address their problems and reach their goals. By helping to create and enhance websites, social media tools, efficient communication, or resource sharing, the organizations I serve will be all-the-more able to attack the issues at hand that affect our populations in poverty.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Save Service on February 25th!

Copied from www.SaveService.org

The United States Congress is considering a bill which would eliminate funding for the Corporation for National and Community Service, denying local organizations and millions of Americans the resources needed to strengthen their communities. If passed, your local community will lose the important support of organizations like Teach For America, Foster Grandparents, City Year, Senior Companions, Habitat for Humanity, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, YouthBuild and many others.

Our entire strategy to fight and win depends on unprecedented levels of community engagement. Without local support in large and visible demonstrations, we are unlikely to survive these attacks. As Tip O'Neil said, "All politics is local."

Sign up today to save service in your community by joining our "Save Service District Day" on Friday, February 25th. Join your neighbors in a visit to your local congressional district office and tell your Member of Congress to protect service. Our local communities cannot afford to lose the critical support these organizations provide.

Monday, January 31, 2011

Winter Wonderland Trail Enhancements Honors Dr. MLK, Jr.

Lansing, MI - Ingham County Parks is hosting a service project in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the spirit of service and "getting things done" Power of We Consortium AmeriCorps VISTA and State members will remove invasive species and build trails at Lake Lansing Park North on January 17th. Consortium national service members will be working together on projects such as removing Autumn Olive -- an invasive shrub which crowds the tree and shrub lines, harming the aesthetics and ecosystem of the park. Approximately 25 volunteers have committed to serve during either of the two shifts: 11:30am to 1:30pm and 2:00pm to 4:00pm.

This event is one of many volunteer opportunities in local parks. One of 15 Consortium members dedicated to improving health through increased access to greeways, non-motorized transportation and health food, Nicholas Sanchez, coordinates a trail and greenway improvement program aimed at removing invasive speices and engaging community members. Nicholas leads individuals and group volunteers in learning about and caring for our community's natural areas and trails. To learn about how you can join the national service movement or help with trail enhancement, please contact AmeriCorps State Project Coordinator, Katie Ellero at kellero@ingham.org. For more information on Volunteers in Service to America and poverty alleviation, please contact Mary ZumBrunnen at mzumbrunnen@ingham.org

January 17, 2011 is the 25th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service. A part of United We Serve, the President's national call to service initiative, the MLK Day of Service calls for Americans to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems. The MLK Day of Service empowers individuals, strengthens communities, bridges barriers, creates solutions to social problems, and moves us closer to Dr. King's vision of a "Beloved Community".

Monday, January 24, 2011

A Day in the Life

My name is Sergio Ruiz and I'm the AmeriCorps VISTA for the Power of We Consortium. As Communications Coordinator, I will be serving to help create and expand their communication and social media tools. I'm from Steubenville, OH and I graduated from the Ohio State University with a major in Security & Intelligence and minors in Arabic and Middle East Studies. I moved to Lansing, MI from Columbus, OH in mid-November and started at the Consortium on the 19th. Here are a couple of tips that I have to share based on my first day:

Make sure you have a plan of attack if you ride your bike to work on your first day. You just may board the wrong bus, intending to use the bike-and-ride feature, and leave your bike rigged up to the bus after you exit in hurried frustration. It's not easy to chase after a bus in dress shoes.

Bring a packed lunch and ingest copious amounts of caffiene. After your PSO, you will be extremely exhausted. The packed lunch will only make things easier and the caffiene will keep you awake. Nothing is worse than trying to suppress a yawn during a meeting. You look weird and disinterested, which are both bad impressions for a new person.

Always try to be attentive during meeting, no matter how tired you are. Or at least be more attentive than the most visibly bored person. Also, take the time to introduce yourself. Even though they may not interset you, give everyone your full attention.

It's most likely safe not to ride your bike to work at all. You will be hit by a car. I was... and you will be too. You'll probably be halfway across the crosswalk when the driver will decide to turn right. You'll try to make your bike run parallel to the car but your momentum will be too great to suddenly turn. Tron is a video game for a reason and I learned that reason all too well that day. The driver will most likely keep driving after you're lying in the street, tangled in your bike frame. If you can see through the blood and tears, try to remember the license plate number.

Stay in touch with your new friends from PSO and your old friends as well. Maybe plan something for the weekend.

Most of all, don't let it get to you. You may have an entirely different day that I had but that doesn't mean that you won't feel negative or wary about your experience at some point. When you do, remember that things will get better. Don't lose hope. Inspirational quota reached.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

PWC Welcomes Ed Wollman to Provide "What Color is Your Parachute" Workshop

On February 26th, the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living's Ed Wollman, will provide a workshop available to all VISTAs, AmeriCorps State members and supervisors on how to identify members' skills, work values and best work environments to maximize their work output and relations. This is based on the Do What You Love....Love What You Do! workshops, created by Ed, to help discover hidden talents thereby helping members excel at their jobs and careers while learning how to work with different personality types. These workshops have been crafted from Dr. Richard Nelson Bolles best-selling career guidance book, Parachutes. With over 10 million copies sold, Fortune Magazine calls Parachutes the 'gold standard of Career Guides'.